How To Guarantee Effective Business Communication

Effective business communication is a priority for any business that wants to develop value in its business relationships. If you find that your business relationships are faltering, you may need to learn how effective business communication works so you can apply it to your business.

Business communication can be broken down into two major types:

1) internal and
2) external.

Under internal, we can find some examples of this type of business communication:

- communication of corporate vision
- communication of corporate strategies
- communication of corporate plans
- communication of corporate culture
- communication of shared values
- communication of guiding principles
- communication to motivate employees
- communication to generate ideas

Under external business communication, some examples exist such as:

- branding
- marketing
- advertising
- customer relations
- public relations
- media relations
- business negotiations

All these examples of business communication share a commonality - to produce value for the business. To become masters at it, it is important to understand that we communicate what we perceive. So to become a master at it, you should know how to manage perceptions.

Business leaders and followers alike have to figure out how their customers perceive them. There are customers who favor their sense of sight, so to reach out to such customers, the business has to promote itself through visual means. There are customers who prefer to taste and feel things, so perhaps the business could provide samples of its products to give the customer a favorable perception of what that business is about. Other customers prefer to rely on what they hear from other people and from media - such customers may be wooed through catchy music (like background music played in malls and car showrooms.)

When a negative perception exists among many people and the business does not take steps to correct this mis-perception, business will have a harder time to correct this and later reach out to the affected customers. And when a mis-perception goes uncorrected for a prolonged period of time, the mis-perception may become absorbed into the belief system of the customers. This could be disastrous for the company. This is why many businesses invest so much money into conducting surveys - they want to find out how their customers perceive them so that problems can be caught early on.

Even the very employees of the business may have a negative perception of the business - a problem exists with the company's internal means of communication. Many business leaders are aware of this so they make an effort to reach out to their employees and find out what they are thinking.

Even surveys about management performance whose respondents are anonymous are useful because they give management a good idea of how they are perceived by their own followers. When employees are disgruntled but find it difficult to voice out their opinions for fear of reprisals, they may react in negative ways - like sabotaging the company's product or service. Or the business may experience fast employee turnover, resulting in losses for a business which has invested heavily in employee training.

So, to improve internal and external business communication, organizations should do the following:

1) Constantly reach out to target audiences through various means (i.e. surveys, online contact forms, targeted mailings of questionnaires)

2) Review the content of feedback and figure out how the feedback can be integrated into future business activities

3) Inform target audiences of improvements and changes that have been done because of their feedback.

A business that takes these steps will find that effective business communication is not so impossible to achieve after all.

MIS & Communication Skills

It is a well known fact that communication is the most important part of human life. Good communication skills are required in about every aspect of life to understand others and let other understood us. Persons having good communication skills are well understood by other. Good communication skills are appreciated in every society. Often, hiring companies and institutes partly judge the skills and qualification by just reading one's resume which proves one's written communication skills. The 21st century is the era of communication technology. In this age of communication and fast moving global environment a person is allocated a little time to introduce himself and make the concerned person realize the potential and importance in very short time slot. This kind of time starved situations suggests to the professional to get good command of communication skills, written, verbal and both to be recognized as a good communicator. In my opinion the personality of a person constitutes of about 80% of his communication skills in which general manners are already included. A good communicator will always use an excellent and precise way to make the others round his ideas.

After realizing the importance of communication in everyday life, we move to next step which is its use in Management Information System (M.I.S). M.I.S is a vital part of any organization. We have already discussed that the good communication skills are necessary within as well as outside the organization to communicate more effectively.

Communication whether internal or external, if used in proper manner, turns into the driving force of any organization. The employees within the firm have to communicate each other and they use either Horizontal or Vertical communication. For both types they are required to make proper use of their skills.

For instance, people in an organization at different levels communicate in different tones among each other, especially when it comes to granting responsibilities and distribution of work. For example, a boss would use a different tone in order to communicate with his employees. This mode of communication is called Vertical or Downward flow of communication. Similarly, the same boss will use a different tone when communicating with his colleagues at the same level. This mode of communication is called Horizontal Communication. However, with communication come the moral values, for instance in every culture there are some norms and taboos. When communicating, one is expected to keep the cultural and moral values in sight. This careful considerations in communication helps avoid offending people. This is another major issue but we will not discuss it here.

