How To Improve Communication Skills And Set Your Business Up For Success
When you know how to improve communication skills, there’s no limit to how much you can sell. It sets you up for success. But I am aware it’s not easy for a lot of people. I’m going to share my most valuable tips for verbal and non-verbal effective communication.
Learn How To Improve Communication Skills – Stat!
Build Good Communication Skill: Get Out There
The biggest reason I want to show you how to improve communication skills is to deal with the most basic question people ask me. It’s not unusual for a person to approach me during a live event and say, “How do I get in front of clients?”
I always encourage my clients to build their business both offline and online, working with high end clients. That’s the surest way to enjoy both personal and financial freedom.
But if you don’t have the right interpersonal communication skills, it’s difficult to make a sale whether online or offline. You need to strengthen this attribute first.
1. Join Networking Events
Going to networking events is great. In your local area, you should be at networking events all the time.
When I started, I went to MeetUp groups. I went to all kinds of different networking events, and I just met people. That was a way for me to consistently grow my list. You can even build your net worth by doing it.
If you’re serious about this, go to two or three networking sessions a week.
2. Use Your Time Wisely
When you know how to improve communication skills, you can learn how to approach only the right people.
When I go out to a networking event, I aim to use my time as concisely and effectively as possible. I don’t spend the time trying to get to know 20 people in the room. I want to focus on getting four to five quality relationships.
So just imagine if you were going to a networking meeting once a week and you had four to five quality relationships every single week, you’d have 20 new people to talk to every single month.
You may say, “Ted, I don’t have a lot of people on my list. I know only five.”
That’s okay. When I came to California, I literally knew zero people, and I had to build my business from scratch.
Now, who should you be connecting with? Search people who are in your target audience.
3. Attend National Events
One of the national events I highly recommend is Message to Millions. It is powerful and lets you meet even more quality people.
Don’t get me wrong. In local events, you can still meet quality people, but when you go to national events where people travel to and they pay for it, you get super-quality people who have invested money.
People who invest money tend to be your dream clients. After all, people who don’t invest don’t tend to anytime soon.
Since the goal is to learn how to improve communication skills, you should work on going at least one national event every 90 days.
But, of course, there’s the concern: how about the travel and the airfare?
When you go to national events, the goal is to pick up high-paying clients. These are people who are likely to pay you no less than $60,000 per program – perhaps even more. If you get even just one from this national event, there’s a good chance you earn a profit from the get-go. Remember too these people are used to investing high amounts of money.
If you want to elevate your income, you elevate the quality of people that you spend time with.
How To Improve Communication Skills | 9 Tips
Nothing beats a face-to-face conversation. You can have a two-way communication where one is actively speaking and the other is listening. One is doing the sharing while the other is learning and then vice versa. Both are able to build relationships in the process.
But you also don’t want to waste the opportunity to get the others to pay attention. Develop an effective communication skill with these tips:
1. To Be An Effective Communicator, Be Clear With Your Message
The first step to learning how to improve communication skills is by knowing your message.
When you network, people will surely ask you, “What do you do?” Because you don’t have a message, you end up speaking for minutes. You don’t know how to shut up. This non-strategy of interpersonal communication quickly results in a loss of attention.
A story limits the introduction to only a few seconds. But it already helps your clients understand quickly what you do.
This is a system that hinges on good verbal communication. It goes statement, it goes system, it goes story, and it goes schedule client appointment. It’s what I call the 5S system (including “sold”).
2. Communicate Effectively By Observing
During a networking event, I don’t approach someone and immediately ask, “What do you do?”
Instead, I focus on listening and watching their verbal and non-verbal communications. I do not just listen but also observe the non-verbal cues such as the facial expression and the eye contact. I usually say, “Hey, how are you enjoying the event? Great. Where are you from?”
I lead into getting to know them, and they start talking about themselves. What happens is I learn information about them first.
As I practice my listening skill and interact with them, at some point, they’re going to ask me, “Ted, what do you do?”
That’s when I go, “Well, you know, I actually believe that you and pretty much everybody I meet has a life story to tell. You have life lessons to teach, and you have a message to share with humanity. You just told me about what you’re doing over here as a health practitioner. I’m sure you share your message with people all the time. You share your life story and your journey of how you healed yourself. Is that true?”
They’ll go, “Yeah.”
Make it a conversation since it always results in results in effective communications with them.
3. Relate What You’re Saying To Them
Every person has a preferred or innate communication style. To truly learn how to improve communication skills, relate what you’re saying directly to their situation.
Go back to my previous statement. What do you notice? I’m directing it towards them because I actually know something about them. Instead of saying, “I help people find their life story and message,” I said, “You have a life story to tell, life lessons to teach, and a message to share.”
I personalize the statement. But when you know more about the person, you can personalize it even better.
I also learned they’re busy and have built a successful business. I found out all these by asking them open-ended questions that reveal the challenges they’re facing.
Because I found out their challenge in the conversation, I can tweak my statement, and my statement can come to life.
The conversation may now sound like this:
“Yeah, and I find that a lot of health practitioners who have the same situation as you. In fact, I had it too. I was working with too many people. Coaching too many people. Trading too much time for dollars. Have you ever experienced this?”
They go, “Yeah, that’s what I just shared.”
I then say, “Yeah, I know. I’ve been there too, and my business Message to Millions I’ve created has freed me up to where I barely do one-on-one coaching anymore. I’ve got group programs and seminars.”
