Throughout any career, successful communication is key to a positive work life. You will inevitably experience situations where the people you work with may not have any interest in hearing your point of view, or times where it is essential for you to share important information with your employers and employees, but may be hesitant due to not knowing how to handle the situation correctly. To guide you through this daunting circumstance, expert business consultant and co-founder and publisher of The Big Smoke opinion site, Alexandra Tselios, shares her tips for successfully communicating with your colleagues.
So, how do you get their attention? I’ve heard many a horror story of people sending OTT (over the top) gifts or practically camping outside of someone’s office or lying to a receptionist about who they are in the hope that these actions will get a positive reaction. These tactics are high risk and generally don’t make you innovative, or creative, just annoying.
To save you the embarrassment of a potentially awkward situation, here are the top 3 ways to communicate with someone that doesn’t want to talk to you.
1. Highlight their issues
Whatever you are trying to communicate, the key in an effective sales pitch is to highlight how what you are about to say will benefit them. Tell them about their problems and issues and present well thought out solutions.
If you simply go in with your message without making it relevant to their personal situation, it will often be discarded as another unimportant memo in an age of flooded markets.
Despite how desperate you are to get your message across, remember to keep it professional. Emphasise the fact that you are the only/best person that can help and detail how you will do so. It’s much harder to ignore someone when it has been shown that they could potentially be bringing something of value to the equation.
2. Show them
If you’re producing quality work, people will take notice and you’ll build yourself a reputation to be proud of. Sure, you have to pound the pavement non-stop for a while, but if what you produce is of a certain calibre, it’s only a matter of time before people will want to work with you.
Your priority should always be quality over quantity, especially when trying to communicate with someone that isn’t interested. Be succinct in what you are saying and use your previous experience or reputation to precede you.
3. Play by the Rules
Sometimes taking no for an answer isn’t an option, but you still should respect the fact that this person simply may not want to take a direct call or email from you. Coercing their assistant into giving you contact details or lying to get through is only going to reflect badly on you.
Your communication needs to be done in a way that is sensitive and respectful. Get to know how the person generally prefers to be contacted – mobile, in person, office phone or email – and take the time to mirror intuitively how that person conducts interactions.
Who wants to do business with a nuisance? I am more likely to respond to a cold call that is respectful of my boundaries and my time, but the fact that they do not just walk away at the first ‘no’ will also be something I admire. There is no one way or right way, it has to be your way – but in a manner that shows you are not discourteous about how the other person operates.
Build a relationship with the people around them in a subtle way that strengthens your chances of being recommended and potentially securing a meeting.
