You’ve probably been speaking to others around you using your native language, be it English or something else, for years or decades now. It’s something that you are taught to do as children. A lot of people start speaking at quite an early age.
But that doesn’t mean that everyone who can speak has good conversation skills. They can be mutually exclusive oftentimes. This is because communication skills have to be worked upon and built and practiced with care and finesse.
If you are looking to build a network and you think that good communication skills can get you there, read on for some tips on how to improve this very necessary yet overlooked skill set.
1. Be Genuinely Interested in Others
Because we live in an age where Hollywood celebrities and sports stars have such dazzling and spectacular lives, it’s hard to muster up interest in someone’s mundane doings.
But, if you wish to build your network marketing team, you need to believe that everyone has an interesting story to tell. You just have to pull it out of them.
That comes through practice and genuine curiosity in the person. Ask them questions about their life and pay attention to them. Make eye contact (but don’t overdo this), and ask them open-ended questions related to what they tell you.
2. Don’t Act Inferior or Superior to Others
Brene Brown says it so well, “Don’t shrink. Don’t puff up. Stand your sacred ground.” This is great advice to use whenever you are speaking to anyone.
You don’t need to puff yourself up and pretend you are better than others around you. But you also don’t need to put yourself down and pretend you are just a nobody. Treat everyone like they are equal to you, so you can have genuine open conversations with them.
3. Become an Authentic Storyteller
Authenticity is a buzzword that is bandied about in every book on marketing tactics. That doesn’t mean that you can start ignoring this very important trend.
If you wish to connect to someone at a deeper level and build their trust in you, you have to be vulnerable and genuine. You have to show your authentic self to them, and that comes with storytelling.
You don’t have to tell them about the time your grandmother died right away. That would be oversharing. But you can start telling them stories about your childhood, where you grew up, or where you went to school, and more like this.
This would result in them sharing back with you, and that will get the conversation ball rolling.
4. Remember Small Details about Others
Some people want to be network marketers, but they can barely remember anyone’s name a second after they’ve been told it. If you wish to be the leader of a huge network marketing team, you need to start remembering the small but important details about others.
If someone tells you that they are going through a difficult time in life, or if they tell you that they just got promoted, to their dream job, all this is information you need to remember for the next time around.
This doesn’t mean that you need to be creepy about it. But be kind enough to remember the things that people share with you so you can build that deeper connection with them.
5. Use Face-To-Face Meetings Rather Than Text
Yes, we live in the age of texting and online chatting. You might even be more comfortable chatting with someone on Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
But if you wish to build your conversation skills and get yourself noticed as a network marketer, you need to do the difficult thing, and that means having those face-to-face conversations. Go out there and speak to people.
You can even call people if you can’t meet with them face-to-face, but try to avoid texting as much as possible. It’s hard to show your genuine interested self in text and it’s extremely difficult to gauge the other person’s body language and reactions while texting as well.
6. Spice up The Conversation
You could say, “I love basketball.” Or you could say, “The first time I watched a live basketball team, it was with my grandfather and I knew then that I would be in love with the sport for a long time to come.”
You see the difference between the two styles of conversation, don’t you? One is a bit bland and commonplace. The other is spicy and invites interest and curiosity.
A conversation is a back and forth volley between two interested parties. You need to lob over a good piece of conversation to get anything back in return. As you practice this skill of yours, you will get better at spicing up your conversation tidbits.
7. Don’t Sell to the Person in the First Meeting
This might be a no-brainer to you, but many people are just so excited about their products that they might start selling a bit too soon. Don’t let this happen to you.
You need to form a connection, a bond with the person, before you can start selling them anything. You are trying to sell them an idea, and an alternative lifestyle. It will take a few conversations and connections before you can do so effectively.
Conversation Skills Get Better With Practice
Have a growth mindset when it comes to building conversation skills. Just because you weren’t good at it until now, doesn’t mean that you are going to be like this forever.
Add each of the tips mentioned above into your conversations over time. Don’t try to change everything at once.
If you wish to become a network marketer, then check out Network Marketing Team for tips, tricks, and more, to help aspiring business owners in their quest for success.
