5 Strategies to Improve External Business Communication

Let’s talk about strategy. Specifically, your external communications strategy and how your messages find their way to different groups. Basic communication with your audience is a topic that is commonly covered, but dissecting, re-assessing and improving on your organization's current communication strategies is how to build better relationships with customers consistently and effectively. Using these 5 strategies, you will take your external communication to new levels and give your organization an idea of where they currently sit with business communication, where they were before and what needs to be done in the future.

1. Honesty is the best policy

Prospects and clients can sense if something is too good to be true, it’s a common skill among us. Communicate the facts, the hidden plan fees they might not know, the exclusions they aren’t aware of and any information even you think they might overlook. Gain an admirable reputation in the industry. Advise them about a more suited plan/product option and leave the decision making to your prospects or clients.

2. Use straightforward language

Using industry jargon and complicated terminology does indeed show that your organization is knowledgeable, but there is a time and place for everything. External communication isn’t the same as preparing for a board meeting. Using language that is easy to understand opens the door to a wide range of prospects from all regions and industries. Selling to prospects is challenging when they don’t understand anything you are talking about.

3. Create a dialogue

Instead of selling them a car, discuss their commute. Instead of selling them on computer features, mention the time you had a similar issue when working on a project. Instead of insisting on responding to their comments, try listening. Creating a dialogue is key for external communication and turns sales pitches into conversations with moments of opportunity. Doing this correctly will allow your product/service to speak for itself when the time comes.

4. Know your audience

Knowing your audience is vital for planning out your external communications for a number of reasons. To begin, your audience should determine what you say and how you say it. Whether it’s by region, age, buying behaviour, industry or what have you, this is the baseline of information for an external communications plan. Also, knowing your audience helps your audience know you. If they feel lost in the abundance of options to choose from, handpicking a target audience will showcase your business as a thought leader who understands a specific pain point, and has clear and concise goals.

5. Offer multiple communications mediums

““You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” - Wayne Gretzky” - Michael Scott. Much like contact information, your prospects most likely use more than one medium to retrieve information. Avoid pin-holing your external communications to just email drips, just telephone conversations, just social media, just web content, just one avenue. “You never know who’s watching” is a prime example of missing an opp due to the omission of communicating through a certain platform that only you think is useless. Make it a combination of blogs, social websites, telephone calls, email drips, PR opportunities and news releases. Don’t know where to start to get a base? Test 3 mediums, track your results and adjust accordingly.

Take the first step by improving on your business phone communications with net2phone Canada’s communication resources! Unsure about it? Don’t take it from us – let our FREE Step by Step Guide do the talking!