There is a lot of written communication that takes place in an organization. This inspires people to improve their written communication skills regardless of whether this communication takes place and stored in electronic form or in written records, e.g. report, memo and official letters. Furthermore, for advertisement and in order to open a communication channel to communicate with other organizations, organization needs people with good communication skills.

While implementing an Information System (IS), management becomes the key issue. For management, communication is the key issue. The personnel in M.I.S. are required to gather information to analyze the system of interest in order to design a smart information system. They have to conduct meetings with the concerned people and staff to gather initial facts and figures. These facts and figures help to understand the system behavior and achieve desired goals. Responsible people analyze these facts and figures; finally they set milestones and implement information system. In this cycle one can easily understand the importance of communication skills. The system analyst has to make reports and deliverable, conduct meetings, and write meeting minutes and agenda. He is required to sketch information flow diagrams. Not only system analyst and software engineers but also all the stake holders in M.I.S use their communication skills, such as verbal, written, electronic and group communication. It seldom happens that the Communication Skills of a person improves and builds up as time goes by through his experience while working in different scenarios. For this purpose, one is required to develop those required skills to improve the quality of work. In the end, I would like to summarize my view point by saying that communication skill is the weapon of an educated person that helps one create a space for oneself in the global market. Further more, a company can reach its destination through team work and determination but effective business communication helps organization reach its goal professionally and easily.

What You Say Isn't Always What Is Heard: The Transference Of Meaning

There are many different definitions of communication. “The transference of meaning and understanding,” is one such definition used by more and more communication researchers. This definition embraces the process of communication and not just the act of communication. Communication is an ongoing process that involves a sender, message, channel of communication, and a receiver. The starting and ending point of this process has many opportunities for ambiguity and distortion that mean the difference between understanding and confusion.

The sender conceives a message and encodes that message with their intended meaning. This encoding involves semantics, intonation, and voice pitch, range, and volume. The variables of each of these elements are huge. Imagine someone saying the word “help” in a calm and conversational manner versus the same person saying “help” in high pitch and volume. Their intended meaning is communicated not with what they said, but how they said it.

In routine business conversations the meaning we intend is critical to its understanding. Just as the sender encodes a message, the receiver decodes the message with the desire to understand and respond. The receiver decodes the material using their own generational, cultural, and socio-economical background. When looked at a simple message in these terms it is not hard to imagine why misunderstanding occurs.

The channel of communication is also a rich ground for potential misunderstanding. Channels of communication each have their own benefits and limitations. Telephone communication is a rich medium for communication because it allows for a full range of emotive and informational dialogue. The power of the voice is an awesome tool for communication purposes. Where written words are useful for transmitting information, what better way is there to convey meaning? This is one primary reason what call and contact centers have replaced direct mailing as a sales tool. Human beings can convey the excitement and drama that a message contains far more effectively than an email or glossy flyer. The important thing is that the excitement and drama the message contains reaches the listener in the manner in which it is intended. Vocal training allows the sender to adjust their delivery to reduce ambiguity and distortion.

If the sender can gauge inflection, intonation, and language to the listener the opportunities for misunderstanding are greatly reduced and the opportunity for mutual understanding is enhanced. This mutual understanding leads to a successful transfer of information and will certainly add to the bottom line of any company that relies on communication to generate profits. The objective of any call and contact center is the successful transference of meaning and understanding and companies need to seize any opportunity available to protect and maximize this process.

Vocal conditioning and training give companies a first line of defense against the distortion and tension that can impede the successful outcomes they depend upon. This program is a valuable tool that allows agents to enjoy the success of having their message understood, received, and respected.

