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Cross functional communication is a critical part of any sales manager’s job and cross functional friction is a sure career killer. Here’s how to improve your cross functional communication. This is video three in a six-part series on effective communication for leaders and managers.

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—Cross Functional Communication—

Being a sales leader would be great if all you had to do was manage the sales process and motivate your salespeople. But that’s not all you do, is it?

Part of your job is talking with HR, aligning with sales ops, coordinating with enablement, working with marketing, and interacting with other sales managers at your company, not to mention your manager and her manager.

How in the world are you going to do all that?

As I’m sure you’ve come to find out—no one told you this when you agreed to be a sales manager—cross functional communication is a critical part of your job. And cross functional friction, the inability to work in a positive, productive manner with other parts of the business, is a career killer.

To make matters worse, you usually have discussions with other parts of the business when things have gone wrong, like two salespeople vying for full commission on the same account or a marketing campaign that scheduled a bunch of meetings on the calendar than no one showed up to.

So here’s a helpful acronym to guide your conversations. It’s the word talk: T, A, L, K.

T - Trust the best in others

Like mastering digital communication, the topic of the next video in this series, the starting place for effective cross functional communication is assuming positive intent. Or, in keeping with the TALK acronym, trusting the best in others.

Any time you enter into a discussion with a colleague, difficult or otherwise, do so with a blank slate, granting them the benefit of the doubt.

No, I’m not naive enough to believe that colleagues never have ulterior motives, but most don’t. Most are just like you, trying to do good work in challenging circumstances. Begin here by believing the best in them until proven otherwise.

A - Ask neutral questions

The trust you’re granting cross function colleagues is now expressed in questions that ask for information, instead of questions with implied accusation.

A neutral question is first an open-ended question. That is, a question that does not elicit a yes or no answer. Note the difference between, “Do you like soup?” and “What kind of soup do you like?” You’ll get a lot more information from the latter than the former.

But be careful, not all open-ended questions are neutral. As in, “Why do you like that kind of soup?”

On the whole, avoid why and stick with what, where, when, and how. But always do so from an honest desire to understand what’s really going on, not to make a passive-aggressive point by stating it in the form of a question.

L - Listen completely

If you’re going to ask neutral, open-ended questions, then, of course the next step is to listen. Really listen.

To determine if you’ve listened completely to a colleague, restate what they’re saying in your own words. If they reply, “Yes, that’s it.” Congratulations, you got it!

If not, keep listening (and restating) until you achieve that eureka moment.

You don’t to agree with another person’s point of view to do this. You just need to demonstrate that they’ve been heard.

K - Keep it short and simple

Ah yes, another acronym. KISS: keep it short and simple.

In other words, when it’s time for you to talk, don’t go on and on. Here’s some advice I received as a young leader after going on and on at meeting. “Bill, stand up, speak up, and shut up!”

Good advice. I offer it to you as well in being more effective in your cross-functional communication.

In my next video on effective communication for leaders, we’ll explore how to communicate effectively through the digital platforms we’re all on right now.

Thanks for watching.