I send a lot of emails each day to partners, prospects, and clients, and often find myself sprinkling my messages with all kinds of formalities. It’s what I see as the icing on the cake (you wouldn’t dare serve a birthday cake without all of that tasty icing, would you?) but I often wonder if it isn’t an unnecessary layer that clouds my messaging and makes it hard for a time-pressed recipient to get to the heart of my message. I also wonder if it doesn’t water down my points and slow down the sense of urgency I am trying to convey.
Take for instance a recent message I sent to a prospective client. Rather then loading the message with the boiler-plate formalities (“hope you are well”, “I know it has been a while but I really wanted to connect”), I constructed a clear, concise message:
Hello (name),
Are you in the market for any Sharepoint services? Architecture, design, development, analysis?
Thank you,
Scott
Now in this case, I’m preforming a business development task which has it’s own set of standards. But I’ve sat in on enough inter-employee meetings at companies I’ve consulted with and/or worked for, and find business leaders, even when speaking to each other, using a lot of abstract, esoteric language to communicate about a problem or challenge. We’ve all heard our co-workers ask us if we need help “harmonizing the data” but does that kind of talk really get us anywhere?
I will continue to encourage myself to speak directly and get to the point as quickly as possible with any business associates – client, employee, prospect, partner. If for no other reason then to show that I respect their time, and I’m interested in real solutions – not loose language.