How to talk to Anyone?

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

How to Talk to Anyone?

You must’ve noticed that you are at a party, you like someone from a distance and you wanted to talk to them, but you couldn’t, and you returned home. But then you think that maybe you had that courage to speak to them. It could even happen on a bus, train, or metro. The main problem is how to start a conversation and how to talk to anyone? If you face similar issues, then this lesson is for you.

Practice

People say it so quickly that you have to practice. For example, someone might say that you are going to China, so you practice speaking Chinese. It’s easy to say rather than doing it. How will you practice Chinese? Do you want to talk to the Chinese? I will tell you how to practice and what’s the right way.

• Choose the right person who will be interested in talking to you. Everyone has such a person to whom they can open their heart to. Maybe, you also have one. It could be your friend, spouse, cousin, or grandparents. You need to look for them and see that they are equally interested in talking to you.

• Make sure the person is free. It shouldn’t be that when you approach them and they are busy doing something else.

• Choose a life incident to narrate. It could be about anything. It could be that once upon a time, you faced an embarrassing situation in the past or an achievement. Narrate it in a friendly way. Narrate it as a story, form pictures in your conversation. Could you not keep it short; paint your account? For example, “I was traveling on a bike, and there was a pool of water. A car approached and splashed the water on my white shirt that turned brown after the water splashed on it.”

• Involve the person with the questions like, “what would you have done if you were in my 
situation?” For example, continuing from the story in the previous point, you add, “I chased the car down, and it stopped at a signal. What would you have done in my situation?” With this question, I have involved that person. He would have responded with whatever he says. Make sure you listen without interrupting. Interruption reduces the attraction that the other person might be feeling.

• Try to pause and smile whenever needed. If you feel they are speaking well, then appreciate with a smile. If you are telling them something, then take small pauses at appropriate places. You will have all the attention of the other person.

• Maintain eye contact while speaking. Don’t look anywhere else when you are talking. Its 
disrespectful.

• Add humor if you can and whenever possible.

It would help if you practiced this at least seven times. Find out seven different incidents and talk about it with people. You will notice that you have opened up even more, and it’s easier to talk to people. If you were an introvert, you would now start to become an extrovert.

On-Field Practice

Once you see the changes in you, you will go out in public and talk to other people. You can choose to do the following things:
1. Use hi/hello as an opener. Appreciate other people. It would help if you were specific with your appreciation. If you like a phone cover, then you must stick with the phone cover. Be genuine.

2. If I say hi, look and pause, smile, and not say anything, you will give all your attention to me. So it’s essential to stay for a bit. The technique of hi and smiling has been done for ages. When you approach someone with hi and a smile, the other person understands that you are prospecting them and the sales pitch is about to begin. When you tell a girl that they look gorgeous, they assume that something else is about to happen.

3. You can ask a question after this. For example, you go to a mall to shop, and you enter a store. Upon entering the store, you spot a person, and you ask him, “are you the manager?” When you say ‘are you,’ it signifies that either it will be or not be.

4. Questions are the answers. You have to ask questions while having a conversation. The questions should be relevant to the topic. If you are having a conversation with a person and telling you about their education, you can ask them where they are studying, their plans, or anything related to their field of education. When I ask questions, I am opening the person to know them better and keep the conversation going.

For example, I went to buy a purse for my mother from the airport. I spotted a lady at the store and asked for her suggestions to help me choose the few available options. Once I had purchased and the opener used, I can talk to her about anything if I wish to. It would help if you practiced this in real life. Personality development is all about practice. The more, the better. If we want better results in life, we need to practice more. Do seven sessions of both the situations 
we discussed above, and by the end, you will be able to talk to anybody.