Pick up the phone
Last Friday my Internet connection was down. As you can imagine, this was very frustrating. I had to rethink my entire day once I discovered that the problem would not be resolved until Saturday.
I was eventually able to receive incoming email through my webmail, but not able to send out. In my webmail I found some extremely important personal and business emails which needed immediate attention. Of course, I received these at the nth hour, as I was trying to finish up in time to head to my cabin for the weekend. So what did I do? I picked up the phone.
When I do not hear back from a client or prospect to whom I’ve sent an important email earlier in the day, I don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call them. I believe as a society we have become too dependent on the Internet—and on email in particular—as our primary form of communication.
Earlier in the week, I was speaking to a successful book publishing sales representative. He expressed how it was so much easier to have a quick and effective conversation with a prospect and get all their questions answered during a phone call rather than to go back and forth multiple times by email.
I agree. If you have a business, you are in the relationship business. This means a balance of email, in-person and telephone interactions.