Enhance Your Business Communication Skills

Great business communication skills requires learning to say exactly what you mean and saying it in a way to get a desired outcome that is beneficial for both the business contact and your home based business. Many times we send cross signals in our communications because we ourselves are not completely sure how to convey our thoughts properly. We know what we want to say but are unable to get the correct wording in order to get the your point across.  

Enhancing our business communication skills has numerous advantages in all aspects of our home based business from negotiations to routine business conversations. Your bottom line will increase more by getting the desired outcome that you want. Whether it is better pricing from a manufacturer or handling a disgruntled customer you will notice that the results will be more favorable for your home based business.  

Tips for Effective Communication:

• Have a Main Objective
• Be Prepared for Objections
• Consider the Benefits for All Parties
• Emphasize the other Party’s Benefits
• Keep if Friendly
• Be Prepared to Walk Away  

Know Your Main Objective

What is the ultimate result you would like to achieve from the  conversation, negotiation or advertising? What I have found to be very helpful is to get as many facts as possible. Information gathering is essential for creating your main objective as well as gaining better business communication skills. Once you have the main objective in mind, create a mental picture of it or write it down so that you can stay focused.  

If you have a disgruntled customer, find out exactly what the problem is. Keep asking questions until you know for sure that you completely understand the situation. Then you can figure out what solutions would work best for the customer and for your home based business.  

When you know what your objective is for all situations you will have a clear direction to follow in order to achieve your ultimate goal. The goal may be to create a satisfied customer expectations of repeat sales, negotiating a lower product price with a manufacturer, or creating an advertising campaign. As you can see effective business communication skills will increase your home based business bottom line.

Prepare for Objections

 Whether it is customer service or negotiating with a manufacturer etc., you will need to expect objections. When you are prepared for them even if they never arise, it will open your mind to all the aspects of the situation and will give you a clearer perspective. When you can see all the sides of a situation, you will make wiser decisions and be able to point out the advantages for the other party.  

What are the Benefits for All Parties?

Knowing what the benefits are for all parties concerned will help you explain them more effectively. In advertising you would list the benefits of your product or service in the advertisement. In customer service you would list the benefits of the solution to your customer, bearing in mind what would be the best outcome for both parties.

Emphasize the Benefits

Armed with a list of benefits, you will be able to explain the best benefits and advantages for the other party. With all the information on the table your business contact will be able to see the advantages of the subject matter and how they can benefit from your proposal. You will then be able to conclude the conversation easily since you have achieved your main objective with all parties satisfied.

Keep if Friendly

 There will be times when no matter how good your business communication skills are, the other party just does not recognize the possibilities or want to work with you. That is fine, there will be customers who you cannot satisfy, negotiations that cannot be made and business contacts that will not be able to see your point of view.  

If you keep it friendly you will increase the chances that they will listen to you in the future. This will leave the option of further contact open, whether it is a call, coming back to the negotiating table or for other business opportunities.  

Be Prepared to Walk Away   

Great business communication skills also entail knowing and realizing that situations will arise that the other party may not be receptive to any part of your main objective. In those rare instances it is better to end the conversation politely and move on. Sometimes the other party may be having a bad day or is distracted and what ever you say will fall on deaf ears. This happens to all of us. Realizing and recognizing that the other parties’ business communication skills are off that day will help you to end the conversation quickly and renew it on anther day when it is more appropriate.  

Effective communication will help you in your home based business by creating an atmosphere of understanding and cooperation. Another aspect of business communication skills includes learning to listen better. In my article; “What did You Say?” I discuss ways to become a better listener. Tips for effective communication are a quick guideline which you can follow to stay on course in all your business dealings.

Each day there will be numerous opportunities to use effective communication skills. Your home based business depends on your business communication skills for growth, development and advancement in your chosen field.