Communicate Like a Pro

And convert prospects to leads and leads to clients [Design In-Sanity]

So, people at work tell me that I’m a natural at communicating, whether it be with leads or clients or with my coworkers. It’s hard for them to believe (and for me, too) that I was once an introvert! But wait! Me being an introvert isn’t the point here. I’m sorry for going off the track. Again. 🙄

Anyway, the art of communication is simple yet…well…slightly tricky. Like all other creative things, this needs a good blend of naturalness, intuition, practice and confidence. And maybe something more which I can’t recall right now 🤷🏻.

I see communication as an art rather than a strategy or some tactic that you learn in a classroom. It’s not something that you’ve got to study like mathematics. Once you acquire it, it keeps flowing — just like art!

Okay, coming to the point: if you are looking to improve your communication skills and wondering where to begin, please read on. You may be having all the knowledge in your field or maybe you’re a newbie at work, but if you’re having butterflies in your stomach wondering how to pitch to the client so that they get convinced by your words alone and award you the project, please read on. Or maybe you’re in the middle of a project, and you need to convince the client that you’re going to make sure that the project reaches its dream destination smoothly and successfully. If that’s the case, please read on.

Alright, so here are, what I think, some basics and some tricks that have helped me gain both confidence and success in the field of communication.

The three key ingredients to having a good conversation are, I believe:

1. Empathy
2. Grammar
3. Confidence

There are other things, too, and I’ll get to them eventually.

With these three elements flowing in your veins, no one can take you down in matters of conversation and, as a result, conversion!

Empathy

You may or may not be knowledgable in the subject of discussion. But as long as you are ready to listen and understand why the other person is saying whatever they are saying, you will know exactly how to respond. It can be a solution or an impromptu suggestion or maybe even a question that will help you to further understand the problem or the scenario.

Empathy is, I think, the most important element here. Unless you are open to listening (not hearing, mind you), you will never understand your client’s problem. If you do not understand their problem, you will be providing either none, or worse, incorrect solutions. And if you do either, you are going to lose that client. You may as well bid adieu to your reputation which will be stained because of your improper analysis of the situation and hence lack of appropriate solutions 😱.

(Am I using the word “solutions” too much? I think I am but can’t find an alternative. 🤔 )

Through the eleven years of my professional life, I have worked with both designers and developers as a project coordinator and then eventually as a project manager and a UX researcher. My role has always been such that I had to know and understand both sides of the story — the client’s side and the designer/developer’s side.

To watch clients shower so many demands and limitations — sometimes even whimsical ones — on the poor designer or developer is often painful. It often reminds me of the situation of Jon Snow when he was almost buried alive during the Battle of the Bastards.

But believe me, it was even more sad to see the creators at the other end simply pass the clients’ feedback as the words of a fickle-minded person, even if the feedback was a genuine one. Many designers or developers either do not understand the root cause of the clients’ feedback or do not want to understand.

The reason behind this thickheadedness is one: lack of empathy. Ego might be another thing, too, but that is pretty much entwined with not being an empath.

Again, if you’re not empathic, then how do you expect yourself to stand in the other person’s shoes, see through their eyes, understand the real problem they are facing and eventually solve it?

The road to any solution is spiral, and it begins with empathy.

Being empathic doesn’t make you weak or biased. It rather opens several windows for you to see through.

See, everyone is different and everyone’s problems are different. Your problem may be similar to mine but won’t be the same as mine. And vice versa.

It’s like oranges. Or the love for oranges.

Let’s say you come across two people who tell you that they don’t eat oranges. Now, the normal tendency would be to immediately draw the conclusion that they both do not like the taste (and orange-lovers would judge them). But the truth might be different. Maybe one of them doesn’t eat oranges for the taste but the other might love them but cannot have them because of a medical condition that forbids them from having anything citrus.

See?

Empathy simply helps us understand everyone better.

You should never draw any conclusions without knowing and understanding the situation of the person on the other end of the conversation. You never know what’s causing what.

Grammar

Well, where do I even begin on the importance of grammar?

