You're struggling to make your point in business. How can you get others to listen?

In a business environment, when struggling to be heard, remember the importance of listening to understand before seeking to be understood. Speak confidently and assertively, articulating your points clearly. Engage in ‘active listening’ (it is a whole thing), seek feedback, and build relationships with allies who support you. Find opportunities to share your ideas in and out of meetings, with decision influencers and culture creators.

To make sure people listen to you in business, you need to first understand who they are, by finding out what they care about, what they want to achieve, and what problems they face. Also, you could try learning how they prefer to get information – through talking, pictures, or writing.

Take an improv approach by going back and forth with the audience -- specifically, when you do the active listening that Raquelle mentions, attend to what verbs, adjectives, or tone the person emphasizes, e.g., "I think/believe/feel/know...." have different implications and you will likely be more effective if using similar words or tone to play concepts back and draw them in. This is also known as mirroring.

In business, ensuring understanding takes repetition, time, and diverse channels. One email isn't enough – you'll be lucky if it's even read. Expect emails, follow-ups, face-to-face chats, and phone calls. Don't fret, it’s normal. But, don't bore your audience either! Be brief and to the point. Take the time to craft an engaging message no matter how mundane the subject.

Use analogies, ideally one your listener understands well. For example, if you know your listener is a sports fan, analogies like “bases loaded” or “more shots on goal” will resonate quickly and make people more engaged as well. Speak their language!

To get people to listen to you in business, talk clearly and keep it short. Use easy words and get straight to the point. Don't use complicated business words or too many extra words that aren't needed. Make sure your message is well-organized, starting with what you're going to talk about, then your main ideas, and wrapping up with a conclusion.

In my opinion, clear and concise messages are key to share our ideas smoothly. So, we have to avoid using jargon, acronyms, and filler words. This yields to ignore my ideas from audiences unfortunately. Moreover, we have to make our communication logically.

To get people to listen in business, you could try using stories and examples when you talk. Sharing a story or an example can help show what you mean, prove your point, and touch people's feelings. The stories you share should be directly related to your main idea, believable, and clear enough to help support what you're trying to say.

For me, using stories and examples leads to make good communication because of more engaging and memorable. If we use it, we can describe our point, provide evidence, and connect with our audience on an emotional level. Also, we can make our communication more personal and relatable. As a result, we can get trustworthy surely.

Using stories in business communication can be a powerful tool to convey information, engage your audience, and make your message more memorable. Here's how you can effectively do that: - Create Relevance: The story should relate to your prospects by highlighting common industry challenges or the asked business solution. - Present a Compelling Narrative: It should follow a clear structure with a relatable protagonist achieving success. - Maintain Authenticity: While your characters may (or may not) be fictional, their experiences should mirror real-world challenges that your prospects can relate to. - Highlight Takeaways: The story should conclude by inspiring your prospects to start pursuing the business solution presented by you!

To get others to listen to you, it is better to listen to them first, it shows you show that you care about what they think and feel. This makes them more likely to listen to you too. Also try to really pay attention when someone is talking, don't get distracted or cut them off. Asking questions that don't have a simple yes or no answer can be very helpful to keep the conversation going and show you're interested in what they have to say.

Your body language and the way you look at people, your facial expressions, how you move your hands, how you stand, and even how you speak can really affect how people listen to you. They can show if you are confident, excited, honest, and professional, or if you are not really sure about what you are saying. Remember, different cultures might see these cues differently, so to make sure your body language helps your message, try to match it with your words.