Poor communication is one of the most damaging elements to a business. According to a study by Project.io, at least 66% of people say they worked with a different business due to poor communication.
When you think about it, this type of reaction makes sense. Think back to the last time you had a conversation with someone and didn’t feel heard. You probably felt frustrated, exhausted, or even hurt by their lack of attentiveness. When it comes to your business, many clients can feel the same if you don’t properly address details like nonverbal cues or show you’re on the same page.
This approach means lost clients, revenue, and morale. Fortunately, miscommunication in your B2B client relationships is a problem you can solve.
As communication consultants, we have spent years researching and developing strategies to help you communicate more effectively with your clients.
What Does Miscommunication Look Like?
Before we explore effective communication skills, we need to break down what miscommunication is. The great irony here is that it’s easy to miscommunicate what miscommunication even looks like.
Everyone miscommunicates at some point. Sometimes you have to ask the speaker to explain a line of thought or repeat what they said. Ambiguous language, struggling with nonverbal cues, and cultural differences affect us all, so you don’t need to be hard on yourself.
However, an ongoing pattern of miscommunication is usually a sign of a deeper problem.
Common Mistakes Professionals Make When Communicating with Clients
Based on the observation and the research we did, failing to accommodate clients’ busy lifestyles is a common miscommunication error. The world is moving faster than ever: people are simply out of time.
They’re harried and getting pinged. Clients don’t have enough time. As a result, your client will want things done quickly. The second thing is your client has tremendous access to information in today’s world. When you can go on YouTube or surf the Internet quickly, you can find out almost any information.
The impact of this access is your clients often think they already know. Failing to navigate this bias can make it difficult to bridge their gap in understanding. Whether you’re in sales, services, customer service, or an executive, client bias and misinformation is a key barrier.
As such, you have to go in and connect with them in a powerful way. You have to earn the right to step back and understand them. You have to understand what’s happening in their world and understand what their biases are. This element can be really hard for customer-facing teams because customers want to do things quickly.
How Digital Communication Has Impacted Client Interactions
Digital communication has both improved and stagnated in today’s society. Improving miscommunication with your B2B clients begins with understanding technology’s limitations.
The Rise In Communication Channels Is A Double-Edged Sword
The good news: there are many helpful communication channels today. Slack, Teams, iMessage, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and email are just a few examples.
The bad news: everyone is being bombarded with communications today. The pandemic compounded on this communication style and also taught us that productivity doesn’t need 24/7 office attendance. However, effective communication can be hard without access to nonverbal cues or when a misunderstanding occurs.
One-Way Digital Communication Comes With Challenges
The rise in remote work has seen our communications shift immensely. Instead of face-to-face water cooler discussions, we talk over video call such as Zoom or Google Meet.
The challenge with one-way communications is a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication. There’s a big difference between watching a video recording on Loom versus listening to a person and having an ongoing dialogue. A one-on-one conversation is easier to understand intended meaning or spot nonverbal cues.
Generational Differences Also Impact Communication Styles
Cultural differences include different states, countries, and even age groups. If you think about four generations in the workforce, saying something as a Boomer might be completely different than someone from another generation may say it.
Another detail that video calls struggle with is body language. When you speak to a client, you’ll notice how people position themselves or what they’re doing. Nonverbal cues are incredibly important to communication, but they can be less impactful over impersonal recordings. Ambiguous language can look like a joke you don’t understand or a hidden meaning you miss.
Many people struggle with Zoom fatigue or video fatigue, too. When you’re on five, six or seven hours a day using video, you’re just tired. Your brain is tired and you don’t get the same type of personal interactions. We believe you have to be cognizant of that.
Step back and think about vital conversations with key constituents. How do you prepare for them differently than you did before? What communication channels did you use or how did you get across your intended meaning?
Practical Tips For Reducing Miscommunication With Clients
This hard truth will set your business on the path to growth: you may need to improve your listening skills. Many people think they’re great listeners, but they need to improve in several areas.
Fortunately, listening is a skill you can improve just like anything else. It starts with analyzing your verbal communication. We teach a method called transformational listening that is designed to foster deeper connections with your clients.
Self-Evaluate Your Listening Skills
Do you often worry about what you’ll say during a conversation? Have you ever assumed what a client may be feeling or struggling with?
This inner monologue can contribute to poor listening skills. When you’re too focused on what’s inside, you can neglect everything outside.
Ask yourself a few hard questions to self-evaluate your listening skills and better understand where you’re at. While it can be embarrassing to admit you need some work, this self-evaluation is how you grow.
Challenge Your Preconceptions About Your Listening Skills
It takes discipline to disconnect from your subconscious. The story you’re already telling yourself before stepping into a clients’ world can get in the way of listening.
Just give your client the space to be heard. Ask yourself: am I a good listener when I’m talking to a client? Do I interrupt them when they’re trying to get a thought out? Am I just checking mental boxes while they’re talking to me?
Reflecting on your behavior can reduce overly ambiguous language or help you spot when miscommunication occurs.
Sharpen Your Discipline In Listening
Discipline is a skill you build every day. Sharpening your discipline means getting comfortable asking yourself questions about how to do effective communication.
You may find that your cognitive biases prevent you from seeing life through your client’s eyes. You may also realize that you struggle to respond to nonverbal cues. Focusing on your weak areas and working on them starts with active preparation.
How To Effectively Prepare For Client Interactions
Your client is often too busy and distracted to be fully prepared for a meeting. It’s your job to meet them where they are so you can be an effective and empathetic communicator.
According to recent statistics, unproductive meetings cost businesses over $34 billion every year. We’ve noticed a lot of professionals go into meetings on the fly. As such, you should step back and spend an hour practicing for a meeting with your client. This exercise is a useful practice to understand what they need to hear and what you can accomplish.
One of the biggest challenges in today’s world is that you don’t get a second try. Work is so fast -paced and hectic that, if you mess it up, one of two things happens. You mess it up and you don’t even know about it, which we call ‘silent productivity killers’ (because several months later, they raise their ugly head).
Or in many situations, if you’re in sales, you’re out of the deal.
You don’t get a second chance. So we think that in today’s world, practice is in preparation. Taking your time to really understand what should happen in client conversations is crucial for repeat business.
Reduce Miscommunication With The Help Of C12 Advisors
The art of communication can seem impossible to grasp at times. We’re here to assure you that effective communication strategies are an investment you can make in people – and by extension – your business.
You show clients you care by targeting communication barriers and seeking mutual understanding. Many businesses deliver similar services or products to yours, but not all of them will connect with clients personally. That emotional intelligence and preparation are truly what set you apart from the rest.
You don’t have to promote effective communication alone. As communication consultants we will help you understand the role the subconscious minds plays in all of our communications. We will teach you to apply our Dynamic relationship model TM, that accounts for the fast pace of change in communications and relationships today. Applying this model to your specific relationships and conversations will turbo-charge your effectiveness with transformational listening and business Storytelling techniques. This will allow you to Connect, Understand and Inspire customers to action, faster and better than your competition, dramatically increasing your performance.
