Communication Is Key In Business

In business, there’s no skill more important for success than the ability to communicate effectively.

To become a top achiever, you must learn and practice the skills necessary to communicate…

• One-to-many
• One-on-one
• In person
• In writing
• Over the phone

…and, because of today’s modern technology, in video and with social media.

More specifically, you must master the art of persuasive communication – that is, influencing others to believe your point of view and to take the actions that you want them to.

Now here’s the good news…

Before you go reading every book, attending every seminar and taking every course on effective communication, remember the famous Woody Allen saying:

80% of success is just showing up.

That means you just need to do SOMETHING.

• Write that book you’ve been meaning to
• Publish some articles to one or more of the free online article websites
• Upload videos to YouTube and other video sharing websites
• Post to your own blog – or start one if you haven’t yet done so
• Become more active in online forums and groups in your marketplace
• Host your own events, in-person and virtually – via webinar and tele-seminar
• Send more and better emails to your list
• Pick up the phone and call your best clients, prospects and strategic partners

Just start to communicate more – and more effectively.

Want an example of precisely what NOT to do?

Look no further than our very own dysfunctional federal government.

Once again, right now we find ourselves in an all-too-familiar situation: caught up in yet another financial crisis.

The main reason for the current stalemate is simple: A failure to communicate.

As far as I can remember, partisan politics appears to be at an all-time high, with non-stop bickering, name-calling and blaming on all sides – but basically no action.

And as for our nation’s leader…

Many people, including me, thought it would be great to have an “outsider” in the White House – someone who wasn’t a career Washington politician.

But over the past five years, we’ve learned our lesson and experienced what a disaster this situation actually is.

If you’ve ever worked in a company or department where, instead of “promoting from within,” a new manager was brought in from the outside, then you know exactly what I mean.

We continue to suffer under a President who has basically no relationships or connections in Congress with anyone other than his most dedicated supporters, and appears to be owed no favors by anyone. Is it any wonder why he can’t seem to ever lead Congress to taking any action at all?

It has become crystal clear that he is not a deal-maker, a uniter or a mediator, and he appears to have very little respect from any of his opponents.

To paraphrase Peter Arno, “That’s a hell of a way to run a country.”

In contrast, I wrote a post on this blog earlier this year about President Abraham Lincoln’s extraordinary communication and deal-making skills, which were the key to his being universally celebrated as one of our greatest Presidents ever.

And in another example much closer to home…

Over the past two weeks in this space, I wrote about a recent experience I and some colleagues had being victims of a pair of unethical businesspeople who perpetuated a series of scams.

One of the two scammers has a long history of cheating people out of money with various con artist schemes, while his partner stubbornly insisted that he was merely a victim himself, thus earning from me the nickname “The Pete Rose Of Business.”

Now here’s an update…

The actual Pete Rose denied any wrongdoing for almost 15 years since being discovered to have violated the most basic ethical rule of Major League Baseball before he finally came clean and admitted his guilt nearly a decade ago.

But this “Pete Rose Of Business” didn’t take nearly that long.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from him where for the first time he admitted his wrongdoing, asked for forgiveness and vowed to financially make good at some point in the future for all of the money he stole.

Will he make good on his promise?

Only time will tell.

But the key point here is that he took the all-important first step towards achieving any positive business result: He stopped hiding and reached out to begin communicating.

Life is a marathon – not a sprint. I have personally maintained relationships and even done deals with people that I once had bitter disagreements with and had been wronged by.

And I’ve converted many long-time prospects into paying customers and clients, and also reactivated supposedly-lost-forever clients as well.

The key? Better and more frequent communication.

So how about you? What plans do you have to communicate in more ways, more often and more effectively with your prospects, customers and strategic partners?

Let me know in a comment below.