Effective business communication Seminars

Customized for Business, Technical, Financial, Sales, and Marketing Correspondence
Personalized for everyone responsible for producing letters, memos, bulletins, or reports

Skills learned

As a result of taking this course, students will be able to:

• Use a "building block" system to ensure efficient, effective communications
• Save time by pinpointing the objective and focusing only on pertinent information
• Organize information for clarity and interest
• Create immediate attention and maintain it all the way to the closing
• Gain the reader's good will by using the right language, style, and tone
• Lead the reader to the desired action or reaction
• Edit with confidence

One course for all your needs

Students learn to produce the kinds of writing their jobs require:

• Sales letters that get more appointments, strengthen relationships, and achieve more sales
• Technical reports that provide essential information quickly and clearly for a diverse group of readers and focus on solutions, not problems
• Audit reports that lead to improvements and are perceived as helpful, not judgmental
• Customer service letters that maintain goodwill, present unwelcome news diplomatically, and speak naturally without a form-letter feel
• Memos that inform concisely, request persuasively, and motivate readers to follow new policies and procedures through explanation, not edict

In short, our system works for all kinds of business writing-technical, financial, sales, administrative, customer service, and executive.

What happens before, during and after an on-site two-day seminar to make it productive for the company and for each participant?

We begin with a job-related profile of each participant, based on information given us by the participant.

Writing samples tell us the kind of writing participants produce, for example-technical reports, internal memos, formal and informal letters, proposals, and status reports.

Seventy percent of classroom time is devoted to writing on work-related situations and analyzing that writing. Participants learn how to examine the effectiveness of their own correspondence in lively interactive sessions directed by the seminar leader.

We literally dissect each piece of writing

• stripping out unnecessary language
• restructuring phrases, sentences, and paragraphs
• simplifying, changing, and clarifying language
• building linkage, transition, style
• repositioning and reorganizing information
• checking openings and closings to see that they match up with objectives

Six building blocks for effective writing

• Unfolding (organization, clarity, relevance)
• Envelopment (the "you" concept, focus on reader needs)
• Tone (character, mood, attitude, structure)
• Opening (direction, purpose, attention, interest)
• Release (change of pace for impact)
• Thrust (the call to action or reaction)

Practice sessions assure a high level of retention

In small break-out groups, we further analyze the writing of course participants. Analysis allows principles to be understood and learning to be permanent.