I’m currently taking the Business Freedom Blueprint quest by Eric Edmeades on Mindvalley He’s done a few courses on Mindvalley, and so far, I really like him in this one. The quest is for entrepreneurs in all stages and is supposed to help you automate and optimize your business. Today, I had an epiphany that I want to share. I hope it makes sense to affiliates and affiliate managers alike.
Direct And Inferential Communication
In today’s lesson, Eric talked about being intentional in your communication, and I have a much clearer vision of why I’ve lost so much faith in a company I promote. I haven’t lost faith in their products, but the communication I’ve had with them over the years has slowly caused me to become less and less happy as an affiliate.
OK, downright miserable.
Eric talks about how direct and inferential communication can impact your customers and employees. I would add it can impact your affiliates too.
Eric shares a story where an upset customer calls while Eric is on the phone and Eric is faced with a choice to call him back or do his research first before he calls him back to have an answer to the solution. He chooses to call him back without a solution because he doesn’t want to leave his customer stewing in his anger for a long time, and it works. The customer is grateful for his quick and direct response back. There’s no skirting around the problem. Eric tells him that he’s sorry and he’s going to be looking into it, which makes the customer happy. Because of this one interaction, the customer becomes a long-term and loyal customer because of that one interaction.
Eric says that there are two ways to communicate your message.
- Direct – Say it like it is. I want something to eat.
- Inferential – Imply things that indicate what you want. I sure am hungry.
There are also direct and inferential listeners.
As a business owner, he says you need to be a direct communicator and be able to listen for inference. This is because customers and employees want you to be direct with them, but they won’t always feel comfortable being direct about things with you. Therefore, you need to be able to pick up on what they want even if they are not directly saying it.
By being direct when you talk to someone, and being able to listen inferentially, you will be an effective leader when it comes to communication.
There Has Been Very Little Direct Communication With One Company In Particular
For years, I’ve expressed concerns and tried to communicate with one company I’m an affiliate with. And for years, they’ve lacked the direct communication that I need. It’s been a nightmare for me. I used to love getting up and writing, but this company’s communication method has beaten me down so many times that there are times I just want to give up and find an offline job somewhere.
For instance:
- They’ve taken weeks to respond to me – sometimes longer.
- They respond with very vague and unhelpful answers.
- They respond with certain information that they want to divulge but leave out the answers to the questions I actually asked!
- They don’t inform me of changes (sometimes big) that affect me.
- They are not clear in their messages.
They are nice enough when they respond, but the lack of direct, honest communication is what has caused me to want to pull my hair out and stop dealing with them over and over again.
This Happened Recently With Another Company, But They Quickly Rectified It
I had reached out to another company recently to see if I could promote their products as an affiliate since I was using them. They responded with an automated message saying they would get back to me.
They didn’t get back to me, despite me reaching out again, and this caused me to instantly dislike the company as a whole. So, I wrote them a message telling them how I didn’t appreciate the lack of communication.
After that, they were direct with me. Very direct. They were honest and quickly got back to me and after a few conversations, it changed my whole perspective on them.
I wonder if the other company that I’ve been dealing with for years could change my perspective on them if they would just be direct and honest in their communication, or would it be too late to change the way I feel about them? I’m assuming the latter as they are the reason I’ve wanted to quit working online at least 10 times in the past few years. You can only take so much crap before you give up on a company. This is why it’s important to communicate effectively right from the start.
Going Forward, I’m Going To Be Very Direct In My Communication
As Eric teaches, I’m going to go forward being a direct communicator while listening for inference. As someone who has been on the receiving end of not having direct communication, I understand its value fully now.
I’m usually pretty direct when I communicate with someone, but not always. Sometimes I imply things and hope that people will figure it out, and I can see how that doesn’t benefit me or them.
I’m great at reading between the lines, though, so I have that part down.
Now that I fully understand the value of this type of communication, I won’t be able to communicate any other way.
I can see that being direct in communication is important because it:
- can make or break relationships.
- can affect the way people see me.
- can affect the way people feel about me.
- can influence other’s willingness to work with me or help me out.
- can influence other people’s ability to understand me and my message.
I can only hope that the companies I want to work for as an affiliate will do the same.
