Some years ago I had a client, the CEO of one of Turkey’s largest banks. If you live in Turkey, you would know this bank by name. It’s highly likely that you even bank there.

He mentioned one thing that I’ve never forgotten. That is that as you raise or lower the price of something, what changes is not just the price, what changes is the group of people who buy that thing, and that change in the clientele has a more significant impact on your business than the change in the price.

For example, if you have a price of X and then you change the price to 0.5X, the people who become your customers at 0.5X will be radically different than the people who were your customers when the price was X.

And, of course, the ways of working with your clients that worked for you in the past are not going to work for you anymore.

I say I’ve never forgotten this advice, but boy, it sure is hard to understand it and implement it well. I’ve definitely strayed at times, underestimating the impact of what he was talking about, and I can say, based on personal experience, that he was making a really good point.

You would be right to ask, “What does this have to do with my presentation and communications skills?”

And it’s this: The way you describe your project will change radically based on who is listening. The project is the same. Nothing has changed there. But do not for a second think that that means the way you describe it is going to be the same for Audience A as it is for Audience B.