Thursday, May 31, 2012

Non- Verbal Communication


Non- Verbal Communication

It is widely known and many coaches, trainers and writers have time and again told us the importance of effective communication. If the communication is not effective the desired objective is not met with, which results in wastage of time, energy and money.

Let us first understand what is communication? : Communication is the transfer of stimuli or the information from the transmitter (a person who has the information) to the receiver (a person who the information is directed at).

There are essentially 3 types of communication: Verbal, Written and Non- Verbal. The impact each one of these types have on the receiver is 7% written, 38% verbal and a whopping 55% is due to Non-Verbal communication.
The first two forms are pretty well known and extremely well used and understood to a large extent. Non- Verbal communication is the most underutilised and not honed properly.

All kinds of communication, which is neither spoken nor written is termed as Non-verbal Communication.
It is not a substitute for verbal communication. It actually enhances the verbal communication if used properly and in line with the context of the meeting.

Personal Appearance, Facial Expression, Posture, Gesture, Eye Contact and Touch are all part of Non Verbal communication. Along with these the personal appearance, the Attire, use of deodorants, perfumes used and tangible accessories like chains, bangles, bracelets, cuff links, ties etc also become an integral part of this very important process. The type of accessory to be used or awareness of body odour is as important as what you speak or write to the client (receiver). This will either make or break the deal.
In any form of communication, Eye Contact is extremely important along with the Body Posture. This is so because it complements what you wish to convey. Eyes and posture convey whether you are honest, interested, bored or cut-off from the conversation (communication process).

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Friday, May 18, 2012

What Makes an Ideal Salesman!

A salesman has always been labelled and generalised as Con Man, and dishonest. This is because of a few dishonest men in this very noble profession who have tarnished it. It is one of the noblest professions in the world because a salesman helps you taking the right decision for yourself. He is actually your friend in need! He helps you in going through your needs and wants and then helps you to choose the product or service which will suit your requirements and budget.
A salesman job is the most difficult. He has to go out there and sell the company’s products and /or services and get revenue for his organisation. Sales the department which actually, physically converts all the effort of an organisation which has conceived, produced, packaged and marketed the product.
Hence, the salesperson becomes a very important person in the entire chain of the organisation.
He has to have a following traits/ qualities in order to become a successful salesperson.
1-         Self Confident
A sales person must be a confident of himself. This means that he must know his product/ service thoroughly. He must be knowledgeable of his competition and the strengths and weaknesses of his own product/ service as well as his competitors’. He must know his target audience or his customer profile. If he is not aware of who, his prospective customers are, he will never be able to sell effectively. For example, If the prospect, he has approached does not have need for the product/ service or if the product /service is as per his needs or wants, but he does not have the required wherewithal (disposable income) to pay, the efforts will be in vain and the sale will not happen.
2-         Empathy
A sales person must always be empathetic towards the clients’ moods and emotion. He must try to think from the clients’ perspective and react.
Suppose during a sales call, a client gets news that some calamity has occurred in his office or premises, it would be help if the sales person understands the situation and asks the customer whether it would be better to stop the discussion there and then if the situation warrants it or does he want to continue. If the customer says that it will be handled by his staff (HR/ Admin dept) and that they can continue, only then he should go further. It will help in strengthening his customer relationship and help him later to close the deal effectively.

3-         Problem Solver
Every salesperson must be a solution provider to the prospective client. He must help the client in visualising how his product or service will help increase the productivity of his firm by saving, time, energy, money, manpower or all of them in some form or the other. 
4-         ‘Never say Die!’ Attitude
An effective and successful sales person has a ‘Never say Die!’ attitude at all times. He is eternally optimistic in nature.
He must be able to take a 99 “No’s” and finally get that 100th yes and clinch the deal. Every sales call is different because every prospect is different and therefore the next call will also be different than the previous one. Even if the earlier calls have not been converted successfully, he should say to himself, one more call, and I will close this one. Try and try until you succeed.
Try different ways and means, think laterally, and tread the path which others haven’t tried before. There is always a better way, a different way to close the deal.
Be Successful, Be different, Keep Trying! That’s the Mantra!

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