BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Communication is life blood of a business organization. No organization
can succeed or progress, build up reputation, and win friends and
customers without effective communication skills.

In fact successful communication is the bed rock of ground and pleasant

relationship between the seniors and sub ordinates, between the
workers and the management, between the customers and the sellers
good and efficient system of communication helps in better coordination
and efficient control. It results in clear understanding, good production,
healthy climate within the organization willing cooperation among the
various levels, if businessman can communicate effectively and
successfully. Profit and prosperity shall knock at the doors of firm,
organization or shop keeper through effective system of communication.

Poor and ineffective communication system may result in

mismanagement, bad business and sure show down. Communication
can build or destroy trust depending or use of words. A poorly worded
message or talk may result in communication break down. On the other
hand planned and well meant communication helps in better service,
removes misunderstanding and doubts; builds up good will, promotes
business and earns favorable references. It is the key to success in
business and trade. A good businessman believes in the saying, 'take
care of communication and success shall take care of itself.'
Success of any business lies in effective communication. The more effective the communication
is, the better the results are. Communication is effective when it produces desired action in the
reader or audience. Effective communication is essential for the survival and progress of a
business concern.

The ability to communicate effectively is an essential quality of a businessman. A person may

be intelligent but he may not be able to get his message across to others. Ideas are generally
common but the ability to convey then to others is rare.

A successful communicator exercises a good effect on the minds of his readers, employees,
supervisors, customers, suppliers, investors and business associates. They form a good
impression of the company and the communicator. He builds the goodwill of the company he
represents. Goodwill of a person or company attracts customers and wins friends.

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Therefore, the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing is an asset for the
communicator. Through successful correspondence, he leads his business to success. The
letters, reports, memos etc. He writes to the people demonstrate his ability or lack of it.

A successful communicator is able to run the affairs of a business house. He can plan well and
control the working of his organization. He has the skill to transfer his policies, decisions,
objectives and job instructions to the persons working with him at all levels. So this skill is quite
essential for a businessman to perform his managerial functions.

Success of any business lies in effective communication. The more

effective the communication is, the better the results are.
Communication is effective when it produces desired action in the reader
or audience. Effective communication is essential for the survival and
progress of a business concern.

The ability to communicate effectively is an essential quality of a

businessman. A person may be intelligent but he may not be able to get
his message across to others. Ideas are generally common but the
ability to convey then to others is rare.

A successful communicator exercises a good effect on the minds of his

readers, employees, supervisors, customers, suppliers, investors and
business associates. They form a good impression of the company and
the communicator. He builds the goodwill of the company he represents.
Goodwill of a person or company attracts customers and wins friends.

Therefore, the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing

is an asset for the communicator. Through successful correspondence,
he leads his business to success. The letters, reports, memos etc. He
writes to the people demonstrate his ability or lack of it.

A successful communicator is able to run the affairs of a business

house. He can plan well and control the working of his organization. He
has the skill to transfer his policies, decisions, objectives and job
instructions to the persons working with him at all levels. So this skill is
quite essential for a businessman to perform his managerial functions.

SOBIA ALI WASSAN

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

There is a need to make sure that every business deal is attended to

promptly. Business communication encompasses not only

communicating with external contacts but also with

employees within the organization. This will aid the

business in being well-organized and every matter whether it is a
problem, an inquiry or a sales letter will be attended to properly and
promptly.

It does not mean that only a client’s inquiry should be responded

promptly but also feedbacks or problems arising inside and outside

the business as well. This is done to have a balance within

the internal and external factors, especially in relation to dealing with

people, whether they are employees or other external

contacts.

Types of Business Communication

It is very important to know the type of business communication used
in order to know the specific etiquettes and standards to use in a
specific situation. Here are some of the communications used in
business.

Electronic Communication comprises different modes of

communication out from the traditional way. It includes e-mail, fax,
teleconferencing and voicemail. This is used for external contacts and

for people within the business organization.

Employment Communication is a mode of communication used for

employees but specifically for accepting applicants for a job.

It includes application letter, follow-up communications, interview and
resumes.

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Nonverbal Communication is a mode of communication that uses

body language and other means of communicating without the use of
uttering words. It includes body language, expression, gestures,
professional appearance, time or space.

Verbal Communication is a mode of communication that uses the

uttering of words in communicating to external contacts and

employees. It includes feedback, instructions,

presentations, and telephone.

Written Communication is a mode of communication that requires

writing in order to communicate. It includes letters, memos, proposals
and reports.

