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Add You - The Seven Essentials of Business Communication
The success of a business endeavor involves a concerted efforts of financing, strategic planning, product design or service positioning, marketing, sales, and customer support. One of most important aspects of doing business is the people you deal with everyday - your employees, your partners and your competitors. Whether you are a small business owner or a human resource manager of a large corporation, you want to make sure that you hire responsible employees, you deal with trustful partners, and you may even want to learn more about your competitors.It is a routine for corporations to perform background checks on their hiring prospects before they make a hiring decision. Background checks reveal more information than that you gain from resumes or face-to-face interviews. For some jobs, screening is required by federal or state law. Job applicants and current employees may be asked to submit to background checks. The recent emphasis on security has increased that likelihood.Contractor fraud is at an all time high. Background checks help businesses to verify the identify and license of potential contractors. Contractor complaint search shields the lights on the reputations of the contractors you're dealing with.1. What can you get from a background check report?A background check report aggregates public records from many sources created by government agencies. Besides verifying the identify of an individual, a report usually includes: vehicle registration, credit records, criminal records, education records, court records, medical records, military records, state licensing records, and drug test records.2. Who Conducts Background Checks?There are many companies that specialize in employment background checks or pre-employment screenin
The more powerfully you can end your communication, the more easily remembered it will be by your audience.
2. CLARITY
Be clear about the messaqe you want to deliver, as giving a confused message to your audience only ends up with them being confused and your message being ignored.
If you are giving a message about, say, overtime payments don't then add in messages about detailed budget issues or the upcoming staff picnic -- UNLESS they ABSOLUTELY fit in with your original message.
It's far better and clearer for your audience if you create a separate communication about these ancilliary issues.
3. CONSISTENCY
1) If we accept that every business must have a mailing list. To me this is fundamental. The new business with one customer has a mailing list of one plus prospects?That list is a means of communicating with the customer, verbally or in writing. Failure to communicate could mean losing the most valuable asset of the business, so your potential customers are just as important.Cherish your customer(s) and grow your mailing list to consist of customers, lapsed customers, potential customers (qualified prospects), prospects and possibly new leads.You can tailor your communications to the whole list or segments of the list. Learn how to grow and manage your list.2) How do we grow the list? One of the most profitable ways is to use classifieds advertisements.Classified advertising is best used to build a list of qualified prospects. A qualified prospect has been turned from a prospect (someone who may have a need for your product or service) to someone who has an identified need for your product or service.Because they have responded to your advertising efforts they have indicated a possible need. Use classifieds to offer a free catalogue, booklet or report relative to your product or service.3) Generally you can sell anything from classifieds so they are great for pulling enquiries with lines such as: Write for further information; free booklet offer, send for product or service information. Be creative in what you offer and have fun developing your advertising skills as you build your list.4) Advertise all year round. Responses will vary, but by keying your advertisementsaccording to the month they appear, and by careful tabulation of your returns from each keyed advertisement you will find that steady year round responses wi
Structure
Clarity
Consistency
Medium
Relevancy
Primacy/Recency
Psychological Rule of 7±2
If you are going to communicate effectively in business it is essential that you have a solid grasp of these seven elements.
So let's look at each in turn...
1. STRUCTURE
How you structure your communication is fundamental to how easily it is absorbed and understood by your audience.
Every good communication should have these three structural elements:
an opening
a body
a close
This structural rule holds true no matter what your communication is -- a memo, a phone call, a voice mail message, a personal presentation, a speech, an email, a webpage, or a multi-media presentation.
Remember - your communication's audience can be just one person, a small team, an auditorium full of people or a national, even global, group of millions.
In this instance size doesn't matter -- the rules remain the same.
Opening
An opening allows your communication's audience to quickly understand what the communication is about.
Short, sharp and to the point, a good opening lets your audience quickly reach a decision of whether or not to pay attention to your message.
Time is a precious resource, after all, and the quicker you can 'get to the point' and the faster your audience can make that 'disregard/pay attention' decision the more positively they will view you --- which can be VERY important if you need or want to communicate with them in the future.
Body
Here's where you get to the 'heart' of your message.
It is in the body of the message that you communicate all of your facts and figures relative to the action you want your communication's audience to take after attending to your message.
