Effective Communication is More Than Mere Speech
Acquiring good communication skills does not mean stopping at reasonably fluent speaking abilities. Communication skills involve a lot more than speaking. Once you are good at speaking, you need to figure out the nuances of effective and convincing speaking. In fact, most of the jobs that involve speaking such as BPO jobs, sales and marketing jobs and so on require you to convince your clients about the superiority of what you are selling them. If you are troubleshooting, your speech should sound professional and convincing enough for the customers to have faith in the steps that you are telling them to take. Hesitant and unclear speech can ruin the whole deal when it comes to effective communication.
So how do you go about speaking fluently and convincingly? The first thing is to know what you are talking about extremely well. If you are asked to make a presentation or demonstrate a product, make sure you research extensively and know all about your topic. The way it was manufactured/conceived, implemented, its benefits and salient features etc. Knowledge of other related products and how your product is ahead of competition will is also extremely important. Apart from speaking, use illustrations, pictures and statistics. Appear confident during your presentation and answer all questions with the same poise and confidence. You’ll do well to rehearse your presentation before facing important clients and customers.
Most companies will train you so that you get to know all about their products and services. But you need to have the willingness to learn. Memorizing tech specs and attempting to recite them from memory won’t lend your voice any air of confidence. Confident speech results from your deep understanding of the topic and the initiative to develop that understanding should come from you
Provide Effective Feedback
One of the important aspects of communication, one that is usually not given much importance is the ability to provide feedback. In a job that requires extensive networking, communication and sessions with clients and customers, the need for feedback is paramount. Your feedback could be asked for if you are a part of quality control or if you are required to review and write about new launches and products. Feedback becomes an important responsibility if you are a part of a material development team or working in a publishing house.
Feedback has to be objective and should be formulated after thorough examination. Make sure you have reviewed the product in question intensively before working on a feedback. Your feedback has to be goal oriented and you need to think about all the various ways to improve the product. Positive feedback is graciously accepted but when you are giving negative feedback, you need to ensure you have valid reasons and suggestions on what has gone wrong and how you think that could affect the quality and appeal of the product. For example, if you are objecting against controversial content in learning material or a book, you need to clearly state how the content in question can cause trouble and what you think should be done to alter it.
Make your feedback impersonal and always remember to cite sources if you have consulted any. Credible and esteemed sources can lend a lot of value to your feedback-both positive and negative.
Onward to Online Training
For the industry, training is an important aspect alongwith hiring. As educational institutions usually offer nothing more than theoretical knowhow, companies have to take up the responsibility of grooming new recruits and getting them ready for all they have to face in the corporate world. Therefore, on top of the expenses associated with hiring, there comes the additional burden of training expenses. While profile-related specific training can be best learned from seniors and qualified corporate trainers, more and more companies are looking at alternate means of training when it comes to general training such as communication, ways of dealing with clients and using certain popular software.
A solution in this regard is online training which is emerging as a productive as well as cost-effective solution. With the internet becoming an indispensable part of our lives and the multitude of tools available online, it is no wonder that online training is gaining some serious ground. With the advent of online training, the debate that is doing the rounds is whether it will completely replace face-to-face teaching in the long run. Before attempting to answer that question, a thorough examination of the potential of online training is pertinent. More posts to come on this exciting field.