When we mail messages with critical information or too much information before a meeting, it communicates to your client that you are desperate for the meeting…I’m sending this in case we don’t meet this week and I’m in a rush for you to have this.

We’re doing the same thing when we call and leave a phone message.  And it is something we don’t stop to consider before we start speaking.  In fact, we often do that one thing we dislike the most about our own received messages.  We make it too long and try to get too much information into that minute or two we have to say what we have to say!

What we are doing, often without even thinking about it, is appearing needy to our clients.  And, when you appear needy, you begin the process where they want to push you back from taking the control of your business relationship…the decision making control…from them and transferring it to you.

Think about it for a moment.  I know you’ve received messages like what we’re talking about!  And you know the kind of message we mean – the message that communicates that you’re desperate for the meeting or to talk with them.  Perhaps you start out with a greeting that contains detailed information about your title or situation, your schedule for the day or for the week.  You really don’t have to impress the client with how busy you think you are.  You’re probably no busier than your client, but you are conveying your own sense of importance which he or she needs to recognize and get back to you before they do anything else.  The last thing you want to impress upon them is your conception of how fortunate they will be to fit into YOUR schedule!  This, my friend, is totally counterproductive.

Think back through several of the messages you’ve received in the past week or so.  Which ones demonstrated a sense of confidence?  What was it, specifically, that message contained (or didn’t contain) that gave you that impression?  What is it you could do in your message to exude that same confidence without being egocentric to the point of pushing them away?

Keep your messages and your e-mails short, succinct, and open ended.  Remember, you only have two or three lines of text or 8-10 seconds to grab and keep their attention.  After the first 15 seconds or first paragraph, you have come across as being needy and they have begun to lose interest.

Follow the KISS principle.  It works!  And your business image will be the better for it!

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