Whether you think your communication skills are excellent, average or poor, one way to keep improving is to follow the Six C's of Compelling Communication. They are, Clear, Concise, Correct, Contextual, Concrete and Caring.
Becoming adept at harnessing the Six C's also makes you a more compelling individual and not just a compelling communicator.
Let’s take a look at each of the Six C's, and I'll discuss them more in the context of sales communication, though whatever your role, you'll relate to the tips.
1.CLEAR
Obvious, apparent, understandable, plain, unambiguous, evident
Compelling people express their ideas simply.
Your audience is overwhelmed by too many choices and conflicting information, so they look to you for guidance and clarity. Lack of clarity in your communication can breed confusion, doubt and mistrust. You can also put yourself in a legal bind when you're unclear. Here’s how to improve clarity: Use simple words, minimise fluff, guff, geek, legalise and weasel words, cut overly long sentences in half, use sub-headings to chunk down paragraphs, and write shorter paragraphs. Also, review your grammar and spelling to ensure that what you write is unambiguous.
2.CONCISE
Brief, pithy, crisp, short, succinct, neat
Compelling people get to the heart of the message quickly.
Think about the avalanche of information your audience has to contend with daily. Good business writing gets to the point quickly using the least amount of words required. If your business communications are succinct, your audience will silently thank you. And best of all, your message will be noticed, paid attention to, and remembered. Here’s a tip, once you finish drafting something, cut the text by 30-50%, whether writing a lead generation email, an executive summary in a sales proposal or the technical response in a tender. When you practise writing fewer words, you sound crisp and confident and your ideas glow brighter on the page.
3.CORRECT
Precise, specific, accurate, exact, complete, true
Compelling people only offer essential information.
People that know a lot, have years of professional experience or specialise in a discipline tend to over-share. (We can't help it, it comes from a good place - we want to pass on our knowledge). But know this: your audience doesn’t want to know everything you know. They just want you to enlighten them on what they’re interested in even if it’s only a sliver of what you know.
Think of yourself as a library filled with many volumes of text. People don’t want your library of knowledge. They only want to review page 68, paragraphs 1 to 5 in chapter 2 of Volume 1.
So, if you’re an expert, check that you’re not over-explaining or getting caught in the weeds. Be precise.
The opposite of being too detailed is being vague or generic and this isn't good either. Your message lands shallow and is instantly forgotten. Plus it can come off as untrustworthy. So, add some substance like research, an illustration or a story to prove you know what you're talking about. Be exact.
4.CONTEXTUAL
Relevant, applicable, related, significant, important
Compelling people know how to bring others into the story.
You can say something interesting, but if it has little relevance to your audience’s situation, your words will fall short. Your messages must relate to your audience’s world (i.e., industry and unique situation). In sales, your message must powerfully connect to your buyers’ pain or desires, mission and vision.
Salespeople and subject matter experts often struggle to contextualise their solution for a particular buyer because they don’t know the buyer well enough. But if you want to be viewed as a compelling communicator, you must know how to contextualise your story or narrative. If you don’t know your audience, try at least to imagine what it would be like to be them.
Here's an example of contextualising your message though not in a sales presentation scenario: I was asked to present to a cohort of 200 grads during their two-day onboarding training. I had to talk about the importance of communication skills in navigating corporate life. I thought to myself, "what can I say that's relevant to my audience?" I’m more than twice their age, and I know a fair bit about corporate communications, but most of it wouldn’t apply to this room of young people.
So, before I gave my communication tips, I told them a true and vulnerable story about how my Dad gave me a harsh dressing down about my shyness. I was 14 years old, an introvert doing her best to avoid talking to people. While the grads I was presenting to were older than my teenage self, they were still young between 21 and 23 years of age, and many weren't confident communicators. Offering them a younger, awkward version of myself made them feel I got them because they could see I saw myself in them. I had been on the journey, they were now on.
5.CONCRETE
Real, tangible, solid, actual, definite
Compelling people keep it real.
The literal definition of concrete is “a rock-like mass.” You can see it, stand next to it, sit on it or wrap your arms around it. So make your persuasive argument or narrative so real to your audience that their minds-eye sees it like a movie playing in full colour.
In B2B sales, this means you express value to buyers in tangible ways where you apply solid logic and reasoning.
You also offer evidence-based benefits demonstrating that what you propose will realistically work in their world. Compelling communicators also know how to build a solid case for envisaged benefits.
And the most potent way to make things real for your buyer is to storify your solutions or services. Stories help shape and materialise abstract technical concepts. And when your solution story encapsulates business change or transformation, the solution you offer feels tangible and probable.
The best concrete arguments combine data, insights, financial figures and tension-filled stories.
6.CARING
Kind, thoughtful, helpful, concerned, attentive, cherishing, minding
Compelling people are kind.
Your communications should express that you care about your audience and what’s important to them (and not just what’s important to you, like meeting your sales quota).
If an audience senses that you don’t care about them, they won’t trust or respect you and will tag you as just another salesperson flogging product.
Of course, this isn’t true of most of the sales and pre-sales people I’ve worked with. They care about their buyer audience but sometimes their communication skills let them down.
I think salespeople in B2B IT are good to great at verbal communication but often struggle to craft written messages that sound thoughtful and kind. Last week’s article mentioned that many sales proposals are stuck in the 1980s way of writing which leans toward a formal style that can come off as distant and uncaring.
A very simple tweak you can make to your sales message so it reads 'caring' is to change your company name to ‘we’ and replace your customer’s company name with ‘you’ or ‘your’. Also, count how many times you use ‘we’ or your company name versus how many times you use ‘you’ or your buyer’s company name. If you’ve used your company name more than your buyer’s, it means you're talking too much about your company, product or service and not enough about “what’s in it for them?” So go back and rewrite your message showing a clear linkage of your solution's value to their business. If you do, your buyer will feel you care about them more than about you.
Finally, speak to buyers' feelings, and appeal to their emotions. Just because it's B2B IT doesn't mean your buyer doesn't have strong emotions attached to their decision to invest (or not) in technology products or services. Show you care by addressing their emotions (i.e., fears, doubts, pride, etc.). Read this article to help with that.
Conclusion
There you have it, the Six C’s of Compelling Communication in B2B IT. I hope it guides you in all your sales or business messaging whether written or spoken.
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