Five tips to improve your communication with Kátia Campelo
Our 21212 mentor, Kátia Campelo, who is a specialist in effective communication and the founder of Espaço de Oratória Kátia Campelo recently shared some useful tips for the Revista PEGN for entrepreneurs to successfully present themselves to investors. Below is an English version of the article, click here for the Portuguese version.
Five Tips to Improve your Communication
Communicating effectively is fundamental for all entrepreneurs. Whether you are in a meeting with an investor or speaking with clients, understanding when to speak, when to listen, and how to act according to each situation can make all the difference.
Kátia Campelo, psychologist and specialist in communication, gives a few tips to help communicate better and help close the business deals your startup is looking for.
Adapt your discourse according to the situation.
If you want to “win with conversation” allow yourself to enter the universe of your interlocutor. “Identify a profile of communication of the client or investor to affirm that your form of speaking doesn’t collide with theirs,” Kátia explains.
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Learn how to hear and understand a “no.”
Don’t take anything negative personally. Instead, try using other strategies and look for new approaches that may get a “yes.” If possible, set up another meeting to continue discussion. With persistence, the “no” could turn into a “yes. “Many times the entrepreneur feels rejected and the negotiation doesn’t happen because he gives up,” describes Kátia.
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Avoid elaborate or cold speech
It’s important that your speech is natural and conveys real sentiment. “The principal emotion that should be presented in the sale or presentation of a product is enthusiasm. If you were supposed to speaking mechanically it would be better to put a robot in your place.”
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Don’t exaggerate
It is important to bring emotion and excitement into the conversation, but make sure you are careful with exaggeration. Kátia warns that an excess of enthusiasm could be confused as falseness or superficiality. Of course, you are going to be emphasizing your excitement more than normal, but using adjectives and superlatives in all of your sentences can cause you to lose everything.
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Always maintain eye contact.
Do you trust someone who doesn’t look directly into your eyes during conversation? Probably not. So don’t forget this significant point. Don’t diverge eye contact and stay focused on the person who you are speaking to. The specialist guarantees that “eye to eye contact creates credibility.”