Mark Whitby

Does your sales office sound like a typing pool?  I've noticed that many recruiters prefer to email instead of actually speaking to their clients and candidates.

Here are 9 reasons why that's a bad idea:

1. You can't build relationships by email.  Imagine if you only emailed your friends and family instead of calling them.  How strong do you suppose your personal relationship would be?  The same applies to your business relationships.



2. The telephone is intimate -- you have the chance to really connect with another human being.  Email is less personal -- you miss the chance to build trust and rapport with your clients and candidates.



3. It's harder to influence other people's opinions and decisions by email.  Think about it.  The telephone is a two-way channel of communication.  When it comes to selling, a dialog beats a monolog any day!



4. It's difficult to convey tone of voice by email no matter how many "smilies" you use :-) There's always a danger of being misunderstood and a perfectly innocent email can spark a negative reaction from the recipient.



5. Because you can't read body language by email, potential deal breakers are much harder to detect.  Clients and candidates can string you along more easily by email than they can by telephone.



6. Every conversation is an opportunity to re-qualify the candidate, gain leads, referrals and market intelligence.  Much harder to achieve by email.



7. When problems arise, a quick telephone call is often all that's required to resolve things amicably.  On the other hand, a heated exchange of emails can quickly escalate issues past the point of no return.



8. You have no control over how quickly someone responds to your email.  When you need an immediate answer, use the telephone.



9. Reading and replying to email wastes a lot of time.  It's easy to get bogged down.  Instead of spending the first hour of every day in your "inbox", spend it on the phone instead.  I guarantee you'll see an increase in billings.

When I first started in recruitment, we didn't have email.  Remember when you had to send resumes by fax or post?  I'm not advocating a return to the dark ages of recruitment; email certainly makes our job easier.  But I've noticed that Big Billers still spend a lot of time on the phone.

So the next time you're about to write an email, stop and ask yourself: "Could I get better or faster results with a phone call?"  If the answer is yes, then pick up the phone!

© 2008 Mark Whitby, All rights reserved.
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