There are Six Foundations for Effective Communication. In this article, we’ll continue with Part 02 of this Two-Part Series, outlining the final three of the Six Foundations.

Previously, we summarized the first three Foundations as:

1.    The Ground Rules: Communicating to Persuade, Not to Manipulate.
2.    Becoming a Wordsmith: The Words We Share Matter
3.    Becoming a R.A.R2.E™ Listener: Listening with The Intent to Understand, Rather than to be Understood.
4.    Communicating with Generalizations and Transition Statements: Third-Person Sentence Structure is Key

First, Second, and Third-Person Sentence Structure, combined with Generalization and Transition Statements, is a little-known communication secret. It can practically eliminate sales resistance and have your team recommending solutions and asking for the order like never before.

Simply put, First-Person Sentence Structure is when we communicate in “I” Statements. These statements sound like, “I think you should do XYZ.” Or “I wouldn’t do XYZ.”  While there is a time and place for these, when we utilize these types of statements early on in our presentation, it contributes to us feeling and sounding like a salesperson.

Second-Person Sentence Structure is when we communicate in “You” Statements. Quite frankly, we don’t recommend ever communicating in this way. These are what we refer to as Mother-In-Law Mode or Critical Parent Mode. “You should do XYZ.” Or, “You shouldn’t do XYZ.” The more we communicate in this way, the more conflict and sales resistance we are creating for ourselves.

Third-person Generalizations remove the focus from the person we’re speaking with. They don’t feel like they’re being told what they should do, and they don’t get the impression that we’re a narcissistic know-it-all either, trying to sell them things they don’t need or want. 

Perhaps one of the things we enjoy the most about Third-Person Sentence Structure is that it allows us to leverage the Principle of Social Proof (more on that in a bit) each time we speak in this manner.

“Most of our customers in similar situations would install XYZ.” Or “Generally, our most satisfied customers have decided to add an XYZ to their system.”

These generalizations also help us to leverage the Principle of Consistency by sharing what others are doing and help to make us the Authority for being educated on similar situations while leveraging the Principle of Likeability as well.

When combined with adhering to our Ground Rules, becoming a Wordsmith, implementing our R.A.R2.E Listening, and now Third-Person Sentence Structure, we’ll no longer have that potential anxiety that many of us feel about creating conflict with our customers by being perceived as a pushy, annoying salesperson.

5.    Utilizing The Seven Principles of Persuasion

To become the most effective communicators, we also recommend utilizing The Principles of Reciprocity, Consistency, Social Proof, Likability, Authority, Scarcity, and Unity as often as possible. In 2006, I read the most comprehensive book I had ever found on the subject, Influence, by Robert Cialdini.

We can all agree that price is a factor in our business. However, we believe our responsibility is to share with the people we serve that the price is only one of many factors to consider. We’ve gone to great lengths to craft presentations that masterfully implement these other seven principles of persuasion to combat the cheap price concern.

RECIPROCITY: In many social situations, we pay back what we have received from others. The key is to be the first to give and to ensure that what we give is personalized and not expected.

CONSISTENCY: We want our beliefs and our behaviors to be consistent with our values and our self-image. We like to be consistent with the things we have previously said or done.

SOCIAL PROOF: A psychological phenomenon occurs when we copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake accepted behaviors, especially when we are uncertain. Social Proof is more powerful when we are perceived as especially knowledgeable.

LIKEABILITY: People we like tend to have more perceived credibility, care about their appearance, are similar to us, and cooperate with us.

AUTHORITY: We tend to be influenced by people in positions of authority. That’s us. When we offer valuable information, we build authority, and our customers are likely to follow our suggestions.

SCARCITY: We want more of the things we can have less of.  It’s not enough to simply share the benefits of what our prospects will gain if they choose us. We must also share what is unique about our offering and what they stand to lose if they fail to accept our proposal.

UNITY: We are inclined to say “Yes” to someone we consider one of us. 

6. The EKG Method of Performance: Tone, Cadence, Volume, and Speed

Perhaps just as important as everything we’ve outlined thus far is that how we share the words we’ve chosen will determine our results. We like to refer to this as our EKG Method of Performance.  And much like an EKG machine monitors our heart, we like to equate the same characteristics to our communication style. 

And much like an EKG signaling that we’re dead or dying when our heart flatlines, the same is true when we present with a monotone or flatline style. Our presentation is dead, our sales career is dead, and if we don’t do something to revive it, our business could be dead soon as well.

Our ability to influence, and therefore our results, will be a reflection of how well we perform our intended presentations and words, not the presentations or words themselves.  A monotone or flatlining presentation style communicates a lack of passion, energy, and enthusiasm for whatever it is that we are attempting to communicate.

So let’s chat for a moment about the different types of voice inflections, intonations, and speech cadences that are possible while using our EKG Method of Performance as a guide.

First, let’s examine The Flatline. There is certainly a time and place to be right in the middle.  However, we simply don’t want to stay there for very long … or we’re dead.

If we begin along the flatline, we can increase the emotion by bumping up our voice inflection or intonation in one of three ways. First, we can speak faster. Second, we can speak louder. And third, we can speak higher or lower with our tone.

Now, let’s also talk about volume.  There’s an entire range of volume that can be implemented, much like turning up a stereo or television from zero to 100, from a whisper, to a standard monotone, to being very loud.

Interestingly enough, we can create just as much emotion with a whisper as we can with a very loud volume. And in some cases, perhaps even more. The point is that we can create emotion by lowering our voice, lowering our tone, and slowing our pattern of speech or our cadence.

We can also create emotion by increasing our cadence, or pattern of speech, and by raising our volume. The key is not staying in any one place too long. If we’re continuously talking loud and fast, that becomes the new monotone and will lose its impact. And if we’re continuously talking low and slow, that becomes the new monotone and loses its impact.

We believe the key to any performance is to mix things up, keep the audience on their toes, and keep them guessing with an EKG Method of Performance.

CONCLUSION

Becoming an effective communicator will require consistent work and ongoing practice. Old habits will be required to be broken, and new habits will require time to develop. While these things certainly will not be easy, we believe that those who invest the time to master these skills, will find it a worthwhile endeavor.

Communicating Without Conflict, especially in a sales or influence situation, may be one of the most important skills we can master. It can open doors, close sales, and perhaps most importantly, provide a newfound confidence that many of us had come to believe was not possible for us. We encourage everyone to master these Six Foundations of Effective Communication and witness the incredible transformation in your own life, business, confidence, and relationships.

Doug Wyatt, founder of Synergy Learning Systems, is an award-winning industry expert with over 20 years of experience in home services. He's trained 5,000+ HVAC and plumbing technicians and collaborated with 1,000+ businesses. Synergy, recognized by Service Nation as a top value-adding partner, specializes in live and virtual training for call centers, service, sales, and leadership teams. Doug, a certified 7 Habits Leadership Instructor, delivers groundbreaking industry content. Contact Doug at info@synergylearningsystems.net or visit SynergyLearningSystems.net.