Anyone who is in the sales industry knows the importance of how you communicate to a potential buyer. One false move, or should I say word, and you may have lost their business forever. Truth be told, however, the way you talk can affect every aspect of your business, whether you’re in sales or not.

Here are some ways you might be turning customers away because of how you talk:

Bad Grammar
This is the most obvious and common problem, which can often convey to others that you lack intelligence. Yet, it is the most difficult flaw in speech to change. Using “good” when you should be saying “well” is extremely noticeable, but also extremely hard to unlearn.

I honestly feel that parents these days don’t step up enough and teach their children the correct way to speak at a young age, not realizing that they are allowing a laziness that, down the road, may adversely affect their child’s career.

There is one false move that is often made unknowingly by many people, and that’s to end a sentence with a preposition (words like as, in, on, by, to or since). Grammatically, prepositions are supposed to be placed prior to a noun or pronoun, so ending a sentence with one is incorrect.

But, this is a common grammatical bad habit from childhood, which even I am guilty of. In fact, you could probably find that I’ve done so in a couple of posts (oops), which is really sad since I have a degree in English Literature. And it’s unfortunately ingrained in most of us as okay at a young age, and even after a college degree I still mess up. It is just something we should all be aware of and watch ourselves.

Too Majestic
What I mean by this is talking over people’s heads by using uncommon vocabulary (like those who enjoy learning and using a new word from the dictionary each day) and overly emphasized proper grammar. There has to be a balance between saying things correctly and using common local colloquialisms (like using “ya’ll” in the south) to keep whoever is listening engaged in what you have to say.

If you constantly talk to everyone as though you were a scholar of the English (or whatever) language, no one will want to listen. They will reach the same conclusion as if you were using bad grammar – that you’re a moron without any social skills.

Too Technical
With any industry there are terms that are only known and used by those within the industry. The average Joe likely won’t understand what in the world you’re talking about when you try to tell him that you feel like it would be best to proceed with filing a Trial De Novo in his case (going with the legal field here because it’s what I’m familiar with).

Instead, you would tell him that you think it would be best to ask the court for a “new trial.” The acronym KISS (keep it simple, stupid) most definitely applies. Keep it in laymen’s terms when discussing your industry with the general public.

If you’ve realized that you might be guilty of committing one or more of these communication flaws, find someone you can trust and rely on to help you recognize when you are making the errors.

The only thing you can truly do is vow to fix the problem, be self aware and practice. People will notice the effort and commend you, either with a pat on the back, or by really listening to what you have to say.

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2 Responses to “The Adverse Effects of Poor Communication”

1. Anonymous says:
   

   I feel that I’m better when I’m communicating with new people

   Posted October 21st, 2007 @ 9:47 am
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2. Anonymous says:
   

   Your section on “bad grammar” contains some myths about English grammar that really should be put to rest.

   OK, the “good”/”well” thing… Certainly, there is a bit of category slippage going on here, which one might be tempted to call “bad grammar” if one was so inclined. Note, however, that with certain verbs (called “verbs of incomplete predication” in traditional grammar), the choice is meaningful (’She looks good’, as opposed to ‘She looks well’). I guess you are referring to the use of “good” as a full adverb, like “Hold ‘im down, good!”. Sure, that we could argue about…

   But it’s really the preposition thing that I wanted to reply to.

   The term “preposition” (literally “placed before”) comes to us from traditional grammar based on Greek and more particularly Latin philology. Prepositions in Romance languages like Latin are indeed restricted to coming before nouns. This is not true (and has never been true) for Germanic languages like English. We have things called “verb particles” which look like prepositions, but which are entirely capable of ending up on the ends of sentences. This is not a grammatical “error”, it’s a completely natural part of English grammar and always has been. (Shakespeare does it all the time!) All Germanic languages work like this: we have two or three part verbs (’tie up’, ‘put out’, ‘give in’, ‘put up with’) sometimes called “phasal verbs” whose little second/third parts - erroneously called ‘prepositions’ by some - are free to separate from their partner and can easily end up in final position in a sentence. ‘Please put the garbage out’, ‘What time will he come down?’

   Winston Churchill (apocryphally?) summed it up nicely when, having been erroneously corrected on this very point by a junior clerk, is supposed to have retorted “Insubordination is something up with which I shall not put!”

   ‘Nuff said!

   Posted September 9th, 2008 @ 5:26 am
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