As much as I don’t like to admit it sometimes, my husband is
a very competent communicator. He is a
very logical thinker and is also very organized and thorough with everything
that he does. He is the type of person
that knows what he wants or expects and knows exactly how to get it.
An example for this is
when we were purchasing a car this past year.
Before even entering a dealership, he set criteria for what he expected
from the car and spent time researching.
After using the criteria and research, he selected a few choices from
various dealerships and emailed to gather information about their product. When the dealerships made offers to my
husband, he presented the offers to the other dealers who also had the same car
in which we were interested. This
created competition among the dealers allowing us to get a better deal on the
car we were purchasing. Not only did he
email the dealer, he copied all of the correspondences he made to the manager
of the dealership as well. This held the
dealers accountable for customer satisfaction.
After he found the best deal for the car that we wanted, he transferred
his communication from the dealer, who works on commission from the car, to the
finance manager, who works on commission from the loan package. This allowed us to receive the car at a lower
rate than we would have working directly through the dealer. All of this occurred before even setting foot
into a dealership. When we did finally
go to pick the car up, we signed the documents and drove away with the care
within the hour.
Not only did my husband use his communication skills to save
our family time, he also was able to leverage a good deal and get our car under
the estimated value. I believe that he
knew how to communicate with the car dealers, but he also anticipated their
motivations and used this to get what he wanted.
I would love to model some of my own communication skills
after my husband. He is extremely
assertive and confident in both what he says and what he does, especially when
communicating in business type situations.
I am the opposite of him, I am much more laissez-faire in my behavior
and try to avoid conflict and appease everyone.
I feel that being more direct could benefit me in achieving tasks both
personally and professionally.
Ashli,
ReplyDeleteWow, congratulations on a great deal! O'hair and Wiemann share that one of the functions of communication is to accomplish an objective; goal achievement. Your husband was sure focused on getting the job done and it sure paid off in the end, with more than one goal being met; the car you wanted, great financing, control of the situation, and customer satisfaction. Like you, I could sure use a page from his play book, I'm much more of a push over.
O'- Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Ashli,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing. I enjoyed reading your blog assignment. I applaud you for being able to admit that your husband has skills and give him kudos, LOL. The qualities you mentioned that shows your husband's competence as a communicator are good ones. When a person is prepared, knowledgeable, confident and assertive, one can only hope success is the outcome as I too relate to a similar situation.