Business Communication: 10 Ways to Improve Your Skills at Work

Discover the 10 core communication skills every business professional needs to connect with teams, clients and stakeholders more effectively.

What does it take to run a successful business? Some people say it’s the ability to identify and seize opportunities. Some believe it’s the union of preparation and luck. Others claim it’s all about connections. All are pieces of the puzzle rather than the whole picture.

Effective communication skills, however, are what pull all of the pieces together. They’re pivotal in countless areas – from learning about new opportunities to cultivating connections to communicating (and selling) ideas. With roughly 20% of new businesses failing within their first year, and nearly 60% failing within three years, every advantage is important.

This guide includes 10 essential communication tools for business success – how to put those pieces together. Let’s start by honing in on what communication means in a business context.

Business communication skills are the core set of traits that business leaders and employees utilise each day to maximise the potential of the business. They include everything from the art of active listening and constructive feedback to negotiation and compromise.

They cover all forms of communication, including written and verbal, and they’re necessary for navigating both internal tasks and external communications. Great communication skills make a difference at every level of business, from high-end investor pitches and sales calls to productive team communication and one-to-one training sessions.

To truly stand out from the crowd and achieve long-term success, businesses need to promote excellent business communication skills and make them an integral part of their culture. Whether you’re a business leader or a team member, we’ve compiled a list of the ten best ways you can improve your public speaking and communication skills at work:

1. Give people what they want
2. Learn effective problem-solving strategies
3. Practice professional courtesy
4. Practice emotional intelligence
5. Pay attention to nonverbal cues
6. Don’t rely on nonverbal cues only
7. Be an attentive listener
8. Politely challenge assumptions
9. Ask questions
10. Know when to be assertive

Let’s take a look at each of these in more detail and review some actionable tips on how to implement them in your workplace.

An effective communicator isn’t someone who simply tells people what they want to hear. They understand how to talk to people and share the most important information first.

Effective business communicators and salespeople do this automatically. They’re also skilled at listening carefully and being flexible, adapting their communication to respond directly to what someone has said.

For example, a talented salesperson will likely have a sales pitch lined up for each call that they’re ready to deliver. But their lead might end up spending a long time talking about their business instead. A good salesperson will adapt their approach by taking a vested interest in the business and building rapport before delivering their in-depth sales pitch.

This is a point that’s worth repeating: Problem-solving is one of the most effective business skills you can learn.

It’s easier to improve your problem-solving skills when you have a process to follow. Let’s look at the steps and then see an example of how they work:

• Identify the problem
• Understand the cause
• Figure out a solution to the problem
• Monitor the progress
• Set up a system for dealing with a problem if it recurs

For example, a fleet management business might notice its car journeys are taking longer than usual. Through effective communication with their drivers and researching local news, they figure out that roadworks are causing severe traffic on important roads. They devise alternative routes for their drivers to take and monitor the difference in journey times. Once they see that these new routes are effective, they implement them as the procedure to follow when future roadworks take place.

With a problem-solving process established, it’s easier to react to problems – even new ones.

In the business environment, strong communication starts with respect. People bring different backgrounds, preferences, and communication styles to the table, but professionalism should always be the standard. Courtesy isn’t just about being polite; it creates a clear, respectful structure for working together. This applies across every channel, from meetings and emails to customer service interactions.

For marketing professionals on social media, where visibility is high, responding promptly and politely helps protect your business’s reputation and builds trust.

Emotional intelligence involves being in tune with others’ feelings and emotions. At work, this kind of high emotional intelligence guides social interactions and helps people work together more effectively by fostering tactful discussions between people with different opinions.

Leaders are responsible for a company’s success, and actively paying attention to their employees’ emotions results in a happier, more motivated workforce. They can set the tone with their team by being more socially aware, respectful of diversity, and committed to resolving conflicts. It also translates into more fruitful interactions with vendors and customers.

Mastering the art of non-verbal communication within a business context is not easy, but it can add a new dimension to your communication with colleagues. Business people who have a firm grasp on the ability to communicate non-verbally have several distinct advantages in the business sphere, from exuding confidence to reinforcing authority.

Some of the most helpful forms of non-verbal communication include displaying kind or friendly facial expressions, maintaining eye contact, nodding, respecting others’ personal space, and being aware of your tone of voice. How we convey something to others is so much more than the words we say.

Non-verbal communication is best used to supplement your understanding or experience of the interaction rather than acting as a substitute for basic communication, especially when discussing important matters.

For this reason, always interpret signals you see as a collective. Don’t take your cues from one signal alone, but rather from the general mood of the situation. Pay special attention to the non-verbal cues that many people miss.

It’s also important to control the non-verbal cues you give your colleagues. Without this control, you risk giving away information and feelings that you may want to keep to yourself. Always be aware of how gestures and expressions might be interpreted — or misinterpreted — by those around you.

Surprisingly, more than 98% of people worldwide haven’t had any education on developing effective listening skills, which suggests that many of us could benefit from a little more practice!

It might seem like leading people is all about giving them directions, but the best leaders know when it’s time to listen instead. Taking the time to genuinely hear your team’s concerns builds trust, loyalty, and respect.

If you want to be a strong, active listener, practice affirming what people say, reflecting on what you’ve heard and using your body language and eye contact to show that you’re engaged in what others are saying to you.

When people make assumptions, it can be quite destructive for a business. For example, if a customer misses an invoice deadline, you may become frustrated and assume they’ve done it deliberately, when it could have simply been an oversight.

In this instance, if your assumption turns into an accusation, it could cause irreparable damage to the business relationship.

