Ever feel like you’re talking to a brick wall because no matter what you try, you just can’t seem to get your point across? Break down the walls with the communications guidelines in this document by Richard Barry.
Communication, as defined by Merriam Webster, is a process of exchanging information between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. However, many of our daily interactions aren’t true communications. What’s frequently lacking is the exchange — the vital, yet subtle, process by which both parties receive and provide information.
A speaker who lacks appropriate eye contact and doesn’t use gestures and body language to support their message probably won’t get the audience’s attention. If the subject matter isn’t relevant to the listeners, if the pace is too fast or too slow, or if the presentation is unorganized and unfocused, the recipients will tune out. With no exchange of information, it’s unlikely that the speaker will be able to inform, educate, or persuade the audience.
Many of us experience similar 'disconnects' in our business relationships with individuals who talk when they should be listening, ask the right question at the wrong time, or tune out when vital feedback is coming their way.
Connecting with the customer remains every salesperson’s primary goal — yet communications blunders result in missing the mark not by inches, but by miles. These missteps occur in all forms of communications: in-person conversations, telephone calls, e-mails, and letters.
Here are some communications guidelines that will help you turn lost opportunities into customer interest and attention:
- Come to grips with the numbers game. Expect recipients to ignore your direct mail pieces or e-mail messages unless they’re part of an ongoing program. To reach your customers, stay with the program. Learn from catalog firms that mail consistently, month after month, year after year. Although repetition is important, customer-focused messaging remains the goal.
- Don’t hit people over the head. Repetition works only if your content is memorable, useful, and valuable to the customer. If you’re attempting to position your firm, blatant come-ons and gimmicks will distance you from your customers. Be true to your brand. Without positive branding, your company will develop major headaches in the form of lost sales.
- Thou Shalt Not Spam. Yes, e-mail 'spamming' offers a low-cost way of reaching people — but it doesn’t work. Instead, use 'snail mail' to educate your customers. Newsletters, reprints of articles that you or your staff have written or have been featured in, and direct mail all provide valuable tools that bring customers to you. This approach will separate your company from the hordes of spammers out there.
- Don’t favor the mouse over the phone. E-mails support relationships with new or existing customers. Although e-mails between you and your contacts can be useful and enlightening, they’re too brief to offer a total communications solution. How words are said is 50% of communication. For example, reading 'no' in an e-mail message can be a totally different experience from hearing 'no' over the phone. Use telephone discussions to clarify issues.
- Get closer to your customers by learning about them. Sales and marketing professionals identify their customers and prospects before they target messages to them. Salespeople who cold-call prospects ten times a month to tell their story are wasting time. Meanwhile, a communications piece, such as a newsletter that reaches the right individual at the right time talking about the right issues, gets noticed. That’s how to communicate — and make the sale.