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Free Advice

Communications

Recently I've run into quite a few "lapses" in communication from clients, their customers and others they are doing (or trying to do business with). It could be "I forgot to say that," saying the wrong thing or not saying anything (when something should be said).

Whether your favorite expression on this is "Get to the point," "He who says it in the fewest words wins" or something else, the bottom line is that clean and concise communication always wins.

Saying the right thing

I recently was helping a service provider who was having trouble with prospect interviews. She is great at getting in front of people and her clients absolutely love her once they start working together. But getting hired has been a struggle. We started with exactly what she is saying.

The first problem was she talked a lot. She admitted it. She assumed they wanted her services and therefore didn't ask the tough questions. The questions that let people know that you know what you're doing. The ones that impress them that you are competent. (In a similar vein, a business owner recently asked me for a referral because the first person he met to help him on a project didn't "ask the in-depth questions" he figured needed to be asked.)

The next step is to have examples (war stories) so her prospects knew she had faced their situation before and could deal with it. As all speakers and writers know, stories sell. They sell, they prove (what you can do) and they keep people's attention.

Finally, she would occasionally say the wrong thing. Here's an example. When a client said something like "I may need your service in six weeks but it could be three," she blurted out that she would be gone for one week, in three weeks. Instead, she should have asked why, what are the odds of three weeks vs. six weeks and could the start time be a bit flexible?

Follow through

If you say you're going to do something, do it. If you say you're going to do it by Friday, try to get it there by Thursday. I've recently been through two episodes of clients promising an answer (on a business they wanted to buy) and then disappearing.

The first was when I was out of town. I thought the issue was settled on Friday, before I left. However, my client delayed and then on Monday he told the seller he would have something in writing on Tuesday. On Friday late in the day he sent it to his attorney for review and said he needed it by Saturday. On Saturday he sent it to the seller. The reply date, originally written Tuesday, still said Sunday. Talk about a faux pas. The seller's initial response was that you promise one day, deliver in six and want me to spend the weekend on it? You're crazy!

The second was a client who said he would take one day to give an answer and took three. He didn't take my calls. He didn't let me, the seller or anyone know he was "thinking about it." He didn't share that a "friend" put some (meaningless) concerns in his head. It gave the impression he was scared, he was a procrastinator or wasn't interested.

Be careful -- they might agree with you

One of the worst communication mistakes is to agree to something and then ask for more. It generally doesn't create goodwill. Especially without a good reason. Recently the seller of a company agreed to a deal and then came back asking for more. It didn't take long to get things back to agreement. However, it almost blew a trust that had been built with the buyer. Once he realized we felt this was an integrity issue he got the message and  fell back to what he had previously agreed to.

Is this a communication problem or an integrity problem? Technically it doesn't matter because the bottom line is that once it's presented it's all about communications.

Now I bet everyone reading this could come up with more communication gaffes they've seen, done or experienced. The bottom line is that there are many capable people in the world. The ones who communicate the best get the rewards. And since it's not a zero sum game, the better we all communicate the more there is for everybody.

© Copyright John Martinka 2004. All rights reserved.