Keep your facts, figures and any graphs or charts you might present to the point. Don't bog down your audience with irrelevant material, or charts with confusing, illegible numbers and colours.
--SIDE BAR--
There's a key to rapid uptake of your message -- KISS.
Pitch your presentation's graphics at a grade seven child. If THEY can follow and understand them, chances are good that your audience will too.
--END SIDE BAR--
Close
The Close is where you sum up your communication, remind your audience of your key points, and leave them with a clear understanding of what you want them to do next.
The more powerfully you can end your communication, the more easily remembered it will be by your audience.
2. CLARITY
Be clear about the messaqe you want to deliver, as giving a confused message to your audience only ends up with them being confused and your message being ignored.
If you are giving a message about, say, overtime payments don't then add in messages about detailed budget issues or the upcoming staff picnic -- UNLESS they ABSOLUTELY fit in with your original message.
It's far better and clearer for your audience if you create a separate communication about these ancilliary issues.
3. CONSISTENCY<
Do you often have the thought that your business would operate so much better without customers and all their demands? They want this, that and the other – all of which interrupts your day! But customer expectations are what drives your business and keeps them coming back.Do you know what your customers are expecting of you? If not, how can you find out? What will understanding their expectations do for your business? In this article we are going to look at expectations and how it’s important for you and your business to know what they are.What Do They Expect? Not many businesses endeavour to find out what their customers want! Owners assume they know. Big mistake! If you want to grow your business, find out what your customers expect of you. How can you do this? Ask them! Why not have an ‘Expectations Week’. Tell your staff that this week’s goal is to ask customers what they expect of the business. Set a target of approaching a certain number of customers a day and just ask, “If I was to ask you what your top 3 expectations of doing business with us are, what would they be?”Alternatively you could put out an Expectations Book and ask customers to write down their comments. This way, they will not be embarrassed and perhaps may be more frank!If you operate your business remotely, why not do an e-mail survey? Consider offering a prize to encourage responses.Great ExpectationsWhat is your customer likely to come up with as expectations of doing business with you? Here are some possible answers:- Fast and efficient service- Competitive price- Quality products- Sufficient stock to meet demand- Trained staff- Being treated politely and wit
Every good communication should have these three structural elements:
an opening
a body
a close
This structural rule holds true no matter what your communication is -- a memo, a phone call, a voice mail message, a personal presentation, a speech, an email, a webpage, or a multi-media presentation.
Remember - your communication's audience can be just one person, a small team, an auditorium full of people or a national, even global, group of millions.
In this instance size doesn't matter -- the rules remain the same.
Opening
An opening allows your communication's audience to quickly understand what the communication is about.
Short, sharp and to the point, a good opening lets your audience quickly reach a decision of whether or not to pay attention to your message.
Time is a precious resource, after all, and the quicker you can 'get to the point' and the faster your audience can make that 'disregard/pay attention' decision the more positively they will view you --- which can be VERY important if you need or want to communicate with them in the future.
Body
Here's where you get to the 'heart' of your message.
It is in the body of the message that you communicate all of your facts and figures relative to the action you want your communication's audience to take after attending to your message.
Keep your facts, figures and any graphs or charts you might present to the point. Don't bog down your audience with irrelevant material, or charts with confusing, illegible numbers and colours.
--SIDE BAR--
There's a key to rapid uptake of your message -- KISS.
Pitch your presentation's graphics at a grade seven child. If THEY can follow and understand them, chances are good that your audience will too.
--END SIDE BAR--
Close
The Close is where you sum up your communication, remind your audience of your key points, and leave them with a clear understanding of what you want them to do next.
The more powerfully you can end your communication, the more easily remembered it will be by your audience.
2. CLARITY
Be clear about the messaqe you want to deliver, as giving a confused message to your audience only ends up with them being confused and your message being ignored.
If you are giving a message about, say, overtime payments don't then add in messages about detailed budget issues or the upcoming staff picnic -- UNLESS they ABSOLUTELY fit in with your original message.
It's far better and clearer for your audience if you create a separate communication about these ancilliary issues.
