Communication Skill Training

Why do you need communication skill training?

Communication is the sending and receiving of messages between two (or more) people. Communication skills training is necessary because at times communication can be much more complicated than that simple description.

Communication in sales is even more challenging because you not only want the receiver to hear and understand you but to be convinced enough to give you their money AND to be happy about it!


Taking a Closer Look

Looking at it more closely.

You have an idea in your head that you want to convey to somebody. In most sales scenarios you have a benefit you want them to notice and appreciate.

Before you can even start you need to have some rapport so that the person will be open to believe what you are saying.

Once you have rapport, to really get your message across you need sales coaching ,in communication skill training, to help you accomplish a few things.

You need answers to questions like:

  • How do I put this representation I have in my head into words?
  • How do I modify my words so that my listener will understand me?
  • How do I frame my message to ensure it is received the way I intend?
  • What voice qualities and body movements support my intended message?
  • Do I have the other person’s attention?
  • How do I know my message is received the way I intended and conveyed the meaning I intended?

It's Not Just Your Intention

You see it’s not just what you intend to communicate. Intention is nothing! As the old saying goes, “God save us from people with good intentions”. I agree with the statement from the field of NLP:
“ The meaning of a communication is the response you get.”

So, your first task is to get the meaning out of your head, from the “deep structure “ you have inside you, to a message you can convey to somebody else in spite of the fact that your reality is uniquely yours.

You see, as we grew up and took in our experience of the world we began to adopt beliefs and set up unconscious filters that we used to interpret everything that happened to us. Things like: where we grew up, what happened to us, how we related to our parents, the language we learned, our values and our beliefs all have an influence on our current thoughts. Our thoughts can also be influenced by the mood we happen to be in at the time.

Assuming you can clarify your intended message in your head you now have to encode the message for your receiver.

How well you encode that message will depend on what you know about the other person and how closely you have observed them.

This is where communication skill training come in.


Think About These 

You need to consider:

  • Does the receiver use mainly visual words, or auditory words or feelings words?
  • Does the receiver need to hear a little or a lot of detail?
  • Does the receiver need me to speak: quickly or slowly, softly or loudly?
  • Do I use gestures or stand still with my hands by my side?
  • How do I frame my words to get the receiver in the right mood?

For examples of framing look at Persuasion Article # 12 (free Persuasion Articles button on your left) 

Remember once that person receives your message they have to decodeit in the light of their own personal filters. This process will be a lot easier for them if you have worded your message and framed it appropriately. They are even more likely to receive the message as intended if you have encoded the message in line with their values and unconscious filters.

The use of these unconscious filters is an advanced form of communication skill training.


Reading Your Prospect's Response

Once they have received your message you need to keep observing them because you are looking for non-verbal cues as feedback. If they look at you with glazed eyes (a sort of a blank stare) it’s quite likely they didn’t get it. If they smile or laugh (and you weren’t telling a joke) they probably don’t believe you. There are other more subtle cues you can look for to assess whether they have “got it” or not. These are just some of the communication skill training topics you should practice.

You then need to ask for verbal feedback so you can be absolutely sure they’ve got your intended message. You may need to backtrack to put together the last message with previous ones to draw them to a conclusion.

After all, effective communication is about noticing what response you are getting and adjusting your own behaviour to get your intended response. To adjust your behaviour you need the flexibility of having a number of skills at your disposal. Communication skill training can help you acquire these additional skills.


Before the Meeting

There are even skills you can employ before the meeting to ensure you get off to a good start. Processes like “The Meta Mirror” and “Perceptual Positions” are advanced communication skills that help you. You may like to consider sales coaching in these skills ?