Organizational communication
barriers
There are six crunching barriers to organizational communication:

• Poor structure to the communication

• A weak delivery

• The use of the wrong medium to deliver the communication

• A mixed message

• The message is delivered to the wrong audience

• A distracting environment

Let's consider each of these barriers to business communication in turn...

Poor stPoor structure to the communication

As mentioned in Essentials of Business Communication, the structure of a communication is an

essential factor in how well a business communication is received by an audience.

It doesn't matter whether that audience is an audience of one or one million, good structure is

essential if a communication is to be 'heard' amongst the advertising and marketing 'noise' of today's

business environment.

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

So a poor structure to your message or delivery is therefore a major barrier to effective

communication.

ructure to the coWeak delivery

It doesn't matter how important or impressive the subject of your communication is, if you deliver it

without any 'punch' you will not get as many people to take your desired action as you would like.

A weak delivery is like the very funny joke with the badly-told punchline --- it is not as funny or as

memorable as you remember the original to be.

My mother is a shocker when it comes to jokes. I remember one evening she was telling me a joke

and, having successfully gotten all the way through the lead up, couldn't remember the punchline. She

fumbled and stumbled her way, but couldn't get me to laugh. I couldn't see what the joke was. So she

rang the friend who told her the joke and got HER to tell me the punchline. What was

incomprehensible and unfunny suddenly became extremely funny.

It's all in the delivery.

It is important to not get confused between delivery and presenter. I know of one English

businessman, Richard Branson, who is a shy and reticent public speaker. Yet I have seen audiences

hang on his every word.

mmThe use of the wrong medium

You have to announce a temporary hold on non-essential stationery spending in your department. How

do you communicate this?

Believe it or not, I know of one company who were seriously considering holding a major public

meeting about this, with the department head having to get up in front of the entire department in the

staff restaurant and explain why her staff couldn't order disposable fountain pens for a while.

I know of one group that were thinking of rolling out a small internal initiative via an expensive multi-

media cd-rom, one to be given to each member of staff.

In the first case a simple memo would have sufficed; in the second a simple announcement on their

intranet would equally have gotten the message across.

unicationA mixed message

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It is very hard for an audience -- whether an audience of 1 or 1 million -- to understand your

communication if you unnecessarily obfuscate.

What?

If you deliberately, or otherwise, confuse them. A HUGE barrier to business communication is the

ability of 'business-speak' to confuse and alienate its audience.

It does this in two ways:

1. By using terms and phrases that are 'jargon', the meaning of which are possibly recognised but

probably not fully understood

2. By trying to 'save time/paper' by rolling several different communication messages into one.

The wrong audience

I once attended a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, of the British Psychological Society.

Fortunate to have been presenting a paper there, I was nevertheless distracted by the very large

number of other presenters, many of whom were presenting papers that, on reading their paper's titles

in the Proceedings, looked really interesting.

With a couple of hours to spare before I was due to present, I picked what appeared to be an

interesting presentation, and sauntered casually into the lecture room.

So you can imagine my dismay when I found, about five minutes into the presentation, that the title

was a 'trick' title, a play-on-words by the author that no doubt struck him as funny and clever, but

struck me as dastardly.

As Robert Cialdini would say, the presenter was a 'smuggler' of influence. That is, he used a 'hot' topic

of the day to entice an audience in, only to then present to them something that had VERY little

relevance to that 'hot' topic.

A distracting environment
There's nothing worse than trying to communicate your message to a group of people who cannot

'hear' you.

Whether their inability to 'hear' you is because of:

• your voice not being strong enough

• too many others talking in the room at the same time

• police and ambulance sirens outside the venue

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

• too many phone calls coming in to their office while they're trying to read your memo

• interruptions while they try to read your report

• incoming emails keep popping up while they are reading your web-based communication

• their minds are full of other pressing matters

• they are supposed to be somewhere else at that moment

• their mobile phone keeps ringing, or vibrating if they've set it to 'silent' instead of switching it

off

• their internet connection is slow

• their internet connection keeps dropping out

• there are too many interesting people to look at while they are on the bus trying, in vain, to

concentrate on your report (which is what is happening to me as I sit here on a bus trying to

write this -- there is a 'domestic' happening between a married couple and it makes for

fascinating, if voyueristic, watching!)

• the room's airconditioning is not working and the room is hot and stuffy

• the room's heating is not working and the room is cold and clammy

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