Six Essential Business Communication Skills

Six Essential Business Communication Skills

To persuade people to do business with you, you need to develop the following six business communication skills:

1. Make initial contact and a good first impression.

Before you can do business with a person, you must first make contact.

During that first contact you must make a good impression.

Making a good first impression is an important communication skill you should master, because only if they like you, will you progress to stage two.

2. Gain rapport and make an emotional connection.

You need to build rapport with everyone you meet. Rapport is a feeling of connection, likeability and trust.

Rapport is gained when you cause the other person to lose the natural caution they feel whenever they meet someone new.

You must break down the emotional barriers between people and make a good connection with them.

Gaining rapport is a business communication skill you should master.

3. Asking questions and listening with the intention of understanding, what the other person wants and needs.

When you have rapport, you can get down to business, by finding out more about their needs, wants, and what they don't want.

If you understand these, then you know which of your products and services will best serve their needs.

Asking discovery questions and excellent listening skills are the next business communication skills to master.

4. Explain how your products and services will benefit them.

Now you understand what they want, you are in a position to explain how your business can satisfy their wants and needs.

The ability to make yourself clearly understood is the next communication skill you need to master.

5. To gain commitment to enter into a business relationship (close the sale).

When they understand how you can help them, you need to persuade them to make a positive decision and to commit to doing business with you.

Many of your prospective customers are afraid to make a decision (they are afraid to make the wrong decision), so you need to help them overcome their anxieties.

This skill is called "close the deal" and you need to master it.

Help people to make a positive decision, is another communication skill to master.

6. To keep contact with customers and grow the business relationship.

Once you have started the business relationship, the next step is to keep it going, and to grow it to something more substantial.

You do that by repeating the processes stated above.

Contact, rapport, investigation of need, description of how you can satisfy their needs, close the sale, keep contact, build more rapport etc.

Definition: rapport

Rapport in business is a relationship where two people like and trust each other, have dropped early caution, and speak with ease and honesty. This warm bond clears emotional blocks, so each side feels safe to share needs and move forward with work or trade.

Article Summary

Clear business communication skills turn strangers into loyal customers: start with a strong first contact, build rapport, ask sharp questions, listen hard, show how you meet needs, gain commitment and keep in touch to grow trust.

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Did You Know: Key Statistics

About the Author: Chris Farmer

Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years' experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.

Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.

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