Is real time business communication dead?

Innovations in communication technology are dramatically changing the business landscape.

We can now interact with prospective clients worldwide using professional social networking sites like LinkedIn, emails and instant messaging. Though the message delivery is instant, responses are often delayed. Is this suspended communication killing good old-fashioned real time conversation?

Rules of engagement

It’s easy to send an email or instant message to a prospective customer rather than calling them directly to discuss a potential business opportunity, but this message may sit in an overflowing inbox for days, weeks or even months. And while you may be lucky and eventually receive a response from your prospective client, the chances are they’ll get distracted with something more pressing leaving your email by the wayside.

Does this mean that they weren’t interested? Not necessarily. What this means is that you failed to engage your customer. The content of the message itself may have been of interest, but you did what Mr. Average does and took the easy, lazy route rather than picking up the phone and engaging in a traditional, real time call.

Where’s the momentum?

What you have to offer your customer is great. No, better than great, it’s fantastic. If you’re a sales person and you don’t believe that, your customer certainly won’t. You have your fantastic proposition and you’ve found your perfect prospective client, but what do you do next?

Suspended communication techniques like emailing, optimistically connecting on LinkedIn, following on Twitter or linking on another social network, are slow and scarcely productive. Communication is delayed and all momentum drains out, killing a potentially great opportunity to close business.

Real time communication allows you to establish and capitalise on this impetus. Picking up the phone or video calling will allow you to respond instantly, swiftly handling objections and progressing the opportunity further. This will save you a great deal of time, strengthening your pipeline as well as­­ your relationship with the customer.

It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.

Text-based communication is a lot more restrictive than you might think. Non-verbal communication plays a significant role in effectively transferring any message, something that emailing or messaging simply cannot express. Dr. Albert Mehrabian conducted a range of studies and found that only 7% of any message is conveyed through the words themselves. Vocal elements such as intonation, rhythm, speaking style and even emotion can account for up to 38% of the message, whilst physical and body language factors such as gestures, postures and facial expressions can be responsible for 55%.

Putting this into context, an email or message provides the greatest opportunity for miscommunication and picking up the phone significantly reduces this risk. The Holy Grail of business communication is the classic face-to-face meeting, which allows proper human interaction and accurate communication of your intended meaning.

Don’t take the easy route

In summary, the secret to effective business communication is simple: Don’t be afraid to communicate. It sounds simple, but it’s amazing how much this is ignored in today’s business environment. Networking remotely using social networks, emails and other platforms, which provide an opportunity for your client to delay their response, is too easy and largely ineffective.

Engaging with your customer from the outset, though harder initially, will pay dividends in the long run for you and your business.