I come into my office everyday, as do most of you, to flashing lights on the phone indicating new voicemails. While my laptop is warming up and I’m unloading the briefcase of work I carried home, I listen to those messages. And more and more these days, the quality of the message (or lack thereof) causes me to simply delete messages without so much as noting the caller's name or number. Why? Not because I’m trying to be rude (though I realize that’s the outcome) but because the caller gives me no reason to respond except that they (complete strangers to me) want me to.
“Hi Janet, this is Joe Schmoe from XYZ company. Call me at 555.555.5555”
Very slight variations of that message arrived multiple times in just the last week. I don’t know Joe Schmoe, I have no business dealings with XYZ, I don’t know what they do, and I can see no reason to even write down the number, except for some ancient sense of courtesy. And frankly, as busy as life is, I find it hard to find time to be as courteous as I think appropriate to my actual friends and colleagues, let alone total strangers who seem to expect something from me.
“Hi Janet, this is Joe Schmoe, we met at last week’s networking event and I would like to speak more. Call me at 555.555.5555.”
This one is not much better, unless I can recall Joe from the hundreds of folks I spoke with at that event. If he’s instead taken the extra few moments to say, “I so enjoyed our conversation about the changing dynamics in marketing to pipefitters and thought you might be willing to continue that discussion…” I would have some context, have a clue to recall the conversation and hopefully the individual, and perhaps an incentive to call him back. Without the reference, there is no guarantee or even likelihood that the recipient will even know who the guy is.
Here’s the message busy people like to receive:
“Hi Janet, this is Joe Schmoe from XYZ, a leading provider of pipefitter targeting solutions. I have some ideas that might help your business (save money, target more efficiently, sell more…you fill in the blank with the most relevant offer you have) with very little effort from you. You can find out more about us at www.xyz.com/pipefitters. I’d love to speak with you about our offerings, and since I know you are busy, I can make it very quick. If this sounds like a fit, will you give me a call at 555.555.5555?. If you are not the right person at your company for this conversation, I’d so appreciate a call letting me know who is.”
See the difference. The latter does not absolutely assure a call back, but your odds go WAY up. And it's so simple, but so few take the time to do it.
What are your voicemail or e-mail pet peeves? If you send them in, we’ll see if we can’t find better solutions in this space over the weeks to come. And, if you are coming to Camp WorldWIT, we can laugh over them there. If you have not yet signed up for this year’s Camp WorldWIT, you are missing a great event…take a look at your calendar to see if you can’t meet me in St Louis (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Sign up for camp at http://www.worldwit.org/Camp.aspx.
Janet Ryan is VP - Publisher for Macworld magazine, the leading print and online publication for the Mac market. Macworld's online publications are macworld.com, playlistmag.com and macosxhints.com. Macworld is a publication of IDG, which publishes over 150 trade and computer magazines and produces, among other events, the popular Macworld Expo. She is a 27+ year sales professional with expertise in consultative and conversational selling. She has sold millions of dollars worth of corporate contracts, run multimillion dollar profit centers, and trained thousands of salespeople to more effectively meet their sales and professional development goals. She can be reached at: jryan@macworld.com.
