As a young sales rookie I strongly believed that I had great communication skills. A belief instilled in me by the fact that I have always studied in English medium schools and was also an avid reader in my childhood.
One day at work, during a practise role play session (planned activity to ensure sales readiness), I was asked to demo a pitch to a 'customer,' (my colleague playing the role). I had no intention of wasting this opportunity and so launched full flow into giving a powerful pitch and an equally powerful demonstration of my great communication skills. So it's obvious that when my pitch ended 10 minutes later I was expecting lots of applause and claps for the wonderful way I had just communicated with the 'customer'. However, nothing is obvious in life, specially if you assume. And I assumed that my customer knew English. Whereas my colleague was playing the role of a Hindi speaking customer. Needless to say the pitch bombed because I made the cardinal error of not understanding my customer before communicating with him. A striking Moment of Truth for me that I was really not that good a communicator as I believed myself to be.
3 lessons learnt that day regrading Communication:
1. Just having a good command over a language does not automatically make you a good communicator. At best, it makes you a good linguist.
2. Never assume. First figure out who you are communicating with, then do it in a language, in a way, in a manner they understand. Communication is not an opportunity to show off your knowledge or linguistic skills, it's about helping others understand what you'd want them to understand.
3. 'Pitching' is not 'Communication' if not understood and appreciated by the customer.
A trick to keep your communication effective is to use the checklist of 7Cs (Correct, Clear, Complete, Concise, Convincing, Conversational, Courteous)
Business Communication for Merkur Gaming, Noida.
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