Communication in sales and customer service

Importance of communication in sales and customer service – is it much ado about nothing? Many a talk or seminar has been given on communication and sales. Countless books have been written. Sales training focus on product knowledge, selling techniques and touch points with customers. Yet, in all the training I do and interactions I have with salespersons in India, I find that if there is one prime focus area in sales and customer service that is lacking – it is communication.

What brought this on my mind? A couple of days ago, I received a phone call from a leading life insurance company in India – ostensibly to convey customer service guidelines. The sonorous voice of the telecaller, reading from a ready script was designed to send me to an early afternoon nap. It also put me off any further interactions with the company. The good part however – it gave me inputs for this blog.  Here are some of my reflections on the learning we get from the quality of the call - many of which have been oft repeated but little practiced among salespersons. 

1. Voice modulation – The importance of voice in sales or customer service cannot be over emphasised. This is irrespective of whether it is a face to face interaction or a tele-call. A hesitant voice will convey a lack of confidence to the customer. A sonorous voice will typify boredom. Let your voice project interest and excitement to the customer. Needless to say, voice modulation is the key. Your customer will make decisions based on how you communicate, not just what you communicate.

2. Pauses are intrinsic in a good communication – use pauses to check whether the recipient of your communication is with you on the same page. The person interacted with me talked with me in a robotic fashion – allowing me no time to even put a word in.

3. Encourage the customer to talk – it’s a well know but little practiced fact that the customer should speak more than the salesperson. Ask questions and get them to speak. Have conversations with the customer. They are to be talked with, not talked to.

4. Listen to customers. Practice TALK – Total Acceptance and Listening with Kustomers. Many an important sales trigger is lost because of lack of listening. Listen with total acceptance and empathise with the customer’s point of view.
5. KISS – Keep It Short and Simple, in the interest of clarity. Much as jargon sounds good, customers may not understand or be impressed. Keep the communication short. ‘Shorter and more sentences’ are better than ‘fewer and longer sentences’. 

Read other blogs on communication

Take charge of your communication

Communication patterns
Becoming better listeners