The ability to get great results when communicating with your clients, prospects, and staff requires that you have the right message for your audience, that your message addresses what’s important to them, and that you deliver the message in a powerful, effective manner.

In this blog post, we’re going to cover the 7 simplest communication strategies designed to help you and your organization confidently communicate the right message to the right audience at the right time. In other words, increase sales.

Strategy #1: Always take the time to prepare for your communication situation

The need to prepare for communication is not news. And, so many (ahem, I’m talking to you salespeople) go into situations where the stakes are high with little or no preparation and they “wing it” GASP! Let me be blunt. Regardless of whether you’re an individual planning for a meeting or a professional getting ready to speak to a large group, never go into a...

Have you ever heard of the term “drive-by communication”?

In a nutshell, drive-by communication is communication that’s squeezed in between areas of our lives without focused attention. This type of communication is quick, lacks direction, and is ineffective. 

No matter what industry you work in, drive-by communication can be detrimental to your success as a communicator, a leader, or an effective team member. If practiced frequently, drive-by communication can lead to a sharp decline in results in your conversations, presentations, sales pitches, the list goes on.

It’s important to recognize when this type of communication occurs so that you can nip it in the bud. And the good news is that there’s a simple mindset shift you can implement immediately to quit the drive-by communicating and start seeing immediate results.

First, let’s begin with the issues in drive-by communication and how to recognize if you might be behind the wheel...

No matter what industry you work in, your career plays a huge role in your life. We all spend a great deal of time at our jobs, and unfortunately, they often contribute to some of the stress we experience throughout the day. Whether it’s relentless emails, Zoom calls or meetings – every day we’re bombarded with information and data exchange, and it can be a challenge to remain focused and present.

According to Domo’s Data Never Sleeps 5.0 Report, there are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day (1). In other words, whether it’s our work, social media, tv, or anything else – we’re exposed to an overwhelming amount of data.

So what are we to do? Well, mindfulness is a great place to start.

In this post, you’ll learn some of the basics of mindfulness and a few steps you can take right now to be a more present, happy version of yourself while you’re on the clock.

What is mindfulness, anyways?

The word mindfulness gets tossed...

Wondering how to deliver a more effective presentation that gets results?

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably found that the outcomes of your presentations aren’t always exactly as you’d hoped.

What many people don’t realize is that they hold the power to deliver an effective presentation versus a not-so-effective one. And there are two distinct communication strategies that allow them to get consistent results.

Strategy #1: Evaluate the purpose of your presentation

We had a discussion with a client several years back about different types of presentations. This client made the distinction between persuasive and informational presentations, and a member of our team interjected with the opinion that the purpose of all presentations is to persuade. Our client brought up the important point that something like a “how-to presentation” isn’t intended to persuade, but to inform.

The types of presentations we give at Connect To The...

As a company that specializes in communication coaching, we have a big responsibility to give important feedback to people who are often in vulnerable positions (one of the things we do is presentation coaching after all). It’s always been our intention to give this feedback in a way that’s empowering while providing practical ways to improve.

We’ve been asked many times by our clients, how is it that you can give this feedback and keep the recipient feeling whole? How is it that you can have these tough and uncomfortable conversations and they end up thanking you?

So, here’s the deal – we follow a specific set of rules and if we don’t deviate from them, it ends up being a positive interaction. 

If you’re a team leader, manager, or head honcho, it’s guaranteed that you’ll be required to give some feedback to an employee at some point, and it might not be easy. If you follow these suggestions, it’ll go a lot smoother...

What do you think of when you hear the term “spring cleaning”?

If you’re like most people, your mind might instantly go to cleaning out your closet, organizing your pantry, or getting rid of items around your home that you no longer need.

And while we highly recommend all of those things (hey, who doesn’t love a good closet declutter!), spring cleaning can also be applied to many other areas in your life.

Given the fact that we’re a communications company, we thought it would be appropriate to provide you with some simple steps you can take to spring clean your communication. Because yes, even your communication can use a tidy-up from time to time.

Here are 5 ways to declutter your communication (in your business and personal life) right now.

1. Simplify your call to action in presentations and meetings

Did you know that the average person will only remember a maximum of three takeaways from a presentation? That means that if your Call To Action (CTA)...

A few weeks ago, we published a blog called 4 Simple and Effective Ways to Stay on Track with Your New Years Goals. In that blog, we spoke a lot about how to accomplish goals once you have them, and also about how to course-correct if you feel like you’ve been de-railed.

This week, we will introduce a fresh way of looking at goals and provide more insight into the “before” part of goal setting. Specifically, how to make the distinction between goals and tasks. They might appear the same on the surface, yet they’re very different and our recommendation is that you approach them in different ways.

The key attribute that distinguishes a true goal from a task is the emotional connection we have with the result. With goals, we have a deeper emotional connection that inspires us toward achievement. 

As an example, and for the purpose of this blog, I’ll use a “goal” that just about everyone has had at one point or another...

One of the most under-used resources in business is our existing client base.

We tend to get into the routine of daily or weekly workflow with clients where there’s recurring revenue and possibly even testimonials and referrals. Yet once they settle in as clients, most of us don’t tap into the market and sales intelligence within our own client base.

Often the missed opportunity is to find out and understand why our clients decided to do business with us in the first place and why they continue to work with us and send new business our way. 

This may seem like an obvious thing to do, but I have noticed that very, very, very few (did I mention almost no one does this?) companies actually have talked to their clients about why they love them!

When my company creates go-to-market messages for organizations (also known as The Message Blueprint™), one of the first things we do is uncover what their clients love about them and why they continue to buy. 

We...

Last week, there was a theme in my conversations and workshops with various clients. That theme was in the arena of agreements, or more accurately, the lack of them.

Whether you’re feeling frustrated due to last-minute requests from co-workers, suppliers not meeting expectations, or clients who don’t follow through on their commitments, the issues can frequently be resolved by setting up agreements and managing them well.

Here’s a 6-step framework to follow so more of your expectations are met on a regular basis. As an exciting side note, these steps will work just as well in your personal life as they do in business situations.

1.   Set clear expectations

The starting point is for you to be clear about what your expectations are. For the most part, we operate with misspoken or unspoken expectations and then we wonder why we don’t get what we want.

What are your conditions of satisfaction? What has to happen for you to feel your expectations have been...

Have you ever had a rush of nerves before giving a presentation?

Even though public speaking and conferences look different nowadays, the nerves we experience beforehand haven’t changed. I mean, after all, we’re still speaking to groups of people — even if it is through a screen.

As a professional public speaker and presentation coach, I’ve come to know throughout my career that nerves and anxiety surrounding public speaking are completely normal, common, and aren’t something we should feel ashamed of or run away from.

In this blog post, I’m going to explain why nerves are actually a good thing and how you can use them to your advantage. I’ll also go over some of the best practices to prepare, get into the present moment, and deliver a virtual presentation more confidently and with ease.

1. Recognize that your nervousness is fuel — embrace it!

You might not realize that feeling nervous before a presentation or speech indicates that...