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The Importance Of Verbal Communication
Copyright © 2005 Jim Headley
Telecents Communications Inc.
http://www.sendglobal.com

It has been cited that verbal communication is 10% what you say
and 90% how you say it. In today’s technology driven world, you
would not know that though. Today, people across the world have
become so dependent upon non-verbal methods of communication that
the verbal communication methods have been falling by the
wayside.

Take a look at the popularity of text messaging and emails. These
written communications often leave much to the imagination and
create a great deal of confusion for those who are attempting to
communicate with each other. When trying to communicate the
importance of a message to another human being, the reader can
lose the intent or the real meaning of the message.

At particular risk for misinterpretation are those important
messages that are sent at times of high emotion. The tone,
inflection, and the stress placed on individual words can be lost
when using only the written word. This could be disastrous when
trying to tell a loved one your feelings or when trying to close
an important business deal. People often misinterpret the written
words and may take offense to messages that were meant to be
completely harmless or even humorous.

This is why we must always remember that 90% of communication is
how we say what we want to get across to the other party. Emails
and text messages only give us 10% of the communication process,
thus leaving 90% of the communication process up to the recipient
to guess.

If you want to communicate an important message to a loved one or
to a business contact, you may be better off going the old
fashioned route of using the telephone. This eliminates any
confusion in the communication process, and also allows you and
the other party to ask for any needed clarifications. These
clarifications can be made via the telephone, before unintended
interpretations have been made. Using verbal telephone
communication allows you to emphasize the importance of the
message and to communicate the excitement of your words to the
other party.

It often seems easier to simply send an email to someone, but
many people actually prefer telephone communication to emails.
Telephone communication maintains the bit of humanity, which is
lost in emails. Many business people who are not comfortable with
emails don’t even read their emails. I once sat in the office of
a Chief Operating Officer of a major corporation and saw him
inadvertently delete many of his emails. When I asked him about
it, he said that if the messages he accidentally deleted were
important that the senders would call him. He was not a fan of
emails and even though he was often stretched thin on time, he
said that he preferred telephone calls, because he got a chance
to visit briefly with his business contacts.

Many business executives today are of a generation who held jobs
before emails, so they do not rely as much on computers as their
younger counterparts. Many of them ignore emails for the most
part and look for the telephone follow up from the sender and
take the attitude that “If it was important they will call me.”
Taking care of important business transactions over the
telephone, instead of by email, assures that the right person
receives the message and that it is not simply going to an
assistant or worse, to a bulk mail folder where it gets deleted.

If you communicate with people on an international level, be it
personal or business, you may believe that your only choice is to
email because of the expense of international phone calls. While
this may have been true in the past, it is not true today. There
are options in making international telephone calls. One of these
options includes inexpensive international calling cards that
allow you to call overseas at a rate as low as 2.9 cents per
minute. It is well worth the money, in my opinion, to assure that
the importance and the intent of the message is not lost in the
written word of an email.

International telephone calls are not as outrageously expensive
as they once were, and you can be sure that the recipient
understands the meaning and true intent of your communications.

———————————————————————
Jim Headley, (jheadley@telecents.com) VP of New Business
Development, Telecents Communications Inc
Telecents’ SENDGLOBAL brand offers FREE International Calling
Call Free to Europe, South America, Asian, Mexico, Middle East,
India. Visit http://www.sendglobal.com enter promo code “MD8KT”
Want to become an agent/affiliate? Go to
http://www.sendglobl.info login TCI

Listening Strategically

By: Robert F. Abbott

Usually, we’re most interested in communicating outwardly; getting our
messages out to others. But finding ways to hear what’s going on around
us can be just as important.

Let’s start by identifying three different types of listening we do.
The first type - informal listening - comes naturally, as in listening
to another person. I take in what you have to say, and how you say it.

A second type, competitive intelligence, is a systematic process for
monitoring sources and gathering information. That information is
aggregated, processed to bring out the important points, and
distributed to others who can use it to make decisions.

In this article, we look at a third type, a less rigorous approach to
competitive intelligence, one that falls somewhere between simple
listening and formal competitive intelligence. Call it strategic
listening, a relatively simple way to stay on top of issues that affect
your organization.

Let’s start with objectives, which we normally do when looking at
something strategically. Ask two key questions, “Why are we doing
this?” and “What will we do with the information we gather?”

The first question focuses our efforts by putting them into the context
of our overall goals. The second question, “What will we do with the
information we gather?” relates to more immediate issues. It helps us
articulate how we will use the material, and that in turn, affects the
way we see our objectives.

Next, we need a process for gathering, managing, and storing the
information we gather. What sorts of sources? How will we get them?
What will we do with the material? How will we store it?

Once we’ve listened and gathered our information, we need to manage it.
All those mounds of paper and electronic files must be boiled down into
chunks of information that others can use easily.

This part of the process might involve the selection of excerpts or it
might involve writing summaries. It might require an argument or simply
a statement of facts that allows others to draw their own conclusions.

The final step in the strategic listening chain is to provide feedback
to those who provided raw information, and to get feedback from those
who used the processed information (or intelligence) we provided.

Giving feedback to those who provided raw information could be
considered a courtesy, and a way of encouraging them to keep supplying
us. Gathering feedback from those who used the processed information
will help us determine whether or not we met the objectives that got us
started.

In summary, one important form of listening is strategic; that is,
informally gathering and processing information that helps us stay on
top of issues that affect our organizations. The four key steps in this
process are: setting objectives, developing processes, managing the
information, and gathering and getting feedback.

Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott’s Communication Letter.
Learn how you can use communication to help achieve your goals, by
reading articles or subscribing to this ad-supported newsletter. An
excellent resource for leaders and managers, at:
http://www.communication-newsletter.com

Inside Your Customer’s Shoes. Comfy, or..
by Dave Franzwa 2005

Examining customer buying habits is as old as selling itself.
In pre-historic times, Mr. Slate could have watched Fred
Flintstone’s buying habits, invested in Bronto Burgers, and made
a killing off Fred alone. All he needed to do was make them
more accessible to Fred.

We have pretty much the same scenario today, both online and
off.

Here’s an example that’s a little more up to date, and although
it too is fictional, it’s based on something that happens every
day in the marketplace.

When you go to the store, be it a grocery, hardware, or what-
have-you store, do you ever pay any attention to where things
are located, or how they’re displayed?

Probably not.

If you’re like most of us, you go to the store with a list, you
find what you’re looking for, and you either head to the
checkout, or you browse a little.

While you’re browsing you happen to see something that you
weren’t really looking for, but when you spot it you think to
yourself, “Self, I could use that,” or you think, “That’s a neat
idea. I’ll get a couple of those, ” or even, “Mmmm, pistachio
ice cream. Great idea!”

Right?

When you get to the checkout there are all sorts of items that
the store management places there to tempt you into adding just
one more item to your total: Juicy Fruit gum, juicy scandal
magazines, juicy what Oprah did last week, etc..

Along the way, no one is standing over your shoulder selling you
on features and benefits. You just see it, grab it, and pay for
it. There’s no pressure to buy…

Or is there?

Unless you’re extremely well disciplined, or you only take what
you’re willing to part with, you’ve fallen for the highly
successful “silent-salesman”.

There’s an entire industry behind that sort of scientific
retailing.

Nowadays, they can track receipts from hour to hour, day to day,
week to week, month to month, and even project what they should
make off that item today (as opposed to what they made off of it
a year ago).

In tracking it short term, they may decide to move or copy a
display item to some other area in the store to see if any
significant changes in purchases occur.

Let’s use a simple can opener as an example. The store has a
display in their kitchen utensils section, and they decide to
copy the display to the canned goods section.

(I realize they probably already have one there, but this is
just an example.)

They look at their receipts the next day and, Whammo! The
numbers have jumped!

In this example it’s easy to figure out why thier numbers went
up. It’s a simple matter of looking at the primary product (in
this case, canned goods), and placing yourself in your
customer’s shoes, ask yourself what else they might need.

What else will they need, start to finish, to be able to enjoy
their meal?

They’re obviously going to have to open that can, and if you
don’t want them to have to search for an opener, provide it.

Instant add on!

There’s the key! There’s revenue inside your customers shoes,
but you have to wear them once in awhile in order to find it.

Let’s take it one step further. Let’s say you decide to place
two can-openers next to the canned goods. One with green
handles, and one with white.

Which one sells better? Why does it sell better?

The answer to “which” can be found by looking at your daily
receipts and comparing them to your previous purchase history .

Of course it will take a little more than that. If it was on a
Tuesday, you’ll at least want to take a look back to the
previous Tuesday to see if any other factors were involved
causing the numbers to jump.

Did either Tuesday fall just after a holiday where folks had
Monday off? Your testing should be done during typical traffic
periods so that your numbers aren’t skewed.

This will help you to determine which one is actually earning,
and which one is taking up valuable retail space and inventory
dollars. If it’s not selling, either get rid of it, put it
somewhere else that it will, or make a better sign.

Elementary, my dearest Watson;-)

As to “why” it sells better, that cracks open a completely
different area of marketing that deals with the psychology of
why people buy. Though fascinating, as well as revealing, it
would take up more space than I’ve allotted myself here.

To bring this idea of purchasing habits and product placement
full circle, internet customers also have trackable and
predictable habits for how, where, why, and when they buy.

Product placement is on an electronic page, and positioning can
make a tremendous difference. Certain colors are proven to be
better attention-getters and mood setters than others. The day
of the week, and even the time of day can be studied and made
predictable.

There are many varieties of software available that allow you to
dissect your web site statistics. From manual coding and web
stats studying, to those that do it all for you.

With a little study you’ll find that many of the buying traits
of your online customers coincide with the buying habits of
those out in the “real” world, which shouldn’t surprise us too
much.

After all, they are the same people.

Now, if Mr. Slate would have put himself in Fred’s shoes, he’d
have placed a Bronto Burger cart right outside the gates of the
quarry, and sold such delicacies as the Boulder Burger, or Stone
Fried Steaks with Gravel Gravy, he would have been able to
capitalize on Fred’s purchasing habits.

Still! All he had to do was watch a couple episodes of the
Flintstones, and he’d have seen exactly what sort of discipline
Fred had when it came to impulse items… none!

You’ve got it a lot easier than Mr. Slate. You see, unlike
Fred, your customers probably *wear* shoes;-)

If you’ll just remember to slip into them periodically, and do
what you can to make buying from you as easy as possible, you
won’t be leaving anything in those shoes that could be going
into your register.

Now. Could you tell me what aisle the Pterodactyl sauce is on?
==================================================
The above article by Dave Franzwa, father of 3, mother to none,
is an excerpt from his upcoming release of:
The Cat-A-List ~ Eye of the Storm. Pre-release info is available at:
http://www.workathomesupertips.com/Cat_A_List/precatsu.html?ygaa
Subscribe to Wordwrangler Press at:
http://www.workathomesupertips.com/announceform.html?ygaa