14 Tips For Improving Communication

Derrick MoeNo Comments

Is there anything more important in sales than being able to effectively communicate?  I dare say no – it is a crucial skill for any sales or sales leadership role.  This Entrepreneur article states that 55% of communication is nonverbal.  I have seen other studies estimating that number to be closer to 90%.  Either way, you get the idea – words are the smaller part of the communication equation.  Salespeople must have the ability to pick up on the subtle “tells” that prospects unknowingly share. The first step in improving your communication abilities is to know yourself.  A communication style assessment is a good first step at understanding your natural… Read More

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Texting Is Trending

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Texting is becoming the best communication channel in the business world.  It seems that phone calls are answered less often even when considering business lines.  The backdoor, surest communication channel is the cell phone and, specifically, texting. Texting/app messaging is the preferred communication tool for younger workers.  When you are hiring today, you need to keep this fact in mind.  I still find LinkedIn messaging to work well.  However, nothing works as well, or as quickly, as texting.  The response time is typically minutes or less.  The ability to send attachments and links has improved also. So is it a trend when dealing with Millennials?  According to HR Executive it… Read More

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Launching New Leaders

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I’ve been working with a couple clients considering internal candidates for first-time leadership roles.  This process is always tricky.  We can assess the person’s leadership style, aptitudes and motivations, but there are many more aspects to leadership than just these components. This LinkedIn post provides 6 mistakes rookie leaders often make.  The article is on point and you will quickly notice that the mistakes are polar opposites.  Often, a weakness is a strength taken too far.  That being true, a couple mistakes from the article jumped out at me: 2. Too hands off What a lot of people fail to realize is that with every promotion comes more work not… Read More

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1 Minute On The Internet

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This information is difficult to comprehend.  These are the activities that happen in 1 minute on the Internet in 2019.  I don’t know how this information is calculated, the numbers are staggering.

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The Shrinking Attention Span vs. Relationship Sales

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Here is a problem I have seen developing in sales over the past 10 years – shorter attention spans in salespeople having to deal with longer sales cycles. First, some background from a quick American Management Association: Whenever I teach students, I tell them, “Your chance of being successful has gone up exponentially because all you’ve got to do now is actually try to pay attention for more than five minutes.” Ok, that is disconcerting.  You can see where this is going.  The integration of the Internet into our lives has provided prospects with a unique ability to research your company, and more importantly, your solutions.  We often talk about… Read More

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Interviewed By A Robot

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You’ve probably used the term “robot” to describe some of the people you have worked with or, in my case, some of the hiring managers with whom I interviewed over the years. But I’m not talking metaphorically now.  This BBC news article introduces (is that the right word?) us to Tengai, the job interview robot. Here is Tengai: If Tengai is here, surely our robot overlords are not far off in the future.  Can you imagine interacting with that robot on a serious job interview?  The European company that has created Tengai explains their thoughts on the robot’s interactions: The firm has spent the past four years building a human-like… Read More

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Email Etiquette – The Sign-Off

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This Entrepreneur article hits on topic you may have overlooked.  What sign-off do you use for your emails?  Did you know there are different levels of etiquette?  Not kidding, there are certain formalities to consider. An example: The salutation: “Best” Bates: “Best” is colloquial, but fine for someone you know. “Best wishes” or “Best regards” would be better for business. Kerr: This is another acceptable sign-off, especially if you’re using it with someone you know really well. That is my preferred sign-off, but I am currently rethinking it.  Here is the one I really dislike: The salutation: “Ciao” Bates: This isn’t for business, except for fashion, art or real Italians. Kerr: “Ciao” should only be used… Read More

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Emotional Intelligence Of Leaders

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What are the keys to EQ?  This post from TTI provides great insight into the entire topic.  A couple traits to consider: 1. Possess self-awareness Before someone can be effective interacting with others, they need to have a conscious knowledge of their own character, feelings, motives, and desires. The “feelings” part of this equation is very important. When those feelings are not positive, having the ability to control emotions is paramount to managing interactions successfully. When a person is self-aware and able to employ self-regulation under stress, they tend to have more successful outcomes (and less regret). Personally, I believe all EQ flows out of self-awareness; without it, the person is unable to… Read More

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The Stressful Interview = Real World Sales

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The BBC provides a look into a “stress interview” which is an interview approach that places an inordinate amount of stress on the candidate.  The goal is to learn how the candidate handles the pressure in an unexpected environment.  This approach should sound like a sales call.  It does to us and that is why we use some of these techniques in our structured interview process. From the BBC article(emphasis mine): “There are certainly different kinds of stress associated with many positions – achieving results, meeting deadlines, dealing with difficult clients, for example,” says Neal Hartman, senior lecturer in managerial communication at MIT. “The stress interview can create conditions to… Read More

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How To Fix Employee Conflicts

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If you have been in leadership for any length of time, you have had to deal with employee conflicts amongst your team.  Some of the issues are trivial, others substantial, but what do you do to fix these problems?  The source of most conflict in the workplace flows from one specific area – Motivations. We assess motivations as part of our tools in helping companies hire and evaluate talent.  Motivations are an interesting aspect of our psyches.  They are deeply seated and have the power to drive behaviors, decision-making, and more.  The difficulty of motivations is that they are difficult to determine from simply interacting with someone.  Maybe if you… Read More

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