Katherine M. Hart is President and Founder of Hartfelt Communications, a professional training and communications imaging company. Over the past 25 years, Ms. Hart has trained over 25,000 Call Center Agents, Corporate Executives, Politicians, Actors, Community Leaders. She has developed several programs including ICALL and the Communications Connection - a corporate communications training program to work with developing strong internal communications protocols that translate to greater customer satisfaction. For many other presentation, training, and vocal empowerment programs, please visit

How To Improve Negotiation Skills

Every business deal becomes an ultimate success when it is negotiated well. Negotiation skill is the most important skill required for running a business. This is a skill, which needs to be practiced regularly to master it. Taking care of some simple steps described here you can enhance this skill.

Knowledge Base

Negotiation invariably requires a deep knowledge on the subject related to the deal. Without a deep knowledge on the subject, there is a greater chance for a filed negotiation. So, it is better to acquire as much as knowledge you can have about the deal. It includes the profitability, current trends and many other factors you can think of related to a business deal. Deep knowledge will help you to convince your probable customer how you can help with the deal. With this acquired knowledge you can answer the relevant question the other man have.

Communication Skill and Negotiation

Communication is the key for a successful negotiation. Negotiation skill is directly to the skill of communication and many good negotiators are using their language skills for better negotiation. They are always able to close a business deal perfect and tight. Whether you are doing negotiation written or verbally, communication skill plays a very important role. Closely observe the body language of people can unearth what is in their mind during the negotiation. With this close observation, you can adjust your talk to convince him better.

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Communication Systems in Trucking and Real Time Virtual Dash Boards - Just in Time

It is very easy to get into a lengthy conversation with trucking industry folks about communication and the future of JIT - Just In Time logistics. Indeed recently we have been talking about all the great communication systems available and coming forth in the near future in the trucking industry.

And yet often we have neglected perhaps to discuss some of the excellent applications that are now possible with technologies like Virtual Real-Time dashboards, where the dispatcher at the trucking company can see what the driver sees on the dashboard?

The driver does not need to alert the dispatcher he needs a fuel stop or that he has a flat-tire or is stuck on the side of the road or even that he is going 10 mph average stuck in traffic. The dispatcher already knows all that because he can see exactly what is on the driver's instrument panel and read the rest of the data on his computer in the dispatch office. In fact chances are he has re-adjusted the route accordingly and the estimated time of arrival.

All in real-time and thus no more guessing or estimating for the client waiting on delivery. At this level of communication, the Just in Time modeling is much more feasible in that it immediately shows any weakness or challenges allowing additional increased and incremental efficiencies.

Communication Systems in Trucking and The Trucking Industry have come a long way in the last decade and the Real Time Virtual Dash Boards are one major innovation that improve efficiency, save full and improve safety and it came Just in Time.

Make Internal Communication A Priority

We know you’re working hard and smart to provide marketing communication support for your company’s sales efforts. Bravo. Try not to forget that you also have access to another group of individuals, already a captive audience, who can provide immediate results, serve as ambassadors for your company and are critical to driving the company toward its goals – your fellow employees.

We have seen some amazing results from internal activities that have sought to accomplish the following communication objectives:

· - Communicate the vision, values and goals of the organization

· - Recognize individual and company achievements

· - Support employee accountability programs

· - Build a sense of community, inclusion

· - Report on company progress

· - Focus individuals on areas of improvement

Following are some initiatives that could help to achieve those objectives:

· - Internal newsletter (hard copy or html)

· - Graphic panels in key areas of office

· - Intranet, or blog (pass-protected)

· - Town hall meetings (monthly/quarterly)

· - Email announcements on achievements (monitor click rates for specific links)

Of course, many other initiatives could be employed, but remember that you should pursue them with the same quality standards as external communication – quality of copywriting, graphic design, and materials used.

The key to a successful internal communication plan is sustenance. It will require approval, support and budgetary commitment from the top, and planning should include department heads in order to receive adoption across the organization.

Finally, approach this plan as a thematic program, so that the impact of each execution has a compounding effect…just like an advertising campaign or marketing communication plan should.

Opportunity– contact us for specific examples of executing an internal marketing communication plan. Also, inquire with us how to initiate Corporate Culture Marketing (a process of leveraging your own company’s good will and values to win new clients, build meaningful partnerships and retain great employees).