One survey I like to quote when I talk to groups or individuals about peak performance is this: a recent survey of HR Managers asked what was the Number One Skill most lacking in people for positions they were trying to fill?
Wanna guess? I’ll tell you: Communication Skills.
That’s right. Simple communication skills. You’d think we’d learn that as we grow up, but it doesn’t necessarily work that way. And from the results of that survey it must be a rather rare skill.
Whether you’re in management, marketing, customer service or sales, your communication skills will help you rise to the top.
Nowhere is this more important than in the sales arena. It’s true that people working in all of the other areas mentioned, as well as those not mentioned, can reap huge gains by improving their communication skills. But sales depends on not only communicating a message, it depends on understanding what your client or prospect is really saying.
This is where two learnable skills will help those pursuing a sales career: public speaking and active listening.
Having been a salesperson for almost a decade now (and a radio communicator and public speaker for much longer), I can vouch for how important those two skills go hand in hand.
A lot of people make good public speakers. They give great presentations that knock prospects off their feet.
Many people are good listeners. But ask them to deliver an extemporaneous speech or presentation and they come up short of what that situation may require.
Having both of the skills means being able to not only deliver a great presentation based on what the client’s true needs are, it’s also being able to HEAR what they’re saying and UNDERSTAND the context of how it relates to their needs. And of course it’s up to you to communicate how your product can solve their problem. Or maybe it can’t. Either way, if you’re truthful the client will see that and know that they’re dealing with an honest person. And will likely remember you when it’s time to buy what you’re selling, or to refer someone to you.
I’ve seen salesmen (and women) get up before a prospect that wasn’t vetted or questioned, and deliver a beautiful presentation that hit all the marks. Except what the client needed to hear.
There is more to sales than great presentations; it’s an entire field of study of which communications is only a part.
But if you can improve your communication skills – presentation skills, speaking skills and listening skills – you’ll be ahead of most of your competition.
And that’s not a bad place to be.
Jet Fuel For Writing
Powerful communicating depends on high octane fuel. The good news is the best stuff is near to hand…and it’s free. What powers writing, you ask? VERBS, I answer. Yes, verbs, along with adjectives and adverbs, are the gasoline that makes your writing take off.
You never hear a sports caster tell his audience that the baseball player “hit a home run.” No, the player “clubbed the ball into the bleachers, he belted it, he smacked it, he ripped it into the right field stands. He spanked Mr. Spaulding, tore the cover off it, launched it into the Fenway stratosphere.” See the difference? Writers “tear the cover off it” when they understand the use of powerful verbs to energize their writing and their audience.
Adverbs, which modify verbs, and adjectives, which modify nouns, also add horsepower to your writing. And, when you throw in a metaphor (or simile) or two, you truly have high octane writing. A metaphor, in case you’re not a word geek like me, is when you say something is “like” something else. A simile occurs when a writer says something is something else.
A novelist rarely tells her reader that her heroine has clear green eyes. Nope, the ladies eyes are “emerald ice.” Her lips are like rosebuds and her words touched lightly in his ears like the first warm breeze of spring. Metaphors and similes make writing come alive…and they’ll do the same for your product or service.
I’m not saying you should turn every corporate E-mail or press conference into a romance novel or the Superbowl. I am saying a well placed power verb, metaphor or simile, makes writing stand out; and, more importantly makes it stick in the listeners or readers memory.
That’s what we’re after: communication that hangs around, that the audience remembers. When the occasion arises, make it memorable with communication jet fuel.
Personally, I collect them. While I’m reading, or listening, or, heck, doing almost anything, I’ll make a note of a powerful verb, a good metaphor, or a well placed descriptive adjective or adverb.
Then, as the need arises, I’ll mine the collection for the gold nugget of communication I’ll need to power my writing. Every good writer I know does the same. You should, too. Collect good phrases and good verbs the same way we’ve advised you to collect good personal stories and anecdotes to use in your writing.
Remember, dry rarely sells. It won’t sell your product, your idea, or your point of view. Pump up your communication with words that have impact; and, when it makes sense, words that hit your audience with the impact of a meteor the size of a Volkswagen.
That kind of verbal fuel will power your communications to speeds that could leave you breathless.
Photo used with permission http://flickr.com/photo/7765337@N06/2955312136 Creative Commons Licensing
The Dreaded Word
It’s sure to strike fear in the hearts of the most seasoned sales staff. It’s guaranteed to terrify all but the most courageous and self-assured executive. And, what it does to clerical and lower level management, production staff, and almost everybody else is simply too gruesome to describe. What is it you ask? It can be summarized in a single word.
Change.
Nothing else, save a pink slip or an order to give the keynote address at the next corporate convention is so likely to reduce even the most confident employee to a quivering mass of jello. Yes, change is inevitable, but it should be handled carefully. One important element of successful change is certainly how you communicate it.
First, never forget that major change will be tough. No matter how much you prepare; how much you gather outside information, solicit stake-holder input, or offer reassuring speeches or even grand reassuring gestures, there will be stress and resistance. Old habits are hard to break, even for key employees.
