This is the third article in a series on “who wants to be an entrepreneur”. I was awarded “The Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year” for W.A. in 2009 under the Small Business Champions Awards.

In the previous articles I have concentrated on what entrepreneurs do and how they motivate team members. In this article I will concentrate on the communication skills that entrepreneurs introduce into their business.

Communications is the Key
Entrepreneurs, by nature, are better communicators than the rest of us. They ensure that communications is effective both within their business and with their stakeholders and customers.

Communications is one of the basic skills of business, we all do it, but to different degrees of effectiveness. Let’s get back to the basics and what entrepreneurs excel at.

Planned Communications
Communication does not just happen, it should be thought through and planned. Firstly, what is the purpose of your communication; what is this that you want to communicate?  The leaders in every industry define their communication aims and what it is that they want to achieve.  The industry leaders consider the person or persons they are about to communicate with; what motivates them; what is their attitude; what is their existing knowledge; their expectations and what will be their reaction to the message?

We have all come across people who say something first and then engage their brains second.  That is a trait you will not see coming from an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs consider which method(s) of communications to use; whether it should be verbal, written, via an email, twitter, phone call, facebook, or one of a multiple of choices.  A Generation Y demographic may want a Twitter message, whilst Generation X may prefer an email and a Greying Tiger may require a typed or written memo as the most effective communications method.

The content of the message is also critically important.  Consider what the key points are and how should they be arranged and in what priority.

Listening – A Key Skill
Communicators are listeners. It is often said that an entrepreneur will talk for about a third of the time and listen for two thirds of the time. While they are listening they are not interrupting, they are truly listening, picking up the key messages, being objective, evaluating and deciding on what the real message is that is being presented.

Entrepreneurs observe the talker and look for signals.  Is this speaker responsive and friendly; smiling and relaxed, or are they unresponsive and aggressive; staring and abrupt; are they controlling and dominating; loud, pointing fingers and leaning forward or are they nervous and submissive, using nervous hand movements, hesitating and looking down.

An entrepreneur wants to know who they are talking to and what type of person they are dealing with.

Entrepreneurs Ask Key Questions
If you want information, then the key is to ask the right questions.

Questions can be split into three groups; Open, Closed and Probing. The entrepreneur knows when and how to use each type of question.

Open questions are used to obtain information and to encourage the other person to talk. They often start with How, When, Where, Why or Who, or statements such as “Can you tell me…”. Entrepreneurial salespeople will use open questions a lot during a conversation.  Closed questions are used to obtain very specific information and can often result in one word answers, for example “How many items do you need?”, “Do you have a fork lift licence?” or “When can you deliver?”.

It is worth noting here, that we all know, as customers, when we have come across a non-entrepreneurial salesperson and alas, there are a lot of them. They start conversations with “Can I help you?” or “Are you alright there?”  As a result, customers often close the conversation down and feel frustrated, whilst the salesperson thinks they have done their job.

Entrepreneurs use probing questions to explore a point in more depth or to check they understand what has already been discussed. Examples include, “What makes you say that?” or “What made you come to that conclusion?”

Prepare and Communicate
Who wants to be an entrepreneur? Those individuals who are prepared to plan what they are going to communicate and then communicate. They define their aims in their mind, prepare their case and decide the best way of communicating before they start the communications process.

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