Transformative client and internal communication in consulting

Effective communication is critical to being a successful consultant, and to improve your communication skills, you need to:

• Practice. The more you work at communicating, the better you will be. Practice writing emails, newsletters, updates, and targeted reports so you can be better prepared to speak on all topics. 
• Know your audience. One of the most important things to know when communicating is who your audience is, what they need to know, and how you can best deliver that information. Study who you’ll be communicating with and create a plan to deliver on what they expect. 
• Listen. One component of communication that is often overlooked is listening. The more you listen, the better you will know your audience and what they need. 
• Work with a mentor. If you feel you have weak communication skills, find a mentor who can help you practice your delivery. 
• Gather feedback. Either from your mentor or your audience, collect feedback to see where you can improve. 
• Use data insights. If you’re not hitting your goals, see if your communication weaknesses are to blame. Look at open rates, click-thru rates, and other metrics. If your emails or newsletters aren’t getting read, work on your written communication skills. If deals aren’t closing or you aren’t connecting with clients, see if you’re sending too many emails — or maybe not enough. Find a level of communication that connects with your client without overwhelming them. 

For consultants, effective communication drives results. If you can’t connect with your audience, understand what they need, and deliver that to them in a meaningful way, you will fail to build the relationships that will drive your business. 

You need good communication skills to consult with your clients because you need to be able to understand their needs and how you can best deliver on those — even when the client can’t always put exactly what they want into words.

Part listening, part discerning, a consultant needs top-level communication capabilities to help a client discover what they need and how that outcome can be achieved. They need to be able to parse out what the client wants and provide those insights to help their clients achieve their business goals. 

Consultants — many of whom are never given formal writing training — can now rely on AI guidance to craft better communications. When they don’t have to work from scratch, they can spend more time consulting and less time writing.