Second, know where you’re going. Why is it necessary to change? What’s going to be different? Who will be affected? Avoid buzzwords. Sure, the company needs to be “lighter on its feet” and “more flexible” but know exactly what that mean to the organization communicate it in understandable terms.
Third, listen. Tell you employees the drivers that compel change and what you hope to achieve. Offer a range of possible solutions and solicit their input. At best, you may develop some effective strategies from the responses you get. But, regardless of the responses, you will achieve an associate force that feels involved and empowered. By explaining, soliciting input, and listening you will be a long way down the road to achieving critical buy-in.
Fourth, act early and often. The worst thing for morale would be change that’s “sprung” on your associate force. They feel bushwhacked; because that’s exactly what’s happened. Start the change process well before the target date. Communicate often, and never confuse process with results. Just because you have a smashing power-point and have formed a series of transition teams, don’t think the communication battle is complete.
Fifth, reach people any way you can. That powerpoint given in transition team meetings is a good idea; but it shouldn’t be your only idea. Frequent personal conversations are a key part of transition management. If you have a company intranet site, use it. Have an easily accessible and easily understandable page devoted to the change. Use Email, your managers, and drop in on the work floor yourself. People absorb information in different combinations of ways. Some people are predominantly visual learners, some need to write things down, others need to hear it. Do all these things.
Change is required to keep pace in the modern marketplace; but change is the dreaded word. The key to effectively managing the transition is the same as the key to ultra-motivated employees: encourage buy-in. Make everybody feel they’re an integral part of the change and that, perhaps, they even contributed to the shape of the things that will come.
photo credit: stephenphampshire
Podcast: Sources of Inspiration
In our lives, we all have different people, things, books, movies, music, etc. that inspires us. What inspires you? Tim ‘Gonzo’ Gordon and Roger Pike discuss the sources of inspiration they find.
1. When you give a speech, you’re perceived as an expert.
2. When you speak about a subject, you learn more about it because you have to organize and articulate your thoughts.
3. People want to meet you.
4. People will be inclined to mention you to other people.
5. People will be inclined to do business with you over other people.
6. You learn to become a better, more skilled and sensitive communicator.
7. It helps you in your one-on-one communication.
8. It gives you confidence.
9. Even though you may have similar experience and skills as a colleague, if you speak in public you are perceived as having an edge over others.
10. Learning to speak off the cuff, being good on your feet, draws people to you and you’ll find yourself with more friends and business acquaintances.
11. Personal growth.
12. A person who is an excellent public speaker will generally get a promotion over the person who is not a public speaker.
13. You are viewed as a leader.
14. Your leadership skills will increase.
15. Your value to your organization increases.
16. It helps you become a better entertainer.
17. The better you get, the more fun you have at it.
18. Being a good and effective public speaker improves the quality of your life.
19. You can make money as a speaker. You may even opt for a career as a public speaker.
20. It’s been said that writing and speaking are two skills that can significantly improve your income.
21. If you are paid to speak, chances are you will also be paid to travel to other locations. It’s a great way to see parts of the country that you might not have otherwise visited.
22. When you become an accomplished public speaker, the confidence will translate to other areas of your life, and you’ll realize much more of your potential.
23. Public speaking pushes you out of your comfort zone, where self-growth exists.
If you’re in business and do any amount of networking, you’ll see some sort of presentation or speaker on a regular basis. It could be a luncheon meeting where the local Mayor is giving a brief presentation, or someone from the Salvation Army updating the group on an ongoing project.
Speakers come in all shapes and sizes and levels of competence and awareness.
I say awareness, because as a speaker I think being aware of a variety of things will carry you a long way in your presentation, however long or brief it is.
Speaker awareness is one of the main things I tend to evaluate, along with delivery, pacing, content, paying attention to the audience and – of course – did they finish within their announced time?
Let’s start with ’speaker awareness.’ To me, as a member of the audience, it means that the speaker appears to have an understanding of his audience (the makeup of the group he’s speaking to), the size of the room and what areas he may need to pay special attention to, the comfort they have with their material and – as the speech goes on – the understanding of the material and the overall reception of the audience to the material (check our podcast on ‘Listening to Your Audience’ for more on this: http://budurl.com/baya).
If the speaker is unaware of a number of those issues, he or she becomes more of a ‘talking head’ who may appear to be speaking on television to an unseen group, instead of to an actual live audience right in front of them. That approach puts an emotional distance between the speaker and the audience.
Having awareness as a speaker also brings into the picture other things I mentioned: length of the speech, pacing, knowing the content inside and out; it all adds up, and answers the question: did the speaker understand his audience and what their expectations are?
Of course I instinctively judge a presenter’s delivery: how was their intro (did they get our attention or did they spend a minute thanking the hosts and put us all to sleep or send us to our Blackberries?), did the content of their speech seem well-organized and cohesive or was it haphazard and rambling?
