Business communication has changed at a remarkable pace in the thirty-plus years since I graduated from college. Back in the late 70s, a salesperson would dial (yes, dial) the phone, get the secretary, ask for the decision maker, and either get connected or a message was taken on a pink message slip that was placed directly on the decision maker's desk. The call was almost certain to be returned. I swear.
Then along came voice-mail. The decision maker could listen to the message and decide whether the issue was worth a return call. Thus, in the mid-80's, voice-mail became the first sales prevention technology. There weren't many of us who thought of it as a negative influence on selling, but it was, and still is.
E-mail is even worse. Have you ever noticed how people love to brag about how many e-mails they get? As though that were some kind of indication of how important they are. People complain about getting them, but love to get them! Now we even have smart phones that receive e-mail automatically and portably, so we can get our e-mail anytime, anywhere.
Well, I've had enough. Selling used to be done face to face, and that is still the best way to sell. We have a saying around our office: "All things being equal, people buy from people they trust. All things NOT being equal, people STILL buy from people they trust". How do you create and foster trust from a new prospect? Not with e-mail.
Granted, there are positive aspects to e-mail. It's perfect for communicating a message to multiple people simultaneously and quickly. They can be filed, sorted, and passed on to others. Fine. Now let's take a look at the negatives:
- Time Management. Most people have no idea how to structure their time so that they maximize their productivity. When they open their inbox first thing in the morning they become slaves to the wind and waves created by the demands of prospects, clients, co-workers and others. You wouldn't believe how many people tell me they have no time to make prospecting calls because they are always responding to e-mail messages.
- Distractions. I was sitting in a prospect's office on a sales call. His inbox chime sounded, and in mid-sentence he turned to his keyboard to see what it was. He just couldn't help himself. Our conversation became disjointed as his attention was divided. Another salesperson was presenting to a group when his PDA vibrated, and he took it out of his pocket to see who had e-mailed him – twice!
- Abuse. Studies show that in a face-to-face communication, 55 percent of the message is in the body language, 38 percent in the tonality (pitch, volume, pace, voice inflection, etc.) and only 7 percent in the actual words. So by definition e-mail is an ineffective way to communicate. Yet salespeople insist on e-mailing proposals, quotes, and other critical messages without getting that body language and tonality feedback. Then they scratch their heads when they lose the deal to a lower cost provider.
- Spam filters. Recently I heard about a telephone service salesperson whose updated proposal was e-mailed, caught in the prospect's spam filter, and he was disqualified for not submitting a bid. How many of your e-mails to prospects and key clients have been similarly misplaced, deleted, or just plain lost in the e-mail jungle?
Let's all get back to selling like selling is supposed to be done. We can still use e-mail, if we do it right. Try to use e-mail only twice per day, in the morning after you have laid out your day's plan of action, and at the end of the day, when you are unlikely to be successful reaching clients and prospects via the phone. Document conversations with e-mail, confirm appointments, and communicate to multiple people.
Pick up the phone – even voice-mail has the tonality component in it – and call people to set appointments and work out business issues. Looking them square in the eye, firm-but-not-too-firm handshake, a warm smile, and let's talk business in an environment where we can respond to each other's questions, feelings and emotions real-time. Let's go back to the good old days – when a business communication was a real conversation!
Al Simon is president of Simon, Inc., an authorized licensee of Sandler Training. He can be contacted via www.SimonSaysSell.net.
