OK so today I am on my soap box big time, I 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 opportunities 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 up-sell 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 (61) 0418 506 671
Sue!
Stay Connected With Us