I’m sharing stuff with them, right? I’m engaging them just through a simple statement during our verbal communication that’s effective and genuine. At this point, for me, I know I’ve got it set up to win.
4. Identify The Gaps
Now I’ve created engagement, their next question may be, “How, Ted? How are you doing this? How?”
“Well, I’ve created this system. I call it the Message to Millions blueprint, so it’s actually a blueprint I created.”
“Well, what is it?”
“Well, it’s what I was just sharing. It’s helping people find their life story and their message and then spread that message to millions of people, so they can have this lifestyle-friendly business, and they’re not trading time for dollars. They have more freedom and time to spend with their family. I’ve done this because I showed them how to go from the one-to-one model to the one to many through group programs or seminars or even online programs.”
I may interject, “Do you have an online program at all?”
“No.”
“Oh, wow.”
What am I doing? I’m already establishing the gaps. Because I’ve been paying attention to what they’re saying – both their verbal and non-verbal communication – I know their challenges. I pay attention to what they are saying because all the things they say no to become the opportunity.
One of the ways how to improve communication skills is to do active listening. In just a few minutes of doing that, I’ve gone deep with somebody. This, to me, is the most powerful system in the world.
5. Share Your Story
I still don’t expect them to fully know me in such a short time. Perhaps the only thing they know is I run online programs and Message to Millions. Rather than inviting them to an appointment at this point, I share my story.
They may say, “Well, tell me more about the system.”
I usually reply, “Well, it would take me 45 minutes to get through the blueprint. It’s a seven-step system I developed. But I can tell you how it’s worked for me.”
Then I go into my story, which is about 90 seconds. In 90 seconds, I’ve gotten personal with people. They feel like they know me now. Both of us then have this connection and relatedness. Isn’t this a solid way how to improve communication skills?
6. Offer A Free Consulting Session
If you’re doing this in the middle of a networking event, then the longest amount of time you can probably talk is 5 minutes. Then you’re back to the meeting.
I say, “Hey, I know we’ve got to get back to the meeting, but what I would love to do is offer you a complimentary strategy session. A Message to Millions strategy session.”
Just match the session with the topic. If it’s health, you can call it a vitality strategy session. If it’s financial, you can say it’s a financial freedom strategy session. Naming your strategy session is important.
7. Communicate The Solution
As a communicator, it’s not enough to say you have a free session. You need to make them take action. So I say, “I’d like to offer this up to you right now, and we’re going to do three things in this strategy session. Number one, I’m going to help you crystallize your message.”
If you’re in health, you may go, “Number one, I’m going to help you crystallize your vision for your health.” If you’re in finance, you say, “I’m going to help you crystallize your vision for your financial goals or your retirement goals.”
“Number two, I’m going to help you solve your biggest challenge around getting your message out to more people” or whatever your niche is.
Then, the third piece is, “I’m going to give you a plan and path to getting your message to millions.”
One, crystallize your vision. Two, solve the challenge. Three, plan and path to get there.
That’s what you need to be able to communicate to them. To make your call to action clear, precise, and relatable, make sure it matches with your body language and tone of voice.
8. Help Them Further Your Network
I can teach you how to avoid objections from dream clients, but the reality is, some people won’t take the free session. A number may go through it and then not sign up for your program. That’s perfectly fine. It happens.
But I will share how to improve communication skills and make it a win-win situation for you. You can follow this pattern: “That’s what we’re going to do, and it’s totally complimentary. Here’s the thing: You show up, and I’m going to spend some time really asking you some questions, diving in. At the end, I’m going to share with you how your vision can match up with my vision and how perhaps my programs can help you spread your message to millions. If it’s a fit, I’m going to talk to you about my offer. If it’s not, that’s cool too.
“We became friends, and you have a little bit more clarity on this area of your life and maybe you. You can introduce me to other people, or maybe we talk at another time. How’s that sound? No strings attached.”
Boom. I give them an out, so they’re comfortable to show up. Make sense?
Then, the final thing that I do there is say, “Great. Give me your cell phone and your e-mail right now.” Right there on the spot, I text them. “Did you get my text message?”
“Absolutely. Got it.”
Now I have their cell. Now we’re in personal communication.
For me, it’s a little different. I have this whole quality system to make sure we vet people out, and then I pass them along to my coach so I don’t actually take the calls anymore.
9. Schedule Right Away
The opportunity is already there. Don’t let it go. You can now say, “Great. I’ll send you something to set up a time” or “Take out your calendar. Let’s just schedule the time for the strategy session right now.” I’m getting into action right here. I’m pulling it in.
“Normally I would ask somebody to put a deposit down to make sure they show up, but we’re friends, we created a relationship, so I just ask you that you show up and that you stick to the time. If something calls up, you just call me in advance and let me know, but I’d like to stick and commit to this. What’s a time that works for you?”
How much have you learned about how to improve communication skills? I showed you where to go find clients at these networking events, and then finally, I showed you how to schedule a strategy session.
Imagine every networking event you go to you schedule a couple of strategy sessions. How would your business change?
Some people will go from zero strategy sessions a month to eight. The biggest challenge I see is not that a system doesn’t work because it works. Trust me. If you do the work, this works. It’s just people don’t go do it. You’re going to have to muster up the courage within yourself to do this.
Right now, I want you to get into action. Write out your statement and then your system. Define your story and then write how to schedule a client appointment. Keep these in mind for your next networking event.
How can I help you learn how to improve communication skills? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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