Communicate More Effectively With These Five Simple Rules

In business and personal life today, we're in constant written communication with team members, customers, prospects, vendors and colleagues. As we have all experienced, the meaning of our often hastily written posts, emails and Slack messages can get lost in translation. Worse yet, if it's a customer or potential client, we may come off as needy, short, or unappreciative of their time. Not to fear, with a few easy to remember guidelines, you'll see a big improvement in you and your teams communications.

1. Drop the !

This is a big one for me and now a pet peeve when I see it. There are occasions when they are okay, but doubtful within any normal day of business communications. When I stopped using !, I was forced to come up with a more meaningful statement to support my feelings- which in turn improves the relationship. For example, if I make an introductory email, which I find myself doing a lot, the most common response to me on the reply is "Thanks, Pete!". But this response leaves a lot on the table. By dropping the !, when I get introduced, I now write something to this effect;

"Thanks for the introduction, [name]. This connection to [name] is important to me and I appreciate your time. (moving you to bcc)

Note how this approach strengthens both relationships. Give it a try starting now. You'll see that most people drop in ! into subject lines and throughout communications, which are really just short cuts for writing something more meaningful.

2. Drop the ?

When I get emails or other messages with ?, my first reaction is that this is work for me and I don't have time for it. And I would place a pretty good bet that others receiving messages with ? in them feel the same way, even though they may not be conscious of it. Instead of an ask with a question mark, try using a positive presupposition.

Old "Have you had time to review our proposal? I'd like to get a time setup with you to go through it. Does Friday between 10am-noon work for you?"

New "Per your request, let's get our time setup to step through the proposal we sent over last week. I recommend we keep the discussion limited in time to quickly any open question and project timing. 10-15 minutes should suffice - please click my meetings link to find a time that works best for you."

Note my use of the meetings link to save one and often many cycles in an email thread looking for a time to meet. If you haven't done so yet, get signed up for a calendar scheduling service. We use Hubspot Meetings links and I'm seeing a lot of Calendly lately and here's an oldie but goody list of tools.

3. Opportunities (not asks)

If you're looking for something from someone, the last thing you want to do is ask them in a way that creates work. Chances are, if you're asking, it's a business proposal with a give and take. A straight ask is usually DOA with few exceptions. So you're best to position any ask as an opportunity for both of you to benefit.

Old ask: "Could you possibly speak on the XYZ panel at our upcoming conference? I'm available for a call if you wish to discuss."

New "We'd love to feature you alongside fellow thought leaders at the upcoming XYZ conference. Assuming the dates work, please grab 15 minutes on my schedule to discuss details."

Next time you have an ask for any purpose, try framing things as the opportunity.

4. No more apologies (unless you really screw up)

We've all received this email: "I'm so sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I was totally buried with end of quarter activities"

But this email works much better: "It's end of quarter, thanks for understanding slower than usual reply."

The S word shows up all day long in most companies and it has no place. It actually weakens the word and our relationships because very seldom is it actually required. The only time a company needs to use it is when they make a big mistake. And I mean big. Everyone understands that things don't always go according to plan. We might miss a conference call start time or a deadline for a report, but apologies should wait. Thanking someone for understanding strengthens a relationship vs. casting a negative light on the little things that go wrong on any given day. Most things after all, are going right. No need to apologize.

5. Collaborate vs. email - immediately

We're exclusively using Slack now for team communications - which works well for us as an internationally distributed organization. We use Trello for project management and mix in Google docs and Hubspot CRM for sales management and reporting. We use email only for outreach efforts when organizing events and with clients but it's getting more painful all the time. I believe we're going to start on-boarding our clients onto Slack and encouraging them to stick with it. If you haven't yet, move to a collaboration tool like Slack- here's a detailed writeup on several alternatives.

In summary, these five simple tips will help you well down the road to more effective communications and stronger relationships.

Bonus: Drop these words from your vocabulary: Should, Just, Try