If you own or manage a business then you may think the most important thing you do is manufacture your product or provide your service. For the most part, you are correct. There is no arguing that. Still, your business requires more. What you make or do is part of but not the whole picture. If you want to see you business’ profits increase and to watch it grow, you also need to excel in communicating. Effective, well-worded communication within the company, as well as with clients and vendors, is critical to taking your business to the next level.
First, take a minute to think about your interoffice communications. If you’re connected on-line, by mobile device and with other technology, you already have an edge over companies that are still locked in the world of paper pushing. Of course, there are going to be occasions when printed materials are still necessary. Whether you send it via email or snail mail, you need to be sure you keep communications inside your company flowing smoothly. Some examples of areas of inter-office communications that can make or break a business include:
- Scheduling
- Product/service changes and upgrades
- Meeting notes
- Presentation materials
- Procedural manuals
- Personnel documentation
If you are deficient in your ability to communicate clearly and concisely in any of these areas, your company’s overall productivity will suffer and, sadly, so will your bottom line.
Obviously we want any communications between our business and current or potential clients to be not merely good. We want it to be great! A poorly written letter or proposal can cost you a big business deal. A wrong word or vague statement in a contract can leave you open to financial losses and perhaps expose you to the possibility of legal action. In addition to correspondence, you have to think about sales and promotional materials including, but not limited to things like:
- Your web site
- Brochures and Flyers
- Business Cards
- RFPs
Each of these needs to be well written along with being cleverly executed if you re going to stand out from your competitors and earn that new client or make that big sale.
Sadly, many companies do not spend enough time and effort thinking about effective communications with vendors. Nothing could be more critical. Whether you’re arranging for a shipment of pallets or for a courier to deliver a proposal to a prospect, you need clear, concise communication. Since more and more often, this sort of communicating will be done electronically, you need to take extra pains. After all, it’s pretty tough to refuse the shipment of five hundred pallets instead of fifty if you typed the number incorrectly.
These are just a few glaringly obvious reasons why effective and concise communication skills are crucial to growing and continuing to build up a successful business. There are so many more. You can either attempt to address any deficiencies you have in these areas inside your company or you can outsource some of the communications work to professionals who are trained in efficient and well-worded business communications. Either way, improving communications can definitely improve productivity and, in the long run, increase profits.
