The Business of Meetings 88: Sharpen Your Cross-Cultural Communication Skills with Sue Hershkowitz-Coore
We are delighted to be speaking to Sue Hershkowitz-Coore today! Sue is an amazing speaker, full of energy and enthusiasm! She has also authored two books about writing and choosing the right words to convince whoever you are talking to.
In this episode, Sue talks about her journey and tells some amusing stories about how she got into public speaking. She shares her knowledge about creating emotional certainty, using email etiquette, and communicating with people from different cultures, and offers advice for anyone considering starting a speaking career.
We hope you learn a lot from listening to today’s conversation with Sue Hershkowitz-Coore!
Sue Hershkowitz-Coore’s bio
- Internationally recognized communications researcher and sales trainer with multiple degrees and honors from prestigious universities, Sue Hershkowitz-Coore helps audiences increase profitability, professionalism, and productivity through improved communications. Skillfully blending persuasion research, business trends, anecdotes, insights, and studies from the social sciences into practical training, Sue has developed a winning communication system that creates amazingly successful and profitable customer relationships.
- Sue has authored Power Sales Writing (now in its 2nd printing: McGraw-Hill) named among the “Best Books for Sales Success” by Selling Power magazine, and How to Say It to Sell It! (Prentice Hall/Penguin). She provides a fresh, practical look at how what you say, and how you say it, can skyrocket success.
- Speaker Sue is a past officer, board member, and President’s award winner of the National Speakers Association, a founding member of Meeting Professionals International’s Women’s Leadership Initiative, was designated an MPI “Platinum” speaker for 12 consecutive years and named “Best in Class″ by Professional Convention Management Association.
- Sue’s educational degrees include a Masters of Counseling and a Fellowship supported by the University of California at Berkeley. Her presentations take her around the world including very recent appearances in China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Canada and Mexico, and the US of course.
- Sue was awarded "Best Hospitality Sales Trainer - 2021" by LUXLife, the luxury lifestyle magazine.
Sue’s journey
Sue taught seventh and eighth grade English until her son was born. She wanted to spend more time with him, so she gave up teaching. Later, she started knocking on doors to earn a living. While pitching a bank, her enthusiasm made up for all she lacked in terms of professionalism, so they hired her. Everything else Sue achieved in her career came about as a result of that original presentation.
Becoming a speaker
Sue credits the National Speakers Association (NSA) for teaching her the fundamentals of being a professional speaker.
Writing a book
Listening to Larry Winget explain the steps you need to take to write a book at an NSA meeting motivated Sue to write her first book, Power Sales Writing. Larry suggested writing down 110 ideas, and then fleshing them out. On her flight home, Sue came up with 102 ideas. After that, she started writing the book.
Publishing her book
When trying to find a publisher for her book, Sue got 42 rejection letters. So, she published the book herself. Then an agent saw the book and offered to publish it, but Sue refused.
Part of a series
Later, Sue was asked to do a second version of her book. That book resulted in her being invited to be part of a popular series of “how-to” books for business communication.
Customer-centricity
Some of the most well-known brands in the world are Sue’s clients. She teaches their salespeople that everything needs to revolve around the customer. Over and above that, they need to move away from transactions and towards emotional certainty.
Choosing brain-friendly words to create emotional certainty
Research has shown that some words activate positive neurons in the brain and conjure up positive and pleasant images in the mind’s eye. Other words, however, activate negative neurons in the brain and cause people to imagine negative things. Most of us fail to realize how often we self-sabotage by using words that are not brain-friendly.
Moving to the next level
To move to the next level of emotional certainty, salespeople need to create excitement and focus on customer-centric outcomes.
Cross-cultural etiquette and best practices for email and texting etiquette
- Always honor the recipient when sending an email to someone in another country.
- When communicating with someone from a different culture, honor whatever their expectations are.
- Do not mention your name at the start of an email.
- Remember to give your name when texting someone for the first time.
- Be as authentic as possible when writing an email and infuse your message with positivity.
- Do not cross the line between being friendly and familiar when emailing or texting a client or customer.
- Do not send texts to your clients in the middle of the night.
- Choose your words carefully. People do tend to judge others by the tone and language they use in an email.
Connecting with someone on LinkedIn
When writing a message to connect with someone on LinkedIn, take a moment to do some research. You can read their home page, their “about” section, and quickly learn about the company they work for. Use some of that information to personalize your message. Remember that it is a business relationship, so be careful not to invade the personal space of the person to whom you are sending the message. Keep your message short, and never try to sell anything.
Advice for starting a speaking career
First, determine where your passion lies, and what matters to you. Then, figure out how to make that matter to the buyer. Always communicate from your heart, and keep on creating new content.
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