Improve Your Listening Skills, Become a Better Freelancer
Posted May 29, 2012 in How-To, Managing Clients
Have you ever had a communication problem with a client?
Of course you have… and you’re not the only one.
As with other relationships, miscommunication with clients can be a huge problem for freelancers. Miscommunication can keep you from getting freelancing work.
Fortunately, there are many ways for you to improve your communication skills. Good listening is one key to good communication. The best freelancers understand that how well you listen is as important as what you say.
In this post, I’ll provide some easy tips to help you improve your listening skills. At the end of the post, you’ll get a chance to provide even more communication tips. You can also share stories about how you communicate with your own clients.
What You Need to Know About Communication
When most people think about communication, they think of the spoken word. (In the case of email communications, that’s the written word…) While it’s true that the spoken word is a very important part of communication, that’s not all that there is to good communication.
There are actually two different types of communication that you need to understand:
- Verbal communication–This is what most people think of when they think of communication. Verbal communication is the actual words that are written or spoken.
- Nonverbal communication–These are the unspoken signals that people send out. Nonverbal communication can include body language, tone of voice, and facial expression.
While most freelancers focus mainly on verbal communication, you need to understand that nonverbal communication can be equally important. There are times when a client may not say everything that he or she is thinking. They may even be lying to you or they may just be leaving something out.
Nonverbal communication lets you know that you should dig deeper to find out more about what the client really means.
Even if you don’t meet a client face-to-face, you may be able to find clues about what they really mean by noticing the tone of voice that they use during their phone calls with you.
Improving your listening skills will reduce client/freelancer miscommunication and ultimately help you to become a better freelancer.
Four Easy Steps to Better Listening
Are you ready to put some of this information about communication skills into practice with your freelancing clients?
You can use the following four easy steps to become a better listener:
- Observe. Listen with your eyes as well as your ears. If you are in a face-to-face meeting, notice the client’s posture and facial expressions. Do they seem relaxed and open, or are they uptight and tense? Body language can reveal a great deal about a client. A tense client could be hiding something or they could just be anxious about the project.
- Listen. When your client speaks, give them your full attention. Don’t interrupt them and don’t be thinking about what you are going to say to them next. Take very careful notes. Also, be sure to notice their tone of voice when they are speaking. A sharp, impatient tone may indicate that the client is irritated or it could mean that they are under stress.
- Repeat. Some people just don’t express themselves very well. They aren’t deliberately trying to lie to you, but they may accidentally leave things out. Repeating your understanding of what the client said back to them helps them to get their full message across.
- Ask. Relevant questions can do a lot to reduce freelancer/client miscommunication. If you don’t understand a point the client mentioned, ask for a clarification. Don’t limit questions to just what the client said verbally. Instead, ask about nonverbal signals that you noticed as well. You could say something like, “You seem really nervous about your website. Is there anything else that I need to know?”
By following these four simple steps for better listening each time that you communicate with a client, you can eliminate many communication problems. Don’t let poor communication derail your freelancing business.
Your Turn
What tips for improving client communication did I miss? Add your own client communication tips in the comments.
Have you ever experienced client communication problems? Share your stories (without mentioning client names, of course) in the comments.
Image by woodleywonderworks
Related posts:
- Hit a Plateau? 4 Ways to Improve Your Skills
- How to Beef Up Your Freelancing Skills
- Applying The Principles Of Kaizen And Bootstrapping To Build Your Freelance Skills
- How to Improve Your Productivity Using Agile Techniques
- How Defining Your Ideal Project Can Improve Your Freelancing Business
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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20 Comments
Cathy Miller
May 30th, 2012 at 7:12 pmOne of the biggest mistakes (in my humble opinion) that I see freelancers make is relying strictly on email for communication. Many view phone calls as a nuisance or interruption of their productivity so they avoid it at all cost.
Emails do not pick up on the clues you get from the inflections or tones (as you discuss) of the conversation. More than once, I have picked up the phone and called when I felt emails were getting testy or causing issues. It works every time to quickly diffuse escalating problems.
I also find phone calls the best (when face-to-face isn’t possible) when you need back-and-forth conversation with questions and answers.
Laura Spencer
May 30th, 2012 at 8:41 pmCathy–Good point! I’ve been guilty of relying too much on email myself. Of course, for a small project a call may not be worth it.
Saya
May 30th, 2012 at 10:08 pmLaura, Another great article from you. About listening one advice is just give one more second after they finish their talk instead answer right away. This way they think you truly listened and thinking about it
Don’t act fake because it will work opposite, just try to make it a habit even in family conversation
Stacey
June 1st, 2012 at 12:04 amI agree with Cathy. I think you get more from phone calls than you do with email. Emails should be used to memorialize the conversation for confirmatory purposes and to cover things that you may have missed or are not to clear on during the phone call.
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June 1st, 2012 at 7:53 amI go over your posts and the information found is really helpful. I’m so excited to go over the content which is really high quality. Quality subject to dwell upon. Keep it up!
Laura Spencer
June 1st, 2012 at 11:42 amGreat comments everyone! Thanks sharing your tips and experiences.
Oliver
June 2nd, 2012 at 3:12 amI agree that miscommunication can cause big problems and brake business relations.
Nowadays you have really no excuse, even if you’re client is on the other side of the world. Just use Skype
Nikhil Malhotra
June 4th, 2012 at 5:55 amGreat article Laura.I truly agree with all the four points mentioned by you.Thanks for sharing.
feist
June 5th, 2012 at 1:38 amgood article, will try some tips ;)
Charlotte Rains Dixon
June 29th, 2012 at 1:10 pmI think it has to be with being present, instead of constantly worrying what the client is thinking about me and what I’m going to say next. A difficult state to master, but worth it.
Han
July 18th, 2012 at 9:37 amI think the part which mention about “Four Easy Steps to Better Listening” are some very good points. Especially the part about “Observe” and “Listen”. A lot of people like to make assumption without observing.
Jenna
August 13th, 2012 at 4:32 pmGreat tips. I have always been a terrible listener. Listening is key, especially for journalists like myself. If you miss a comment or a crucial statement from a source, your whole story could change. Being able to listen is very important in any field.
bob
January 23rd, 2013 at 3:23 pmi think it was rubbish
bob
January 23rd, 2013 at 3:24 pmsorry, i think it is really helpful. that was my friend that did the last comment, sorry i liked it :-)
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