Skill building is an important task that business owners engage in themselves while promoting it among their employees. Building a robust skill set across all areas of your business aids in your ability to remain nimble and adaptive in an always-changing business environment. Encouraging your staff to improve and manage their skills goes beyond just looking at measurable skills.

Encouraging your employees to develop business soft skills is a critical element that can help to drive long-term business success. These are the skills that are most evident in your daily interactions with the customer and yet are arguably the most neglected. Traveling down the road of soft-skill development does not have to be accomplished in a day, and it can be implemented gradually by focusing on these three methods of communication.

Read and Reread That E-Mail

The rumors surrounding the death of e-mail have been both presumptuous and premature. Building a solid communications structure within your business will force you to examine just how e-mail is being used within your business. E-mail is still an impactful and valuable tool in your pocket, but only if it is used to its maximum potential. And, with it being highly likely that your staff and customers have around-the-clock access to e-mail, it is imperative to use this tool to promote growth.

There are several points of improvement that can help bolster your professional e-mail style while achieving an improved response rate. Some of these points include:

• Consistency in tone – Maintaining a professional-sounding dialogue from start to finish is important. Avoid using slang terms, and avoid the temptation to mix in industry jargon or technical terms.
• Brevity – Respecting your reader’s time is an important guideline for communication. Get to the point as soon as you can, regardless of the method used.
• Tools – Leveraging tools to create consistency and eliminate embarrassing grammatical or spelling errors is a must. Using situational e-mail templates and e-mail plugins, such as Grammarly, can help you achieve a high degree of professional consistency.  avoid embarrassing grammatical or spelling errors. To develop e-mail templates for specific situations, such as responses to sales inquiries or issue-response e-mails. 

While not included in this shortlist, staying on topic cannot be overemphasized. Having a precise purpose for every e-mail you send, as well as taking into consideration the expectations of your audience, will help you in mastering the power that e-mail can provide for your business.

Phone Skills Are Still Relevant Skills

Communicating with business associates or customers sometimes requires a faster and more precise exchange of thoughts and ideas. E-mails, text messages, and instant messages can only go so far in the development of a conversation or brainstorming. Sometimes, the old-fashioned phone call is the best way to convey your points and ideas and to easily communicate with other parties to ensure that your message is not being lost or misunderstood.

While we as a society oftentimes would rather send a call to voicemail and either text or e-mail the caller back, this is both unprofessional and counterproductive. Developing a rapport with the person you are communicating with can often be accomplished more efficiently through a three-minute phone call than through several dozen e-mail exchanges. Also, a phone call allows your enthusiasm for your business and its services to be expressed in ways that are almost impossible to achieve in text, giving more power to your brand.

Adding Power to Your Elevator Speech

Everyone has an elevator speech, but not all elevator speeches are built the same. Getting a precise thought out to a potential contact within a 20- to 30-second time frame requires the efficient use of words, backed by the power of your enthusiasm. Unfortunately, many elevator speeches are delivered with a lack of confidence or passion, which can quickly undo any positive reactions to your brand and can impact your ability to sell yourself.

Developing a script is an important first step. You have 20 to 30 seconds to attract and retain the attention of another party. Your script must be highly polished and no longer than three or four sentences. It must deliver concise details about your brand, what it does, and what job it can perform for a customer. And, perhaps most challenging, it must feel and sound energized.

Once you have carefully crafted your elevator script, you must practice. Pair up your staff, or have them practice their speeches with family members or friends. The delivery can have just as much of an impact on the listener as the words themselves, so it will be important to practice body language, tone, and inflection as well. Sound confident, yet not overly so, while conveying a deep passion for the brand you are selling. Never use the word “try,” and avoid negative-sounding words such as “cannot” or “maybe.”

Develop Business Soft Skills for Long-Term Success

The development and use of business soft skills will often be the deciding factor between your business and the competition. Building a solid yet inspirational communications foundation will give your brand voice increased clarity while seamlessly broadening its reach. By establishing communication guidelines that everyone in your organization can access, the words you use become more powerful and will serve to drive more opportunity your way.