Is communication critical? | David Toushek | The DoneMaker Podcast

Communication is often touted as the king of business success, yet many organizations fail to treat it with the urgency and strategic focus it deserves. In a compelling discussion with communication expert David Toushek, founder of Everything Communications, we delve into why communication is truly everything in business, especially when it comes to sales and client retention. This article unpacks seven essential insights from David’s extensive experience working with some of the world’s largest companies, revealing how optimizing communication can transform customer and employee experiences alike.

Whether you’re a business leader, sales professional, or entrepreneur, these insights will challenge your current perceptions and provide actionable strategies to maximize communication’s impact across your organization. Discover the impact of communications in sales and client retention in this article.

1. Communication Is Everything: Why It Deserves Strategic Priority

David’s foundational belief is simple yet profound: communication is everything. Not just in business, but in life. Whether it’s relationships with your spouse, your children, colleagues, or clients, everything that is created or maintained happens through communication, for better or worse.

Despite this, many organizations treat communication as a secondary function rather than the core driver of business success it truly is. “We say it’s the most critical thing, but we don’t actually treat it like that,” David emphasizes. This disconnect is especially problematic because communication is the lifeblood of customer experiences, employee satisfaction, and ultimately, business growth.

David’s company, Everything Communications, was founded to address this gap by helping organizations optimize communication across every department—from sales and marketing to operations and HR, unearthing the biggest gaps, frictions, and opportunities to improve.

2. The Missing Role: Where Are Your Chief Communications Officers (CCOs)?

One of the central challenges David identifies is the absence of dedicated leadership responsible for communication across an entire organization. While many companies have heads of corporate communications or PR, these roles typically focus on internal communications, media relations, or investor relations, not on maximizing communication in sales, marketing, or customer service.

David points out that no one is usually tasked with the mandate, budget, and expertise to optimize communication holistically. Without this leadership, communication efforts become fragmented and inconsistent, leading to lost opportunities and poor customer experiences.

He has even written an article titled Where Are Your CCOs?, urging organizations to create roles like Chief Communications Officers who can oversee and unify communication strategies across departments.

3. Instant Messaging: The Overlooked Channel for Sales and Client Retention

One of the most striking observations David makes is about the underutilization of instant messaging (IM) as a communication channel in B2B sales and client relationships. Despite its ubiquity in personal communication, instant messaging is rarely embraced as a professional tool for engaging clients.

David shares his experience with Slack channels set up by companies for client communication that quickly become inactive or are shut down due to lack of resources. He explains that while Slack and similar tools were once powerful, the corporate landscape has shifted with Microsoft Teams becoming the dominant platform for internal messaging. However, Teams is not well suited for external communication due to complex federation requirements and IT hurdles.

David argues that if you’re working with a select group of clients, having an instant messaging channel with them is critical for building relationships, improving responsiveness, and ultimately increasing retention. He says, “If you don’t have an instant messaging relationship with your clients, it’s like emailing your friends to ask about weekend plans, you’re not very close.”

For salespeople and account managers, instant messaging enables quick, informal, and direct communication that fosters trust and connection, which are key to long-term client retention.

4. Email Is Not Enough: Selecting the Right Communication Tools

Many professionals still view email as the default and most professional form of business communication, especially in B2B contexts. David challenges this mindset, explaining that while email has its place, it’s often too slow and formal for building deep client relationships.

He advises that instant messaging and video calls should complement email to create a richer communication experience. Instant messaging offers immediacy and informality, while video calls add the human element of face-to-face interaction, which builds rapport and trust.

David also highlights common pitfalls with various platforms. For example, WhatsApp, while easy and popular, is insecure and unstructured, making it inappropriate for business use. Microsoft Teams, meanwhile, excels at internal communication but is cumbersome for external chats and video calls. Meanwhile, Zoom offers a robust platform that supports instant messaging, video conferencing, phone calls, and email integration, all in one place, making it a powerful choice for consolidating communication tools.

Consolidating communication tools not only simplifies management but enhances the user experience for sales teams and clients alike, reducing friction and improving responsiveness.

5. Video Calls: The Missed Opportunity for Building Trust and Engagement

David emphasizes the power of video calls in sales and client retention. He recounts many instances where salespeople rely solely on phone calls, missing the chance to build stronger relationships through face-to-face interaction—even virtually.

While in-person meetings are often ideal, they’re not always feasible due to time and logistical constraints. Video calls offer a practical alternative, allowing salespeople to establish rapport, read nonverbal cues, and build trust more effectively than voice calls alone.

He notes that many organizations already have video conferencing tools like Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams. However, sending Teams or Google Meet links to clients can sometimes create a frustrating experience due to technical challenges like poor connectivity or difficulty joining as guests.

David advises choosing platforms that clients find easy and pleasant to use, minimizing “client groans” when joining meetings. Platforms like Zoom are praised for their reliability, ease of use, and advanced features such as screen annotation, whiteboarding, and AI-powered meeting highlights, which enhance communication quality.

6. AI and Communication: Empowering Employees, Enhancing Customer Experience

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming communication technologies, creating new opportunities to improve client interactions and internal workflows. David sees AI as a game changer, comparable to the revolutionary impact of the internet.

AI can assist contact center agents by listening to calls in real-time and proactively retrieving relevant information, reducing hold times and transfers. This leads to faster, more accurate service and improves customer satisfaction.

However, David cautions against viewing AI as a replacement for human communication. Instead, he advocates for AI-powered tools that empower employees by automating menial tasks, allowing humans to focus on higher-value interactions.

He also highlights the importance of implementing AI thoughtfully, with clear strategies and timelines, to avoid becoming laggards in a rapidly evolving landscape. Companies that delay AI adoption risk falling behind competitors who leverage these tools to enhance communication for sales and client retention.

7. Take Action: Make Communication a Strategic Priority Today

The most important takeaway from David’s insights is that organizations must stop viewing communication as an afterthought and start treating it as the critical, strategic function it is. This means:

• Recognizing communication as the foundation of all customer and employee experiences.
• Assigning dedicated leadership with the mandate, expertise, and budget to optimize communication across the organization.
• Investing in the right tools and technology that enable seamless, effective communication internally and externally.
• Building authentic, instant messaging and video relationships with clients to boost retention.
• Leveraging AI to empower employees and enhance customer service without sacrificing the human touch.

David’s final advice is to ask yourself: Is communication critical or not? If the answer is yes, then it’s time to act. Don’t just say communication matters, invest in it, optimize it, and make it the key driver of your sales and client retention strategy.

FAQ: Communication for Sales and Client Retention