“Whenever it gets complicated or emotional on email, it’s time to pick up the phone or schedule a face-to-face.”
Having the name of someone known to the
recipient in the subject line vastly increases the chance he or she will open it. The worst subject lines? “Business Opportunity” or “An Introduc- tion” or anything else vague and generic. In that first email, you’ll then want something
short and friendly. You’ll probably want to start a bit more formal than you might think neces- sary: “Dear Mr. LASTNAME” or “Dear Ms. LAST- NAME.” Say how you know the referrer—is she a dear friend, the wife of a cousin, or someone you met at a conference? Tell the recipient what you want.Attach the necessary deck or informa- tion. (Though bear in mind not to be a memory hog — send weblinks or relatively small files, nothing over 2MB in total.) And then say that you’ll call to follow up in a few days. Make sure to have a great signature block with all your info in case the person wants to reach you in the meantime. The call, then, is the opportunity to win the person over. But make sure to reintroduce your-
Mea Culpa
The Three Cardinal Rules You Absolutely Have to Follow If You Are Trying to Apologize For a Mistake You Made on Email 1. Email got you in trouble, but probably won’t get you out of trouble. Fall on your sword, ideally in person or on the phone, right away. The graver the email sin, the more the email apology trivializes it. 2. Don’t blame email. Autofill addressed it, but you wrote it. 3. Pray that the wounded party has made a similar error and is therefore willing to forgive.
Excerpted from Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better, by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, Vintage Books.
self and say again what you want, as the person may have forgotten. Obviously, you want to tailor the approach to
your business and needs,but the point is to com- bine the different communication options, using each for what it does best. As for negotiating, our advice is that when-
ever it gets complicated or emotional on email, that’s the sign that it’s time to pick up the phone or schedule a face-to-face. But after a success- ful phone negotiation, email is great to confirm the details, so you have a record and aren’t rely- ing on notes and memory. This is true whether it’s a one-time transaction or ongoing. Always pick up the phone or set up a meeting when peo- ple are getting confused or hot under the collar. And always make sure you have a confirmation in writing of whatever you decide or work out. One final word of caution: Never put any-
thing in an email that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of your local newspaper! If something is sensitive or confidential, avoid email! There are important legal reasons for this as well (we have a lot on this in our book). In fact, Schwalbe and Shipley devote an entire
chapter—“TheEmailThatCanLandYouin Jail” —tothe legalramificationsofe-mail.It’snotjustyour ownjob that you can“torpedo,”theywrite.What youput inane-mailcansinkanentire organization. So they advise readers to think—and always
proofread their documents—before hitting the “send” key.And to keep this acronym in mind: S stands for Simple. E stands for Effective. N stands for Necessary. D stands for Done.
If it isn’t simple, they write, then it will create
confusion.If it isn’t effective, try your hardest to make it so. If your e-mail isn’t necessary, then delete it. And finally, if your e-mail requires action, meaning you care if something gets done in response, you should, before you hit “send,” figure out how you are going to follow up on it. Just because you asked for it, they write, “doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.” Words to live—or at least to e-mail—by.
46 pcma convene December 2010
Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.
Working Smarter is sponsored by PSAV Presentation Services, www.psav.com.
A CROSS WORD: After the first edition of Send was published in 2007, the authors found that almost every e-mail question they got came down to this: How do you keep e-mail from consuming your life? In the latest edition of the book, published in September, the authors say that e-mail requires about as much attention as a crossword puzzle. “The Crossword Puzzle Rule” is a good way to think about when you can — and when you shouldn’t — send mes- sages from your handheld device. Imagine yourself with a blank crossword puzzle in your hands instead of a BlackBerry, they advise.Would you do a crossword at a funeral? A wedding? While driving?