4.4 Key Takeaways & Terms

• Communication is vital in selling and is the foundation of relationships is best used for communicating information.
• Effective communication is clear, concise, brief, specific, and timely.
• Creating your message is only one half of communication; listening is the other half. Being a good listener improves your ability to be a good communicator.
• There are three types of communication: verbal, which involves speaking to one or many people to convey a message; nonverbal, which includes body language and other observations about people; and written, which includes a message that is read in hard copy, e-mail, text message, instant message, Facebook, Twitter, blog, or other Internet-based written communication.
• Verbal communication provides the opportunity to change communication with inflection, or the emphasis put on certain words in a conversation or presentation.
• Nonverbal communication provides additional insights into the sending and receiving of a message through gestures, eye contact, proximity, and other elements of body language.
• Your handshake can be one of the most powerful elements of nonverbal communication and sets the tone for the meeting or interview ahead.
• Written communication includes printed words designed to communicate a message on paper or a screen and is more permanent than verbal or nonverbal communication.
• Written communication is best used for factual information, whereas verbal communication is best used for emotional topics or those that require discussion.
• The best method of communication depends on your customer’s preferences and on the situation.

Business cards are a branding tool for your company and a way to stay in touch with your customers and other people in your network.

Channel: a sensory route on which a message travels, to the receiver for decoding.

Communication: the exchange of information or ideas between sender and receiver.

Communication model describes exactly how communication is sent and received and provides clues as to how to improve the effectiveness of communication.

Decoding is the process of turning communication into thoughts.

Empathy is about demonstrating that you care about the other person’s situation.

Encoding is the process of turning thoughts into communication.

Mehrabian formula: an equation that is frequently used to define the relative impact of verbal and nonverbal messages based on experiments of communication of feelings and attitudes.

Nonverbal communication includes body language and other observations about people.

Standard model of communication: model that includes major processes and functions categorized as encoding, decoding, response, and feedback. In addition, the model accounts for noise, which symbolizes anything that might disrupt the sending or receiving of a message.

Verbal communication involves speaking to one or many people to convey a message.

Written communication includes a message that is read in hard copy, e-mail, text message, instant message, social media, blog, or other Internet-based written communication.