Improve Your Communications With Clients, Prospects, and Puppies

Greetings!

My wife and I were almost free and clear. Just one more year, and our youngest daughter would be entering high school, where we hoped other interests would distract her from her life-long obsession with getting a puppy. Then my wife met a two-pound "Morkie" (Maltese and Yorkie mix) at the pet store. Pogo, as he later came to be known, immediately won her heart. With her once-firm resolve against dog ownership now shattered, the final decision was mine. Would I be the family hero or the goat? You can probably guess the answer.

In the meantime, learn how you can improve your communications with clients, prospects, and puppies as well as five embarrassing grammar and spelling mistakes to avoid.

p.s. You can see a photo of Pogo, our ferocious beast, on the Bull's-eye Financial Communications blog.

Improve Your Communications With Clients, Prospects, and Puppies

Four weeks into the brave new world of dog ownership, I've learned a few things I believe can help anyone trying to communicate any message to any audience. Without further ado, here are three ways to communicate effectively with clients, prospects, and puppies:

Assume Your Audience Knows Little if Anything.

As the classic Far Side cartoon illustrates, you cannot assume people (or dogs) understand what you're saying. Whether you are trying to explain the merits of diversifying across multiple asset classes to an individual investor or just what the heck a turnkey asset management program is to a financial advisor, keep it simple. Don't assume people understand industry jargon and buzzwords. Write short sentences. Like this.

what people say

Tone and Style Can Be As Important As Content.

If I ask Pogo in a mumbled monotone if he wants a treat, he gives me a puzzled look. If I ask the same question with a rising inflection and a smile, he does a crazy dance. While it's unlikely that your audience will ever respond to anything you say or write with a crazy dance, paying more attention to your tone can help you communicate more effectively.

When you're meeting in person or talking on the phone, posture, facial expressions, and tone will obviously play a big role in how your messages are received. But what can you do to improve the tone of your written communications?

Try writing with the same style you use to speak. For some strange reason, many of us turn into boring history professors when we need to put something in writing. We might be engaging speakers or presenters, but when we need to write a letter to a client, an article for a newsletter, or describe our services in a brochure, we adopt a formal, detached tone that bores our readers (assuming we can hold their attention long enough to read our message).

Try to inject some enthusiasm, humor, or storytelling into your communications. If you struggle to do this on your own, hire someone else to do it for you.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

How many times do you have to tell a puppy "don't bite!" before he gets the message? Apparently, many times. The same holds true for your target audience.

If you're trying to motivate 401(k) plan participants to rebalance their accounts or financial advisors to invest in your mutual fund, you may need to hit them with the same or similar message many times before it sinks in. You don't need to come up with a completely new topic each time. For example, if you have a monthly or quarterly newsletter, review past issues to come up with fresh angles on familiar topics.

Repeating common themes will increase the odds of communicating your key messages. Consider the Geico "gecko" and the e*Trade baby ads on TV. While these ads may be funny, you probably would have forgotten all about them if you had not seen them 8,600 times on TV.

If you lack the resources or the time to create compelling communications for your clients or prospects, we can help. Call 774-719-2324, visit our website, or email us.

Five Embarrassing Grammar and Spelling Mistakes To Avoid

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While I'm a big proponent of communicating in a personal, somewhat casual style, I'm also a stickler for grammar and spelling. That's why, whether it's my own communications or a client's project, I always read the final draft out loud to myself. Not only does this result in a better flow, it helps me spot repetitive words and phrases, as well as grammatical mistakes. Here are five* of the most common mistakes many of us make:

1. Your vs. You're

"Your" is a possessive pronoun, as in "your car" or "your puppy." "You're" is a contraction for "you are," as in "you're screwing up your writing by using your when you really mean you are."

2. It's vs. Its

"It's" is a contraction of "it is" or "it has." "Its" is a possessive pronoun, as in "The puppy chewed on its bone." Here is an easy rule of thumb. Repeat your sentence out loud using "it is" instead of "its." If the sentence sounds odd, "its" (without the apostrophe) is likely the correct choice.

3. There vs. Their

This one seems to trip up everyone occasionally, often as a pure typo. "There" refers to a place ("it gets late early out there") or as a pronoun ("there is a rose in Spanish Harlem"). "Their" is a plural possessive pronoun, as in "their accounts" or "their statements."

4. Affect vs. Effect

I still have to pause and think this one through in order to get it right. As with any of the other common mistakes people make when writing, taking that moment to get it right makes the difference.

"Affect" is a verb, as in "Your ability to communicate clearly will affect your income immensely." "Effect" is a noun, as in "The effect of poorly written client communications could damage your credibility."

By thinking in terms of "the effect," you can usually sort out which is which, because you can't stick a "the" in front of a verb. While some people do use "effect" as a verb ("a strategy to effect a settlement"), they are usually lawyers, and you should therefore ignore them if you want to write like a human being. While we're on the subject, avoid using "impact" when what you really mean is "effect."

5. Relying Too Heavily on Spell Check

This is not a grammatical error, but rather an error of judgment. Don't allow a computer to make you look silly. Spell check will not notify you when you type "manger" instead of "manager," "lose" instead of "loose," or "pubic" instead of "public." Again, read your work out loud and you'll prevent these embarrassing mistakes.

*note: some of these ideas were adapted from a column written by Brian Clark of www.Copyblogger.com.