Everyday we come across so many people — people who we meet daily, maybe at work or during commute and people who are absolute strangers. But isn’t it…impressive…amazing…that not even a handful of them make a lasting impression? How many of these people do we actually remember as someone important?

I know that there are various factors that make people worth remembering. It can be anything from a tiny incident to the person’s magnetic personality. But mostly, it’s what you speak and how you speak.

As Boyzone would sing,

“It’s only words
And words are all I have
To take your heart away”

Now, with everything being digital and especially with almost everyone working remote, we have the opportunity to work with people from across the globe. Most of the time we use English since it is spoken globally by majority of the people. But I’ve seen many people, not only in Asia but also in other continents, sometimes struggle with speaking the language fluently. After all, it’s not the native language of everyone!

So, should we just leave the struggle for a daily task and simply console ourselves and others with “It’s not my native language, and I have the right to speak in my native tongue”?

Well, of course, you have the right to speak in your native language regardless of whether people understand you or not. But while working with international clients, this consolation doesn’t come of much help, does it?

The smartest thing to do would be to make yourself fluent in the language that you’d be using for communication.

You have no idea how much it hurts to see people fumble with proper response to the clients’ queries and feedback. Maybe they had some brilliant ideas but all were lost — or partially lost, and sometimes misinterpreted — in the sea of unchartered words. It has often happened that clients misunderstand the message or the tone of it, and get offended.

This is where good and proper communication steps in.

If you can master a language, there’s nothing that can stop you from conquering the minds of people who speak that tongue. Well, you’ve got to prep yourself, obviously. And, you know what, mastering a language isn’t about acquiring a fancy accent or having a large vocabulary of multitudinous words. (See what I did there? 😉 ) All you need is to get the basics right: grammar.

Once you get the grammar right, you can effortlessly convey your thoughts to anyone. People won’t be bothered about your accent or about how many trendy words you are using as long as you are fluently saying exactly what you want to say.

No chance of of miscommunications or misunderstandings or no offended client threatening to close the project midway or no evil man trying to push a woman off a balcony because some panicked guy shouted, “Let her go!!”

In written communication, however, there may be room for small mistakes and that’s alright as long as you can get the message across correctly. (I think I might have made some similar mistakes in this article!)

A strong hold on grammar also means that your audience finds your talks oozing with confidence.

Speaking of which, let’s move on to the next element.

Confidence

This needs no explanation. We all know what confidence can do to us.

Confidence makes the worst story worth listening to.

If you’ve ever been to a talk show — I’m talking of live ones, not the ones seen over the internet — you will know that the talks that really impress us are the ones where the speakers know exactly what they are saying and how they are moving. And this “knowing exactly what to do” comes from a gallon-full of confidence.

From your gestures to the tone and pitch of your voice to how you compose a sentence to the words you choose — everything is affected by your confidence. If you observe, you will notice that a person with poor confidence sits slightly slouched on almost on the edge of the chair while talking with people, as if they are grateful for being allowed to sit and are not sure if they should own the seat while they are there. They hands are beneath the table (if there’s one), always fumbling with their fingers.

These people do not own the moment. And if you do not own your moment, you do not create a lasting impression.

With confidence oozing from you, you can tell any story and make people believe it. While pitching, you can say that you’re an expert in some field when it’s still in R&D mode. Well, you should obviously make sure that pitch sticks to its word and you can actually deliver to the client what they want. Fake promises with zero outputs will only leave ugly stains in the long run.

Other Tips & Tricks

If you’re wondering why I’m repeating the section headings in text when they’re large and clear in the images, well, these are for the screen readers.

Okay, so as promised, here are the other factors that affect how you communicate with people, especially with clients. (Er…you remember the promise, don’t you?)

