10 Things Your Competitor Can Teach You About Communications Skills!

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Who are our competitors? We assume, that people who are in line to take over our jobs or business are our competitors. The truth is, we have competitors in every walk of life.


Top companies and the most famous people in the world, are those who study their competitors very closely. They are honest enough to appreciate what is being done right by their competitors and what went wrong with them or their own company, and introspect. Once they understand where they need to improve, they waste no time, in rolling up their sleeves, and getting to work.

In this post, my attempt is to try and change the angst you feel, when you hear the word competitor, to a feeling of gratitude towards them, for the learning opportunities they provide. While admiring or criticizing someone we also need to understand how they succeeded, while someone else in the same niche failed.

So with that, we once again come to the most commonly used term Communication Skills. All of us know, how important it is in either making or breaking a relationship or a business deal. However, nowadays if anyone hears the term Communication skills they almost cringe, because they have heard it so many times that they don't want to hear of it anymore. Moreover, most people have mastered the basics of communication skills by now. That is not the point. What I am trying to draw your attention to, is how these skills, if used correctly can have a great positive impact on your business.

Lets begin, with a checklist of what your competitors are doing different or better than you to stay/be successful:

 10 things your competitor can teach you about communication skills

1. Confidence- Communicating with confidence is very important. Confidence simply means belief in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself how can you convince another person to believe in you or your company. According to Magzter, in an article on business, Tony Robbins is said to be one of the most confident men in the world. He started working as a sports journalist at the age of 17 and the rest just followed. He is an author, entrepreneur and a motivational speaker.

2. Conviction- Communicating with conviction is at the heart of the communication process, because it conveys your belief in your product or service. If you are not convinced about your company's products and services, it is almost impossible to establish credible lines of communication. The Apple story comes to mind, Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple was a man of great conviction. He believed in his products completely, and so was able to convince millions of people all over the world. He launched his first Macintosh Computer in January, 1984, it was a white box which was slowly modified into the thin sleek machine we see today.

3. Enthusiasm- Once your belief in yourself and your product or service are in place, then the way you communicate it to your client, will either take you to the next level or not. Therefore, convey your message with enthusiasm. I was watching Priyanka Chopra's speech on NDTV,  3 months ago, about "10 ways to live life PC style", her words, her speech was fiery. She had already proved her confidence and conviction as an actor, in Bollywood, so, she wanted to push ahead and be a part of Hollywood. Her talent and enthusiasm in her work was so contagious that she was given a lead role in the famous serial "Quantico". "I want everything" were her exact words in her speech, and she has lived it to prove it. She is enthusiasm personified.

4. Courage-There are times in business when it takes courage to communicate to a client. If you don't show that courage at the right time, and do the right thing despite feeling great fear of the outcome, the consequences will be undesirable, in the long run. The recent Facebook leaks scandal is an example of how things can go terribly wrong at times, that is the time to muster up all the courage you have, and face the public and the client and show concern and accept your mistake. Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence and according to various media houses in the US an UK, wrote in his Facebook post, "A breach of trust between us  and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it". Though not a very convincing answer, his courage to speak out and accept that what happened was not acceptable, and assure people that systems will be put in place to ensure that this doesn't ever happen again, may be appreciated.

5.  Listening- Listening is one of the least mentioned communication skills. No wonder, there are so many misunderstandings and break ups, in relationships and business deals that happen. Listening requires patience and empathy. The main aim of Listening should not be to give a smart and quick reply but rather to understand what the person is saying, feeling or thinking at that time. Bill Clinton, in most of his media interviews comes across as an excellent listener. It is said that, he always listened by asking himself who the person addressing him was, or stood for and what could be the issues they were facing.

6. Art of Questioning- This is a skill which comes so naturally to young kids, they ask hundreds of questions all day long, why, what, when, where, how and who. As, we grow to become adults we slowly forget this art and think that we only have to answer questions. The art of asking relevant questions is a boon to any organisation. If the company knows how to ask the right questions in the right tone of voice, then they can gather valuable data that can help the company tremendously. All the successful people in the world are continuously asking questions about their products, service, strategy, competition, USP to their clients and employees.

7. Language- Language is another must have communication weapon. Strong command over the language in which you choose to communicate can help to convey your message clearly concisely and impressively. No redundant words, just be to the point and crisp, without leaving out any of the important part of the message. While in a business environment it is very important not to use slang. Try to be formal in communication. For eg: if you want to say "could you talk more" a more formal way would be "could you elaborate?", or  instead of "I got your message" say  "I received your message". These words would change the impact of the message and take it from casual to business level.

8. Be well disposed- Being well disposed means to be sociable. Interact with your clients more informally and be polite. Even when they are being difficult sometimes handle the situation with concern and understanding. We have observed how most of the top leaders we know are friendly and approachable, they have a professional but warm approach to their clients and employees.  Examples are Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India, Bill Gates as seen on media and personal experience stories, comes across as a very soft spoken friendly person with a good sense of humour.

9. Service minded- To be successful in business we need think of what the client wants and not what we want to dump on the client. If you are not able to understand the need of the client and give them what they want, you will be out of business sooner than later. Simple but powerful service minded questions are "What can I do for you?", or "How can I help you?" Most top business start with an idea that would help people fulfill some need, but as they grow they forget about the very people whose needs they started the business to meet. That's when the business starts declining and if they still don't recognize and turn around to being service minded, they may have to wind up their business and go.

10. Be grounded- There are ups and downs in any business. Even though the idea may be great, there may be a great demand for the products or services, even your marketing strategy may be the best. Despite all this there are situations which are unexpected, like change in govt policies, another company launching their products before you and your product/service becomes obsolete.  On the flip side you make it big and become one of the top companies in the world. No matter what the situation is, being grounded or level headed and taking things as they come and dealing with them with maturity and with a  matter of fact approach of utmost importance. An international company, was doing great, until, they started taking their customers for granted and paid heavily for it. Reliance Industry Ltd.'s.  Mukesh Ambani, is a great example of how to remain grounded. Even after the recent launch of Jio, when India became one of the top players in mobile broadband connections, he is well grounded and working towards their motto "Growth is Life".

In conclusion, we should never take our customers, business partners, employees and most importantly our competitors for granted.

That's all for now! Till we meet in my next post, bye and take care!

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