How to Improve Your Communication Skills
In sales, your greatest asset is your voice!
Effective communication requires two things: (1) Active listening and (2) Clearly expressing your points. Acquiring the skills to effectively communicate takes time and commitment, even for the most natural communicators.
As a sales pro, you know that navigating meetings with potential buyers are never as linear and clear as it should be. That’s where having the ability to adapt to any conversation on the fly is critical to keep leads happy, informed, and confident in your offering. Like most skills, practice makes perfect. Here are some key points to consider as you develop your sales communication skills:
Know your why
Why does this conversation matter to you, the customer, and your company? Knowing the answer to each of these questions allows you to enter the conversation with clarity and conviction.
Knowing the why of a conversation can connect you to the big picture of how everyone benefits from the agreement while being able to address specific points from both an internal and customer perspective. Anytime the conversation drifts from the main goal, the why is the motivation to bring the talking points back to a productive place. The better you understand the customer, the more seamless the transition from normal conversation to a sales pitch will be.
Treat every conversation as practice
Part of the beauty of sales is that you get to connect with people from all over the world. You’ll never know what insight into a region, country, culture, hobby, or media will lead to a deeper connection with a buyer. That means any conversation you strike up could lead to a valuable nugget of information.
You won’t always be able to recreate the same pressure within a normal conversation that exists in sales meetings, but gaining greater comfort with casual debates or conversations is still productive. As you’re conversing with friends, family, or complete strangers, consider these takeaways that can be applied to sales:
What’s engaging to this person?
What cadence of communication do they prefer?
How comfortable are they?
Are they clearly understanding what you’re trying to communicate?
Is their personality and style of communication familiar to you, or new?
Whether your target audience is a very specific or diverse group of people, challenge yourself to learn how to seamlessly connect with anyone to expand your communication skills.
Study human behavior
It’s best to treat each lead as a unique individual. That said, there are trends in consumer behavior that impact the collective mentality around certain industries, product types, and more.
You can research consumer psychology online in academic journals, industry reports and white papers, and social platforms, in person, and through internal documents like customer archetypes.
You should also take an active approach to study your leads during meetings. Watch for cues in their tone, patterns in what they are saying, and nonverbal behavior.
All of these insights should be considered as you hone and tailor your communication style.
Listen actively
You can be confident in your communication skills, but if a lead doesn’t feel heard, they may choose to go with another organization that they are more connected to. You can’t be wrapped up in your sales pitch so much that you don’t leave room for the relationship to develop naturally.
In your professional and personal communication, practice active listening by intently following along with the other person’s preferences and pain points. This can be the difference between building a relationship and just selling a product or service. Most buyers can tell when you’re just following a script, or laying on the “sales talk”.
Buyers want to feel like they’re the ones making the decision because they should be. The only way they’re going to feel that way during a meeting is if you actually listen to what they need and effectively apply it to what you’re trying to sell.
Whether you’re a natural charmer or a more direct communicator, you’ll improve your sales performance the more you hone your communication skills. With the right approach and preparation, you’ll always come off genuine and helpful.