E-Verbosity

Some people just love to hear themselves write.

In this age of myriad electronic communication avenues, some of which I can’t even pronounce much less explain what they are and how they work, there is still something to be said about brevity.

Tell me is there anything worse than what happened to me at the recent AICPA Engage conference in Las Vegas, where I somehow got corralled into listening to a vendor drone on endlessly about his product and how it would absolutely, positively revolutionize the profession as we know it. With 4,000 or so attendees, I’m fairly certain I was not the only one on the wrong end of a Sominex pitch.

But you know what made it worse?

Two days later I received an opus from him in the form of an email, regurgitating every aspect of my eye-rolling exhibitor booth entrapment.

Needless to say, the message quickly found its way into the e-circular file.

I, as I’m sure many of you, receive dozens of emails a week touting specific products and services. In full disclosure, I send many myself showcasing our array of services to prospects hoping for that all-important response.

But early on, I learned to keep it short and to the point after more than one potential client responded urging me to stop sending him emails the length of the Old Testament.

So via several painful rejections, I took out the virtual paring knife and winnowed my e-mails accordingly. Therefore I get to the point in one to three sentences and by virtue, more rapidly qualify someone.

What I also don’t do is give away the store – or in sales training parlance, “the candy” in one sitting, especially if they’re slated to receive further communications from me. I ease into it. Otherwise they may go shopping at one of our lower-priced competitors or in the worst-case scenario, call you up with a hundred questions disguised as unpaid consulting.

One thing I also learned is to dispense with an abundance of opening pleasantries and quickly address pain points. In our case, it focuses on succession planning and ownership transition.

This accomplishes two things: one it leads to a quicker qualification and two, if it doesn’t, I know my time will be better spent elsewhere than trying to convince someone to come over to our side of the fence.

So if you find yourself at a trade show and someone approaches with a “how are you today, are you familiar with our product?” either walk away quickly or prepare for the inevitable lengthy email blasts for the near future.