Five Secrets to Confident Communication in Sales

Over the course of the past several years of training different profiles of people, I sense an angst in many of them when I ask them to step forward and speak in front of the group or when asked to do a role play. I have also overheard many salespersons unwittingly convey a lack of confidence in their communications with customers.   Having come from a place where confident communication has been an acquired art which has been refined in the school of tough situations, I fully empathise with the situation that many find themselves in. Hence I pen these thoughts on the secrets to becoming confident communicators.

1. Create a mental map of success: Visualise yourself in the situation in the future, communicating confidently.  Become aware of the minute expressions of your face, your gestures and your relaxed state. Adjust the brightness and rearrange the facial expressions and gestures till you are completely satisfied. Listen to the sound of your voice, and tune it if required, till you hear the sound of confidence in your voice. Freeze the picture. Magnify it as if it were under a lens. It works wonders every time.

2. Practice, practice, practice: Practice creates confidence. Rehearse commonly used talk lines of a sales process. Particularly practice talking about how the customer stands to benefit from your product.  There is a reason for having role plays – practising makes perfect, even if it is a pretend situation. The tougher the situations practiced, the better prepared we are. Grab every opportunity to practice.

3. Listen: there is great strength in the silence of listening. It is indeed surprising that having spent nine months in the womb just listening to subtle sounds; we lose the propensity to listen as we mature. Much is learnt from listening. Oftentimes we are lulled into thinking that the world acknowledges and eulogises only the talkers. The rhythmic sound of the falling drops of water will be heard only in the silence. Similarly, the nuances of the thought being communicated both verbal and non-verbal, may be understood only in the silence of listening.  And many a sale is lost by the art of non- listening.

4. Let your voice reflect your confidence. Become aware of the tonality, the pitch, the modulation of the voice and let your confidence become reflected through your voice. Become aware of whether your voice projection reflects assertiveness. A person can reel off technical jargons but if he does that in a squeaky or high pitched voice, the customer just might back off.  Let the origin of your voice be from your body, not your head. Relax, breathe deeply and the muscles will relax, allowing the voice to flow out like rich molten chocolate. 

5. Be watchful and have flexibility. Become aware of the effect of your communication. Be poised to change the way you communicate if you feel the desired response is not obtained. Unlike what is usually thought, the person with the most flexibility in an interaction has the controls of the communication.     

Refer to my blogs "Communication Patterns" and "Becoming better listeners" for further readings

Take charge of your communication

In the world of quick fixes and quick solutions the emphasis is on ‘Quick’. Quick service restaurants, quick pizzas, quick burgers, quick shopping, quick banking, quick marriages and even quicker divorces…you name it, we have it. It’s a case of the survival of the ‘quickest’. To keep pace with this quickness in everything around us, communication has also become quicker - snail mail to email, encyclopaedia to Wikipedia.

In our quest for quicker communication we are often faced with a gap between the intention of our communication and its actual impact. I call it the ‘Intent - Impact Gap’. When this gap is large, we take immediate cognizance of it. When this gap is relatively small, it tends to get overlooked. Its worthwhile taking cognizance of the fact that repeated such iterations of the 'gap' leave us susceptible to the common maladies of ‘excusitis’ and ‘blame-itis’. How many times have we made excuses or passed on blame to others when someone did not listen to us, or did not do what we asked them to do, or was not influenced by our viewpoint? I guess there are too many to count. 

In this age of quick communications, It becomes all the more imperative that communication be successful. When would it be considered successful? Is it when there is no intent-impact gap? I would say yes. Is it possible? It is, when we take charge of our own communication and become aware that the actual meaning of our communication lies in the result we get from that communication. And that these results are obtained through what we say, do or even leave unsaid.

Which brings us to the next question - how do I take charge of my communication?

Very simple, if we become aware of and understand the FIVE PRINCIPLES for every successful communication:

1. Know what you want to achieve through your communication. Be very clear of the outcome. Know in your mind what you will see, what you will hear or what you will feel when you achieve that outcome.

2. Develop the sensory sharpness to know when you have achieved your outcome. Not all communications are straight and bold. Very often in subtle interactions, we fail to understand whether we have achieved our communication outcome or not. Pay heed to the subtle nuances of physiology, voice tonality and words in interactions. These serve as guideposts for communication.

3. Believe that you will achieve the outcome. The person jumping across a ravine believes in and has confidence in himself. Similarly, in all communications we must operate from a position of confidence in our own excellence.

4. Take action.  Do whatever is required to bring that outcome to fruition. Nothing is gained by vacillation.

5. Be flexible enough to change your own behaviour in order to get the outcome you want. Loop through the 'double C' formula of ‘Change behaviour - Check outcome'  iteratively till the desired outcome is achieved.’ Let it become your mantra in life. 

Remember: 

The person with the most flexibility in behaviour is the one in charge of the communication. 

The more flexibility we show in our communication, the greater is the control we wield over the interaction. Which leads to greater reduction of 'intent - impact' gaps.  Which in turn leads to greater   achievements of communication outcomes.    

For further readings on communication, read my blog Communication Patterns.

Note - Much of this blog is based on the NLP model of communication.

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Communication Patterns

At some point of time or other, haven’t we all experienced a sense of frustration when all that we say or do holds absolutely no sway or influence over another? 

Forms the pattern of our lives, some may say. That is so very true. We get so entrenched and comfortable in our own patterns of thinking and communicating that we begin to expect others to fall in line with our specific patterns of thoughts and communication.  When we have this expectation of others, we certainly set ourselves up for uncertainty in wielding influence over those we wish to influence. What may be done to ensure that what others perceive is precisely what we intended to communicate, so as to ensure greater circles of influence? Well, first of all, we can hone awareness of our own patterns of communication.

Consider how we perceive our surroundings. 

Let’s for a moment, imagine taking a walk in a beautiful butterfly garden... Imagine the multitude of vibrant, colourful butterflies flitting around from flower to flower. Sun-kissed flowers in every colour imaginable set against the brilliant green foliage.  Butterflies of varying sizes, shapes and species. Listen to the sound of the wind gently blowing and the rustling of the leaves and flowers as they sway from side to side. Pay attention to the sounds of the bumble bees and the butterflies as they communicate with each other, each in their special coded language. Feel the weight of the butterfly as it lands on a delicate flower, and sucks the ambrosia of the flower. It’s lightness as it appears to float away on the gentle breeze carrying with it the dusting of pollen on its body.

What draws you into and enthralls you in this gentle wonderland as you take this walk? Is it the beauty that beholds the eye, the sweet whispers of sounds, or even the all-pervasive feeling of beauty, gentleness and lightness of movement?  In other words, is it the sights, the sounds or the feelings that make your experience all the more fulfilling for it?

Take a moment to reflect and ponder its significance. For in that reflection lies the understanding of your predominant and preferred pattern of communication.  A pattern of communication, which may find varying degrees of reflection and sameness in the patterns exhibited by others. Our ability to influence through communication depends on the degree of sameness in preferred patterns of communication between us and those whom we seek to influence.

The answer to ensuring greater influence in communication, my friend, lies in the degree of flexibility we exhibit in our own communication patterns in order to attain a greater degree of sameness with the patterns preferred by others. 

Greater flexibility to adapt to different patterns of communication enables greater overlapping and confluence, which in turn leads to wider circles of influence.  

For further readings on communication, read my next blog Take charge of your communication.