Turning Email Into A Tool Not A Chore

I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately talking about the impending doom of email, at least as we know it. Love it or hate it, I believe that some form of this communication medium will be with us for many years to come. Certainly, products like the soon to be released Google Wave may change the way we look at, and use, electronic messaging. For now, for me, email is indispensable.

A little background may help. I work out of my home and have two positions. Standing and sitting (smile). I am an independent sales contractor for Lytle Signs and, while they have an office here in the Boise area, the company headquarters are 125 miles away in Twin Falls, ID. 90% of all design, estimating, manufacturing, and accounting takes place in Twin Falls. Also, at least 50% of my client base is not located in the Boise area. Consequently, almost all of my correspondence is done via email. As is a large percentage of my general communication.

My other job is operating this website and the B2B networking group that it supports, NetWorks! Once again, email is a critical part of this formula. Finally, I do not own a smart phone. All my emailing functions are conducted on my desktop PC. I had a Blackberry about 5 years ago and the happiest day of my life was when I turned it in (smile). Will I have one in the future? Probably, but I’m going to hold out on that as long as possible.

So, if we are going to be using email, let’s make it work for us instead of the other way around. Here are 2 tools and 7 tips to help you accomplish that goal and, at the same time, how you can turn common email messages into powerful selling tools:

Let’s start with a couple of tools for Outlook:

1. If you use Outlook. you have to add the Xobni toolbar. Here are a few of the things that make this so invaluable: Xobni interfaces with both Facebook and LinkedIn and will provide you with a portal to contact info from both, it tracks your conversations with this contact (and has some neat copy and paste tools of these conversations), it tracks files exchanged with this contact, and it also identifies people within their network that you also commonly exchange emails with. Very cool.
2. And, if you use Outlook and LinkedIn, the Outlook Toolbar for LinkedIn is an absolute must. With this you can: go directly to LinkedIn while still in Outlook, look at individual emails in your inbox and it will identify if the incoming email is registered with LinkedIn and, if yes, how you might be connected, send invitations to connect on LinkedIn, “grab” email signature lines and create new Outlook Contacts, and have the toolbar automatically update, and create, new records in both Outlook and LinkedIn. Also, very cool (smile).

Now let’s go to some tips and tricks:

1. We’ll start with manners. If a client sends me an email, they are generally looking for some fast answers. Let me ask you this question: How often have you sent an email to a client or a co-worker and waited days for a response if one ever comes at all? Do you wonder if they even got it? I do, and I see it all the time. And, I mean all the time. Now, and be honest, how quickly do you respond to emails even if to just acknowledge them and let folks know that you are working on the task? I would say, if it is more than an 8 hour day, you probably suck in the eyes of your client. Sorry, is what it is. Rapid responses to client emails say that you are a professional and that you value their communication. I won’t shut down my computer for the day until all emails have been answered regardless of the time it takes to do so.
2. Send emails out late at night, early early in the morning, and on weekends. Nothing says “I love you” like an overtime email (smile).
3. Copy clients on correspondence concerning them. Say a client asks you a question that you do not know the answer to. Of course, that is always “I don’t know the answer but will find out.” Immediately an email goes out to those who can answer the question and guess who gets copied oh this correspondence? The client. It shows that you have followed through, in a timely manner, it demonstrates transparency regarding the subject, it lets those who are getting the email know that the client also knows who they are (I love that part), and the client loves being a part of that communication! Seriously. Sometimes I just do it. Sometimes I ask. Sometimes I do it and then ask ……. “Would you like me to copy you on these types of messages or just as soon be left out of the loop?” 100% of my clients have said “Yes, please include me.”
4. Use email to be proactive in informing your clients on project progress. Sometimes, as with sign permitting for example, time frames needed to accomplish the task can be extended. And, you know, the client is always wondering what the status is. Why not surprise them with an email that tells them just what’s up instead of waiting for them to ask? You have just separated yourself from the rest of the “shaved apes” (smile).
5. Please, please, use out of office reply. If you are going to be unable to have access to email, let your clients know that, when you will return, and who they can go to for immediate help. Until recently, Lytle Sign’s webmail system did not have this feature. To get Outlook to do it you need to be on an exchange server although there are some ways to mickey mouse around that. If you do not have out of office capability, take the time to send emails to your active and good clients and let them know that you will be gone and for what period of time. Them getting this email says one thing and that one thing is critical… “You, my client, are important to me.”  I’ve also noticed an added benefit. Every time I do this probably 10% of my clients will email me back and ask me to get back with them about another project that they had been meaning to discuss with me. Perfect! (smile)
6. Watch who your clients copy on their correspondence to you. Very powerful. Knowing who’s who is invaluable. Make it a point to get to know these folks also. For one thing, and this is Sales 101, you are expanding your contacts within a specific account. Should your key contact every disappear, you have back ups to go to. These contacts may be from outside the company. As an example, in the sign business, I often need to deal with contractors from a variety of trades, engineers from a variety of disciplines, architects, designers, landscape architects, the list goes on and on. Often these folks are part of a continuing construction team. Being considered to be a part of that team means: access to non-publicized information like new projects at an extremely early phase, the kind of response and cooperation given to team members vs. wannabes, and finally, guess what? These folks also work for other companies. And they like to travel together because they know what they can expect from each other. These folks are also copied on most emails I send regarding specific projects. If you want to be a member of the team, act like you already are (smile).
7. How about using email to say “thank you” or to congratulate someone on a recent promotion or accomplishment that you read about.  You will be one of the few (smile).

Well, I’ve bored you enough with my ranting and raving (smile). Thanks for visiting!

Craig