Annette was bright, smart, and enthusiastic. Even so, whenever she approached customers in the furniture store where we both worked, she seemed unable to strike up a conversation with them. They would invariably mumble something like, “We’re just looking” and head off to get lost among the labyrinth of bedrooms. Annette would make a few more half-hearted attempts to connect with them, usually getting a last glimpse of her customer as they walked out the door. In many cases, she never really even got to speak with them at all. She was frustrated, hurt, and a little worried about her sales performance. She should have been. Her inability to connect with her customers was killing her Read More...
Reccomended Product – The Best-Kept Secrets of Great Communicators
When you investigate the most powerful and influential people in the world, you will discover that they all have something in common. Effective communication.
Whether they personally possess such skills or have hired a support team that did, ultimately, effective communication was one of the fundamental keys to their success. Using the Read More...
What is the most important aspect of giving a presentation?
No, it is not eye contact, memorizing your talk, using visual aids or humor properly. Granted those are important. But if you master all of those skills and neglect this one important aspect, your effectiveness will be lost and your message will fall on deaf ears.
The most important aspect for you to focus on when preparing and giving a presentation is the audience. And this holds true whether it is a small group of 5 or a large group of 500.
The best way to focus on your audience is to answer the following questions:
What matters to the group? Why should they care? Why should they listen to Read More...
What if you were paid not by your own performance, but by how well and how diligently you encouraged and treated your co-workers? This doesn’t automatically sound like something we’d enjoy doing or even thinking about, but doing so will make you look at your life and your business in a powerful new way.
When you treat your co-workers with the respect of your best clients, you’re building a relationship that serves everyone. It builds unity within your organization, creating that well-oiled machine everyone wants to be part of. In Read More...
Why should I improve my listening skills?
It’s a great question. For the simple reason that a person’s listening skills are a central component to most of the activities people care about. Your ability to understand what others are trying to tell you, to grasp details about projects, to learn information about a customer’s needs, or to understand what is going on in your family’s life all depend on your ability to effectively listen.
While most people possess the ability to hear, many have never taken the time to consciously develop the ability to listen.
Here are four golden nuggets to help you improve your listening skills:
1. Slow Read More...
Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service
should be mandatory reading for anyone in the customer service industry, and anyone who works with people for that matter. Whether it is customers, clients or co-workers, this book with increase your effectiveness and communication skills with Read More...
The purpose of following these guidelines for your business writing is to get the reader to read your document. You want your document to be pleasing to the eye and not overwhelming.
The first area that I would like to address is the usual white space. The white space is simply the amount of paper that you see as opposed to the amount of text you see on the paper. A good test to see how much white space is used is to ‘print preview’ the document and set the percentage to about 25% or so. In other words, you will see the document on the screen but you won’t be able to read the words. This way, you will get a good feel for how much black there is against the white. Read More...
Schmooze. Sounds nasty, right? In fact is the grease that lubricates your interaction with people – both in business and social settings. Skilled schmoozers are loved and respected by everyone. They make other people feel important and smart. When people like you and trust you, it is much easier to ask them to do business with you.
What is schmooze? Schmoozing is about NOT getting right down to business. It’s about hanging out with people for a little bit and getting to know them. Remember Dale Carnegie’s famous dictum, “Everyone favorite topic of conversation is themselves.” That is the schmoozer’s motto.
The key to successful schmooze is to ask questions. When you ask, Read More...
One of my favorite analogies for effective business writing is the clear window. Below are five simple guidelines to ensure your written communication is effective.
Write the Way You Talk
Imagine your reader is looking through your words, not at your words, for the meaning beyond the text. Whenever you use ultramajestic, high-fallutin, quadrasyllabic words, you force the reader to look at the words, often stopping to comprehend their meaning. When this happens, the message is clouded and even lost. The beauty of short, simple words is they speak clearly and in language that is typically the way you would talk in person. Write the way you talk. Great business writing means the Read More...
You know radio station, WII FM. It is all about your primary concerns, needs and wants. “What’s in it for me?” When you are trying to persuade people to your point of view, it is counterproductive to tune to that radio station. Instead, the best way to win over people is to focus the message on what is in it for them.
One of my favorite books that illustrates and proves the power of this idea is, How to Win Friend and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. If you have not read it yet, I highly encourage you pick up a copy today and read it.
Overall the main concept in Mr. Carnegie researches is the fact that most people’s favorite subject is, you guess it, themselves. He Read More...
Annette was bright, smart, and enthusiastic. Even so, whenever she approached customers in the furniture store where we both worked, she seemed unable to strike up a conversation with them. They would invariably mumble something like, “We’re just looking” and head off to get lost among the labyrinth of bedrooms. Annette would make a few more half-hearted attempts to connect with them, usually getting a last glimpse of her customer as they walked out the door. In many cases, she never really even got to speak with them at all. She was frustrated, hurt, and a little worried about her sales performance. She should have been. Her inability to connect with her customers was killing her Read More...
