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With the advent of technology, communication has become more important than ever before. In this episode of SCORE Business TV, we'll discuss steps that you can take to communicate more effectively.

SCORE is a 55-year-old nationwide non-profit organization providing free mentoring services to business owners. Our SCORE experts are here to guide you safely through that minefield.

Succeed Through Effective Communication 

Today’s SCORE Business TV episode #15 is on exploring ways to succeed through effective communication.

What You Will Learn from the Communicate More Effectively Video

In this video, host Dennis Zink and his expert guests Robert and Eileen Parkinson, discuss the following topics:

What are the biggest mistakes that people make in communications?

How important is the length of the communication?

How much text should there be on a powerpoint slide?

What are some tips on being more effective when doing podcasts?

How important is how a person presents themselves as opposed to what they say?

Should you ask someone about their preferred method of communication?

Is snail mail still an option?

What can you do to research your audience? 

What should be your first sentence in a speech or presentation?

How do you deal with fear during public speaking?

Are pauses and silence important when communicating?

How to Communicate via Podcasts

“Envision the person you want to communicate to then deal with what we want to say. And let me say just three words to remember whenever you're giving a presentation. What, why, how. All kinds of things that we have been involved with putting presentations together. But those three words are going to be lifesavers. Simple idea. What's the point? What are you talking about? What's the message? Why is it important for the person that you're talking to? Not convenient for you, but important to the person that you're talking to. And then how are you going to do it?” said Robert Parkinson.

“Why should somebody pay attention to you if you're not doing a good job voicing your presentation, if they can't hear you very well, or if you're mumbling or stumbling? Why should they work? That's not their job. That's our job,” added Robert Parkinson.

Email or Snail Mail?

“Snail mail is still an option, yes. It's not used as much, but I think of an occasion. We were invited to a function and after the function I sat down and I hand wrote a little note thanking the person for inviting us and for the experience. I can't tell you the impact that handwritten note had. And I didn't do it for that reason, it was just that I was moved to write the handwritten note. I thought that would be appropriate. But it had great impact. And so snail mail can have great impact with individuals. Email of course is a more direct way to do it, but there are people who don't respond to the email as well,” said Eileen Parkinson.

“If you are writing an email, write it as if you're having a conversation with that person. The other key thing is put your message upfront. If you make someone work to find out why you wrote that email, you're going to lose them,” added Eileen Parkinson.

Why is Appearance so Important?

“From one of the keynote research studies, about 55% of the impact that we have on an audience comes from how we look, 55%. About 38% of the impact we have comes from how we sound. Only 7% comes from what the heck we say. Now, that doesn't mean that what we say is unimportant. That would be a foolish thing to say. But the importance of the two pieces of data, as soon as we walk into a room, (big room, small room, makes no difference,) as soon as we walk in, the audience makes judgments. They like us. They don't like us. They trust us. They don't trust us. They're confused. Just like that, we haven't said a word yet, but they have made a judgment,” said Robert Parkinson.

“So you better be ready for it. Which means before you say word one, know that you're standing up straight. You're looking them in the eye. The volume is strong. You have a good sentence to begin with,” added Robert Parkinson.

Host

Dennis Zink, SCORE Manasota 

Guest

Robert Parkinson, author and executive communication coach and consultant.
Eileen Parkinson​, corporate communications consultant and executive coach.

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