Business Sticky Beak

Ok so today I am on my soap box big time, I’ve had a busy week and I like to spend Fridays catching up on the small things not the entire day responding to emails – ones that a phone call and conversation could be answered quickly and efficiently!

I think the power of the internet is amazing, I believe that email is a wonderful thing surely it’s not meant to replace the art of a simple conversation. I’m a verbal communicator I respond to and thrive on conversation and interaction. I don’t want to spend my days constructing emails and responses when a quick conversation can get the same result in less time!

The simple art of conversation allows us to explore opportunites and areas that a email cannot; imagine you are on the phone with a customer and they tell you something that prompts an idea in your mind and an OPPORTUNITY to make a new sale or to upsell or cross sell, promote, advertise whatever appears, you have right in that moment the glorious advantage of securing it. Now if the same were said for email – how would that work – you would need to construct (an appropriate) email response back to your client and rely on the power of the written word alone – phewy I say!!! Do you know how long it will take you to construct that email so that it doesn’t sound like too much of a sales pitch??

In fact here is a story worth re-telling up until 4 months ago I was a member of an online professional development group for a particular aspect of my business and had been for almost two years. I decide to cancel my membership for a number of reasons but for this story we will keep it simple… I simply found information from another source that was more relevant at the time. Now back to what happened… I received an email from the assistant to the owner of this online forum asking would I like to reconsider  and pay an additional fee that would take me up to “lifetime” member status and could I get back to them…. ah let me think about that for a minute…. You couldn’t be bothered to pick up the phone and call? and your assistant sent the email? I don’t think so… two weeks later another long email arrives pointing out all the benefits of the forum and membership and the “lifetime” benefits again from the assistant… do you think I changed my preferred style of communication in those two weeks?? And do you really understand what I need, value and want as a customer?? Here is the cold hard facts – if someone had bothered to pick up the phone I more than likely would have taken up the offer.

And here’s another story… I sent a proposal to a potential customer and followed up with a PHONE CALL a week after I sent the proposal. They never returned my call… poor me… so I followed up the following week with you guessed it a PHONE CALL… they never returned my call… I did this for 6 weeks and in between sent three emails stating that I had called and could they get back to me. No response – I’ m ok if you don’t want to work with me there are others out there that do and I won’t be crushed by you saying no – and if not me I might just know the right person to connect you with (after all I am a networking expert!) but have the common courtesy and manners to call back.

If developing relationships in business is heading to email contact only - I want no part of it I want human interaction! I want to enjoy the process of discovering the qualities, talents, values and traits of the people who I meet. I’m happy to post content to blogs and share my thoughts and conversations via twitter and facebook and other online mediums but I do not want to lose the simple pleasure of enjoying the art of conversation.

If you would like a chat – give me a call 612 4243 0779

Sue!