3. CONSISTENCY
In analyzing your business ideas you must be able to pass them through a test to determine if they truly are valid opportunities. All of your ideas must have a demonstrated need, ready market, and ability to provide a solid return on investment.Is the idea feasible in the marketplace? Is there demand? Can it be done? Are you able to pull together the persons and resources to pull it off before the window of opportunity closes? These questions must be considered and answered.Opportunity-focused entrepreneurs start with the customer and the market in mind. They analyze the market to determine industry issues, market structure, market size, growth rate, market capacity, attainable market share, cost structure, the core economics, exit strategy issues, time to breakeven, opportunity costs, and barriers to entry. Below are two models that entrepreneurs use to evaluate their business ideas and plans.Fourteen Questions to Ask Every TimeTo evaluate opportunities, entrepreneurs ask the following questions:1. What is the need you fill or problem you solve? (Value Proposition)2. Who are you selling to? (Target Market)3. How would you make money? (Revenue Model)4. How will you differentiate your company from what is already out there? (Unique selling proposition)5. What are the barriers to entry?6. How many competitors do you have and of what quality are they? (Competitive Analysis)7. How big is your market in dollars? (Market Size)8. How fast is the market growing or shrinking? (Market Growth)9. What percent of the market do you believe you could gain? (Market Share)10. What type of company would this be? (Lifestyle or High Potential, Sole Proprietorship or Corporation)11. How much would it c
Short, sharp and to the point, a good opening lets your audience quickly reach a decision of whether or not to pay attention to your message.
Time is a precious resource, after all, and the quicker you can 'get to the point' and the faster your audience can make that 'disregard/pay attention' decision the more positively they will view you --- which can be VERY important if you need or want to communicate with them in the future.
Body
Here's where you get to the 'heart' of your message.
It is in the body of the message that you communicate all of your facts and figures relative to the action you want your communication's audience to take after attending to your message.
Keep your facts, figures and any graphs or charts you might present to the point. Don't bog down your audience with irrelevant material, or charts with confusing, illegible numbers and colours.
--SIDE BAR--
There's a key to rapid uptake of your message -- KISS.
Pitch your presentation's graphics at a grade seven child. If THEY can follow and understand them, chances are good that your audience will too.
--END SIDE BAR--
Close
The Close is where you sum up your communication, remind your audience of your key points, and leave them with a clear understanding of what you want them to do next.
The more powerfully you can end your communication, the more easily remembered it will be by your audience.
2. CLARITY
Be clear about the messaqe you want to deliver, as giving a confused message to your audience only ends up with them being confused and your message being ignored.
If you are giving a message about, say, overtime payments don't then add in messages about detailed budget issues or the upcoming staff picnic -- UNLESS they ABSOLUTELY fit in with your original message.
It's far better and clearer for your audience if you create a separate communication about these ancilliary issues.
3. CONSISTENCY
Resumes and cover letters that get acted upon are those that demonstrate the writer's potential to solve an employer's problem based on how similar problems in the past were solved by the applicant. Companies like resumes that demonstrate what you can do for them that you are a problem-solver.Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager/screener and you'll understand why a good cover letter and resume MUST make you stand out and therefore is so important. To make a point, let's make some worst case scenario assumptions about the hiring manager reading your cover letter and resume for the first time.Assume that the person reading your resume and cover letter:- is doing so after having been in meetings all day,- ate a big lunch- is dealing with numerous personal problems- is very tired- is over worked and under paid- and it's Friday afternoon at 3 PM- leaving on vacation tomorrowOK, maybe I'm being a little dramatic here, but you get the picture? In many instances, the hiring manager just wants to get through the giant stack of mail ASAP. If you assume all this, then you'll write your cover letter and resume so it is easy to read, impactful and commands a stronger presence than the other letters in the "to read" pile.Keep these 5 points in mind when writing your cover letter and resume.1. You want to make it as easy as possible for the hiring manager to get a sense of you in just a few seconds.2. Your cover letter and resume have to be exciting, dynamic and be EXACTLY what the screener/hiring manager is look for.3. You need an easy-to-read format that can be scanned quickly and easily, so be sure that your letter and message is clear, succinct and direct.<
Keep your facts, figures and any graphs or charts you might present to the point. Don't bog down your audience with irrelevant material, or charts with confusing, illegible numbers and colours.
--SIDE BAR--
There's a key to rapid uptake of your message -- KISS.
Pitch your presentation's graphics at a grade seven child. If THEY can follow and understand them, chances are good that your audience will too.