It’s helpful to remember that none of us are experts at mind reading, so take some time to gather the facts. And if it seems someone is making assumptions about you or your business, don’t be afraid to reach out to them. Be sure to approach them with genuine interest in their concerns — it will help everyone involved.

When you take time to challenge assumptions — both yours and others’ — you may learn something valuable and improve your business as a result.

Asking the right questions takes effort, but it can yield invaluable results. If you know the most appropriate questions to ask, you can get the information you want and convey a lot about yourself. Asking intelligent questions is one way to show your competence and expertise on a subject matter, and it’s an indispensable part of business networking.

For example, a sales team member should always be looking to ask logical, open-ended questions to learn as much as they can about their potential leads in a short space of time. This can help them gain a much better understanding of the customer as a whole, as well as their pain points.

Though many of our tips have focused on being more patient and less assertive, it is impossible to be a good leader without knowing when to put your foot down.

Being assertive doesn’t mean you have to be aggressive and pushy, but rather clear and effective. When you’re judicious about being assertive, people will see that you’re committed, concerned and considerate.

In fact, by using a less assertive leadership approach, you can make things happen without being too firm. Your employees will see your strength of purpose and drive to succeed and appreciate it.

If you can communicate effectively, you have the power to drive serious change within your organisation. You can find new opportunities, boost morale, enhance productivity, and streamline just about every aspect of business management.

Let’s look at six key areas where effective communication is essential for business success:

• Building relationships: Businesses thrive on positive relationships, whether between managers and employees or associates and clients. Effective workplace communication strengthens bonds and forges more productive working relationships.
• Collaboration and motivation: When everyone feels that their views will be heard and understood, they’ll be motivated to collaborate, innovate and work together to achieve common goals.
• Productivity: Articulating thoughts in a way that leaves no room for ambiguity reduces misunderstandings, ensuring consistent productivity.
• Innovation: Teams that can communicate effectively and express ideas efficiently find it easier to solve complex problems and innovate. Ideas are always better when multiple people can have their say on the best approach.
• Conflict resolution: Conflict is unavoidable at times, but disagreements that get out of hand can disrupt growth. Great communication is the key to minimising misunderstandings and resolving conflicts constructively.
• Credibility: Whether conveying product features to clients, organisational goals to stakeholders or new opportunities to investors, communication effectiveness is key to building trust and credibility.

All of these elements combined will help you chart a clearer path to achieving your long-term business objectives.

All businesses, regardless of the sector they’re in, need to use multiple communication channels to run a successful operation. If you excel in one area, such as verbal communication, but lack skills and experience in written communication, your business could suffer.

Email is still king for communication, both internally and with customers. In our latest research, 93% of people surveyed said that email was their primary digital marketing channel for engaging with companies. Whether crafting responses to clients, customers, or internally, it’s important to spend the time needed to make your emails as effective and efficient as possible.

Keep these tips in mind to ensure your email communications are effective:

• Be precise and professional: Get straight to the point with your emails and remain professional and courteous at all times.
• Include a clear subject line: Your recipient should instantly know the context of the email based on what’s in the subject line.
• Be brief: Try not to waffle, and keep your paragraphs short. No one likes seeing big blocks of text.
• Proofread meticulously: You risk looking clumsy and unprofessional if your emails are littered with spelling and grammatical errors, so check them carefully before sending.
• Know when to switch: If you have to address serious issues or you need a quick resolution, be sure to make a phone call or handle it in person rather than sending an email.

Video conferencing became a necessary form of communication during the pandemic, and it’s likely here to stay. While it might be considered a slightly less-formal communication approach in certain circumstances, it’s still important to observe a few best practices:

• Make sure your tech setup is professional. A good quality camera, effective lighting, and suitable sound equipment should all be a given if you want to have successful video calls.
• Test your hardware and software. Make sure everything is working — the last thing you want is for something to fail as soon as the call begins.
• Be on time. Always remember that video calls are just as important as in-person meetings, so you should give them the same respect and diligence.
• Make eye contact. Know where your camera lens is so you can maintain eye contact with the people you’re talking to.
• Dress appropriately. Your attire is a key non-verbal cue. Make sure your outfit is suitable for the context of your conversation.

For internal communications, often the best medium is an instant messaging service like Slack. If everyone uses it correctly, your team members should be able to pass key information to the necessary parties quickly and get a prompt response.

Keep these instant messaging best practices in mind:

• Keep things short. Like most forms of business communication, with IM, the quicker you can convey necessary information, the better.
• Establish ground rules. Make sure that certain digital channels are only being used for certain topics and discussions, or things will become cluttered and unorganised.
• Respect colleagues' time. If a colleague doesn’t answer straight away, avoid the temptation to pester them. They may simply be in a meeting or focusing on a critical task.
• Remain professional. It can be tempting to slip into ‘text talk’ for IM, but remember that you’re still at work, so you should be professional in your messages at all times.
• Be mindful of your status. Setting your status to ‘Away’ or ‘Offline’ when necessary is important in making sure messages don’t get lost or forgotten about.

When you communicate with people in your organisation effectively, you’re more aware of potential problems and better able to implement solutions.

By focusing on the skills we’ve discussed in this article, you’ll be more informed about every aspect of the social mechanisms of your business, and you’ll better understand the concerns of your workforce. If you communicate with your customers effectively, you can catch potential pitfalls, establish trusting relationships and potentially increase revenue over time.

If you’d like additional guidance related to effective communication in business, Salesforce’s Trailhead is great for improving communication skills. It features dozens of modules that can help you build industry- and role-specific communication experience and skills in the workplace, all for free.

Start learning today!