Content is probably the hardest thing to judge – but as an audience member I like it when I hear a presentation that leaves me with a good feeling. And that may mean I feel good because I was just made aware of an important topic that I was woefully uninformed on, or it makes me feel good because I felt inspired by the stories and the call to action by the presenter. Either way, how you make your audience feel is important and should always be a part of your planning and organizing.
At the end – when everybody’s watching the clock – is the speaker conscious of the audience’s expectations on when the meeting is scheduled to be released? Did she stop five minutes ahead of time so that everyone felt like they were just given an extra five minutes of their day to do with as they please? Or did she run over by six or eight minutes and make everyone uncomfortable and fidgeting – and even watch as a few of her audience trickled out before the presentation had completely wrapped up?
What do you look for when you’re sitting in the audience? If you’re a speaker, you probably check for things that non-speakers would not notice.
Would love to see what things stick out in your mind the next time you’re watching a speaker at a service club breakfast or luncheon meeting.
photo credit: Marshall Astor – Food Pornographer
Podcast: Listen to Your Audience
As a speaker, do you ‘listen’ to your audience? If you do, it’s amazing the amount of information they ‘tell’ you that you can incorporate into your presentation.
photo credit: quinn.anya
10 Reasons to Practice Active Listening
If you listen to our podcasts now and then, Roger and I will bring up ‘active listening’ as one of the most important aspects of communication. Simple: it’s true. Here are some reasons why.
- By actively listening – before you’re thinking about responding – you have a chance to digest what is actually being said by the other person involved in your communication.
- Active listening shows genuine respect for the other person.
- It’s been said that we have two ears and one mouth so that we can use them in that proportion: listen twice as much as we talk. It’s true – it really is a good guideline.
- Active listening encourages thoughtful responses. It also encourages a more relaxed pace in your communications and gives space to respond.
- By practicing active listening you’ll tend to look the other person in the eye – which gives them the confidence that they are being heard. Being heard and being acknowledged is one of the most valuable things a person can feel.
- Active listening requires more focus and attention than a casual conversation – which tends to require more energy; but also gives you more payoff.
- Active listening encourages more intimacy and brings people closer together.
- Active listening will set you apart from almost everyone else that person encounters during the day – and will make you more attractive to them. Yes, even in a business setting.
- For most people active listening is a higher level of focus than they’re used to – by becoming a skilled active listener you are expanding your horizons.
- Active listening shows that you care about the other person and the quality of communication that the two of you are engaging in.
Can you think of any more reasons to engage in active listening? Leave a comment!
Roger Pike unveils a list of ten steps that will give you powerful communication skills. The list may be easy – but that doesn’t mean following through on all ten will be! Give a listen as Tim Gordon joins Roger in this informative podcast.
Social media is now the back-yard fence, the office water cooler, the front porch swing, the global cocktail party. It’s the place where people gather to exchange pictures of their kids, swap recipes, talk about the news, and, of course, it’s a place where people do business. Now, social media can add another job to the long list of things it can do: crimebuster. Yes, it’s true, as a story that recently appeared in my local newspaper makes clear.
Not long ago, the Salem Statesman-Journal, an Oregon newspaper, told the story of a Medford, Oregon man attempting to escape the law. He fled the state, running from charges that he had sexually abused an Oregon girl for four years, beginning when she was just eleven. The victim’s family started a Facebook page. A tip to that page led investigators to Michigan; and from there to Pennsylvania, where the fugitive was arrested.
Every day, creative people find new uses for the interactive internet; which we here at Communication Steroids believe includes things like blogging, internet chat, and, of course, the social media. Some of those uses can catch criminals. Others can help you stay in touch with your customers; provide them human contact to answer their questions, handle their complaints, and talk to them about new and exciting products. The interactive internet has the power to reach out to people from coast to coast and beyond.
Savvy business leaders understand the power of the interactive internet to build profitable relationships. But, even if you find someone who’s still skeptical of the net’s power to make money, you must certainly understand its power to undermine your marketing and damage your reputation.
That power was recently underscored by another story; again from Oregon. It seems a football player at the University of Oregon (a very successful program that just last year won the PAC10 championship and a berth in the Rose bowl) was disappointed at the coach’s handling of a disciplinary matter involving another player. He went public with his criticism, lambasting the coach in a four-letter-word filled diatribe. That Facebook posting was, apparently, the last straw and resulted in the players’ dismissal from the team.
The U of O’s problem is a very clear example of why every business leader must pay careful attention to the social media. Thanks to the social media, your marketing department just expanded. It now includes every single solitary employee you’ve got. For good or ill, every person on your payroll is now a public representative of your organization. What they say online has the power to bring a fugitive to justice, or to tarnish the sterling reputation of a quality and successful enterprise.
The United States Air Force gets it. They’ve published a handbook on social media for their PR officers. They warn, “If the Air Force doesn’t tell it’s own story (online), someone else will.”
Are you keeping track of what’s said about your company or your industry online? Are you using the social media to build relationships? Are you telling your own story? Or are you letting someone else do it?