--END SIDE BAR--
Close
The Close is where you sum up your communication, remind your audience of your key points, and leave them with a clear understanding of what you want them to do next.
The more powerfully you can end your communication, the more easily remembered it will be by your audience.
2. CLARITY
Be clear about the messaqe you want to deliver, as giving a confused message to your audience only ends up with them being confused and your message being ignored.
If you are giving a message about, say, overtime payments don't then add in messages about detailed budget issues or the upcoming staff picnic -- UNLESS they ABSOLUTELY fit in with your original message.
It's far better and clearer for your audience if you create a separate communication about these ancilliary issues.
3. CONSISTENCY
You have a detailed business plan, which showed the overall intent of your company. You presented the business plan to your bank before start-up and they submitted funding in the amount that you both deemed acceptable. The original business plan contained the basis of the procedures that will help you stay focussed while the company grows. Let's examine some of these processes that you will use to give your business the focus it needs to grow and succeed.1. A marketing plan. If sales are a part of your operation (and it seems that some form of selling is always a big part of every company), then, you will need to have your sales group focussed on a marketing plan. Short term and longer-term analysis should be a part of this planning and will likely contain an analysis of your competition, market potential and sales projections. Be careful not to fall into the trap of letting “the business take care of itself”, stay focussed at all times and be sure your managers are tuned into this market monitoring regularly, nothing is more defeating to the general manager/owner than to be told by a sales manager…I didn't see that coming! YIKES!2. Accounting procedures. If sales are important, then the need to stay focussed on receiving the proceeds from sales is equally important. Accounts payable, expenses and accounts receivable need to have fixed procedures in place to allow money to flow freely through the company coffers. Focussing on these procedures at regular weekly and monthly meetings will put the accounting and marketing groups on the same path. A rift between marketing and accounting is a common bureaucratic occurrence; so don't be surprised if one point you hear from someone from sales state, “We make the money here, how come I have to live by their rules?” Getting these
The more powerfully you can end your communication, the more easily remembered it will be by your audience.
2. CLARITY
Be clear about the messaqe you want to deliver, as giving a confused message to your audience only ends up with them being confused and your message being ignored.
If you are giving a message about, say, overtime payments don't then add in messages about detailed budget issues or the upcoming staff picnic -- UNLESS they ABSOLUTELY fit in with your original message.
It's far better and clearer for your audience if you create a separate communication about these ancilliary issues.
3. CONSISTENCY
Nothing more upsets a regular reader of, say, your newsletter than inconsistency of your message.
Taking a position on an issue one week, only to overturn it the next, then overturn THAT position the following week, only breeds distrust in your message.
And distrust in you!
People who distrust you are exceedingly unlikely to take the action you wish them to take. They are also highly unlikely to pay any attention to your future messages.
As well as consistency amongst multiple messages, be aware that inconsistency within your message can be just as deadly to audience comprehension.
At the risk of sounding like the Grouchy Grammarian, please make sure that your tenses remain the same, that your viewpoint doesn't wander between the 1st and 3rd person and back again (unless you deliberately want to create a linguistic or story-telling effect — be careful with this!) and that your overall 'theme' or message doesn't change.
4. MEDIUM
If the only tool you have in your toolbag is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail.
Similarly, if all you believe you have as a communications tool is PowerPoint then pretty soon all you'll do is reduce very communications opportunity to a PowerPoint presentation. And as any of us who have sat through one too many boring slideshows will attest, "seen one, seen 'em all."
There are a myriad of was you can deliver your message - the trick is to use the right one.
Which is the right one?
The one that communicates your message:
with the greatest accuracy
with the largest likelihood of audience comprehension
at the lowest fiscal cost
at the lowest time cost
Note: it must meet all of these criteria. There's absolutely no value in spending the least amount of money if the medium you choose doesn't deliver on any of the other criteria.
So what media are available? You have a choice from any one or combination of the following:
* paper-based memo * letter * one-to-one face-to-face presentation * seminar * one-to-one phone presentation * meeting * one-to-many personal presentation * plain text email * one-to-many phone presentation * text + graphics email * voice email * webpage * webcast/webvideo * radio broadcast * television broadcast * press release * tv/film commercial * cd-rom/dvd
Choosing the right medium or media is obviously critical, as the fiscal costs of some in the above list are
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