What is the Importance of Business Communication?

Communication is an essential element in the success of any business. When communication takes place between two or more corporates or among two or more groups of corporates regarding business-related functions, it can be termed business communication. The process of transferring information from one person to another, within and outside the business environment, is termed  ‘Business Communication’.

Importance of Business Communication

Efficient business communication can clear misconceptions, reduce errors, and improve organizational productivity and performance. With better conversational harmony, managers can easily present business ideas and technical information, which can help employees feel confident, improve productivity, enhance enterprise profitability, and are encouraged to give clear and honest feedback.

Types of Communication:

Internal business communication is at the heart of a company’s success. The four leading types of business communication are as follows:

• Upward:  Upward business communication comes from a direct report to a manager, and from a manager to a top-level executive or owner. Upward communication allows those in charge to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s happening on the ground floor.

• Downward: Downward business communication flows from management to direct reports. Messages flow through a predetermined hierarchy, from the top down.

• Lateral : Lateral communication moves across departments and employees or managers of equal status within the organization.

• External: External communication moves information from the inside of the organization to outside parties, such as prospects, customers, investors, vendors, partners, sponsors, and others bodies that are externally connected.

Principles of effective communication:

• Your audience predominantly comprises emotional individuals, who’re in a dire need of your product/service. Tap into your target audience by understanding their emotion towards your product/service and harness a better business advantage by understanding the same.
• See what type of communication is effective for the audience.
• Make sure that they will get their answers quickly.
• Control your ego before the people with whom you are communicating.
• Be polite in talking and messaging your customers.
• Listen to their complaints carefully and try to rectify them immediately.

7 Pillars of communication

• Clarity: Clarity is the number one rule for all business communication. A message that leaves the reader scratching his head is a failed message. Clarity springs from a knowledge of the message (what you want to say), the method (how you want to say it), and the medium (what format do you want to say it in). A lack of insight into any one of these components is going to affect the effectiveness of your message.

• Completeness: 100% correctness is a must in the message. Your message should be correct so that the reader can understand it properly. Each message must have a clear and logical conclusion. The reader shouldn’t be left wondering if there is more to come. The message must be self-sufficient, that is, it must hold good on its own without support from other messages. Correctness improves your prestige in communication.

• Honesty: Be honest about your product and services. Audiences are very quick on a heel to catch on any grey areas.

• Conciseness: Business communication is founded on the principles of brevity. There is little room for lyrical prose or academic loquaciousness. This applies to not just the length of your message, but also its contents. Try to use short sentences and short words. Avoid jargon and words that send the reader to the dictionary.

• Objectivity: Business communication must always have a purpose. This purpose must be apparent to any who glances through your message. Before you put a single word to paper, ask yourself: “What am I trying to achieve with this message?”. This will help you stay on course through the message creation process and effect a remarkable improvement in the message efficacy.

• Consistency: Imagine that you’re reading a book that starts out as a serious medieval romance, turns into a supernatural screwball comedy around the half-way mark, before finally finishing as an avant-garde, high-brow literary exegesis. Without a doubt, such a book will leave you confused and even angry. This is the reason why all business communication must have the consistency in tone, voice and content. A humorous satire on one page, a serious explanation on another will alienate your readers.

• Relevancy: Every message you send out must be contextually cohesive with previous/future messages. The message must also be relevant to your primary offering. So make sure that everything you write in a business setting is contextually related and relevant.

• Audience Knowledge: Lastly, your message must have a thorough understanding of your primary audience. Everything else – clarity, completeness, objectivity – results from your knowledge of your audience. Always know who you are writing for as it will influence the tone, voice and quality of your message. Your message must reflect the age, education level, aims and objective of your audience. This is possible only if you thoroughly research your readers and can see things from their perspective.

Conclusion

When your communication follows all the seven principles, your presentation is perfect. Consideration in communication helps in making the best decisions. Effective communication gives speed to your business. If we satisfy our customers’ needs, they will help us in boosting our business.