Do’s:

1. Structure the sentences in your mind before letting them out. The last thing you’d want is to sound like your brain has fallen asleep and your mouth is running the show in its place.
2. Anticipate what the other person might say; it will give you the chance to work on your answer. It might be difficult in the beginning but eventually you’ll get the hang of it. Even then, always be prepared to be surprised!
3. Always be supportive — of both the client and of yourself and/or your team. You’d neither want to rudely say on the client’s face that they are wrong nor would you want to sound like a traitor or that there is no sync within your team. The client may not be always correct, and there are ways to tactfully point this out without hurling emotional injuries. Likewise, there are ways to admit that you or the team has made a mistake while holding their hands. You’ll need to think fast and figure out alternate scenarios in which the team might have done the “mistake” as part of a solution. You’re not lying, don’t worry, you’re just being smart. But yes, if it’s a typo or a stark display of unmindfulness, well, there’s no escaping it. The wise decision would be to accept the fault with a promise to fix it ASAP. After all, humans make mistakes.
4. Try to give suggestions; it makes you look involved, knowledgable and willing to help the client. You would want the client to believe that you are actually invested in his project. Merely sweet words and super-prompt responses won’t work. You’ve got to think and come up with suggestions just the same way as you’d have done for your own project. That will impress the client and help you work on the project in a much better way.
5. Don’t hear what the client is saying; listen to them. Hearing goes pfft after a few minutes. It’s like the words travel through one ear and out of the other. Listen to your clients. Keep a notebook and a pen with you; note down all the important things, preferably in icons and small words since the client won’t be waiting long for you to complete full sentences.

Don’ts:

1. Don’t hesitate to accept faults. It may seem daunting in the beginning but eventually you will realise that accepting your faults only makes you more transparent and easy to connect with. A confident and humble person is always sexy!
2. Do not hesitate to speak your mind out. Respectfully, of course! You might think that pleasing your client is the best way to go about. But truth be told, nobody likes to work with someone who simply nods and says “yes” to everything. If you think something won’t work, tell them. If you think you have a better idea, just tell them. Trust me, people like it. But don’t get into an argument while trying to convince your point, please.
3. Do not hesitate to ask if you did not understand something, no matter even if it is the 5th time that you ask. I have a client who’s from the UK. Now we all know about the British accent (😍 to die for!!!) Now, no matter how much you watch and hear British (heartthrob) actors, and try to (successfully sometimes) talk like Kit Harrington or Tom Hiddleston (OMG!!!) or Keira Knightly, sometimes you may not be able to catch some of the words. And that’s totally normal. So, during our first meeting, the said client had asked me, “What about your theme?” And I was like, “What?? He knows we do not use templates or themes, we design from scratch. What’s he sayin’?” So, I asked him again, and again, and again and again until, after the 4th “I’m sorry, could you please repeat that?”, he made a disgruntled sound, and repeated loudly, “Theme! Theme! T-E-A-M. Theme!!” Well, after over 2 years, we are still working together, and have a great collaboration, and I understand everything that he says. Every. Single. Word.
4. Do not hesitate to loosen up. Be friendly, stay professional. You’re a human. Your clients are human. So, why try to be the perfect robot before them? You can laugh with your clients, make small within-the-boundaries-of-the-professional-wall jokes, accept your failures and put down your strictly-professional rusted armour. Just try, and you’ll find a beautiful connection with your clients that will not only help you understand them a lot better but will also open the path to a long-term working relationship (if you do your job well, that is).

Remember!!!

• Be yourself!!
• You’re a human. So are your clients.
• Read the room.
• Be a Super-Combo of Mother Teresa (empathy) and Elon Musk (smartness & innovation)!!

Key Points to Remember

Nothing to say here. Just remember to have these things flowing with your blood all the time:

• Empathy
• Confidence
• Grammar
• Common sense
• Attentiveness
• Composure
• Originality

And you’re ready to take on the world, my friend!!

Oh, and here’s a link to a presentation, in case you’d like to talk about this with your friends and colleagues. Do remember to spread the love (with my name in it)!!! 🥰

Now, here’s that part where I remind you on which blog you are 😝:

Hope you had a great time on Design In-Sanity, a slow-growing blog where I bring you tips, tricks, knowledge, news and what-nots from the design and creative world, and also take care of your mental health. Why? So that you and I can together unleash our superpowers!!!!

Love ya!! 🤗 Take care, spread the love (gentle reminder) and keep that creative spark burning, my friend!! Never let it go out. Let it burn brighter and into a flame!!!