I’ve been meaning to write back to someone and the longer I waited the more it seemed like I had to write something really significant to make up for the length of time that’s gone by.

Reading this, I think I just write a quick note and get it off in the mail.

Thanks for the reminder to just do it!

David

Camping out. or

Break-it-down. or

Priority Sequencing. or

Bribery. or

Blackmail!

Let me explain. I had a little trick when I worked at Boeing in Huntington Beach, CA. If I needed something, I would ‘camp out’ in someone’s office until I got it. Not always practical, it does tend to speed up SOME things though.

And some people just don’t seem to do well with anything larger than ‘can you do this one little thing for me?’ like one fellow at Boeing. I always got my work done because I ‘figured him out’ and that is how he worked best, one little thing at a time. If I wanted some CAD (computer aided drafting) job bigger than one or two little things, fugettaboutit!

Learn what works per individual.

Ah, Priority Sequencing. Ever have/heard of a contract job where the contractors/workers were MIA (missing in action)? Well, you just got Priority Sequenced.

What that means is that someone else talked to the contractor/project manager and offered something like 3-5 times the usual rate with the question “so how fast can you get this job done for me?” in the mix. Wouldn’t YOU work a little faster, get a few more people on the job or whatever it takes to get that task done for a client?

That’s why they aren’t at YOUR house right now…

Then there’s Bribery! This is something like Priority Sequencing only it doesn’t always mean money. Does the other party like Broadway plays? Do they like Baseball games? Some special chocolates from a store local only to you? Or do they need something from you, some work or other that THEY are waiting for?

Any of these, and more, can be used as leverage for you to get some action! Again, it’s learning someone’s hot buttons. What will work for them? It isn’t always easy to figure out but when you do, it’s well worth starting your message (in the ’subject’?) with something that will spark a response in that other person, based on your bribe.

And last, certainly not least!, is Blackmail. Not a pretty term and certainly not a recommendation or your first tactic to try (IMHO) yet maybe something helpful - people want to avoid pain more than they want pleasure.

With that said, what could you mention that might ‘encourage’ someone to your way of thinking? Do you know something that might be used against the other party to prompt a response? It might start with “shall I tell so-and-so about…” to see what you get. It’s dirty pool yet what if nothing else works?

It’s all negotiation, like anything else. Just raise a kid for 20 years, you’ll know what I mean.

Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com

Great post and certainly very appropriate in my case. I’m excitedly waiting in anticipation for your BAP course to arrive so I can get into the meat of what I see you’re already starting to discuss in the bonus teleseminars.

I know that it must take quite some organizational skill to get all those packages sent out on time and I’m sure you guys probably have a ton of orders to fulfill, so I guess waiting more than 20 days for my delivery is something I can live with (even though you did a pretty darn good job of getting me salivating to hit the order button without hesitation:-)

But I guess what is a little disconcerting and certainly very relevant to this post is that I haven’t received any response from your support staff about whether my package has actually been shipped and when I can expect it. So in this case I am kinda left wondering whether silence does really mean NO.

Or maybe this is a new twist on Jeff Walker’s PLF - ‘keepin em hungry - even after they’ve paid’? Hey I’m not trying to get up in anyone’s face here, and I certainly enjoy learning from other people’s launch strategies, but 26 days of waiting is starting to make me so hungry that I may just hop a plain and come pick up my package myself (or is that just the delirium kickin in? - I don’t know). All I do know is that my brain’s belly is grumbling over not getting to sink it’s teeth into all that juicy business growth material.

Please send me my emergency BAP meal supplement before my brain devours itself!!

With Gratitude

I say the phone is the best tool if there is a situation like this. It is immediate and defining, even if you have to leave a voicemail.

I think that a lot of the time we are afraid of the answer that we might get so we just rely on email, or worse yet, we wait for them to respond. If this is a prospect you a pursuing then you can bet that they have a few hundred other things to deal with than getting back to your quote. By calling them you get their undivided attention and an answer, even if the answer is that they havent decided yet.

Email is a great tool but the phone is still the best business tool, period.

Roger

I wish you were more down-to-earth and accessible… I know you know a lot but there’s a few things I could demonstrate to you about human nature and the relationship could be mutually beneficial… my specialty is in seeing opportunity where none appears to exist and in spotting synergies… ways of combinging things for exponentially better results.

(And I’m not just talking about butterfly marketing which is a type of synergy but one that forms a funnel rather than an accelerator.)

Anyways, til then… best wishes,
Sam

And if I need to send a follow-up asking why they haven’t replied yet, I try to do it in a way that doesn’t come across as “Hellooooo?? Anyone there??? Did you get my email????? Did you??” Depending on the context of the situation, I might find a reason to provide “an update” on the situation, and include the “I look forward to hearing from you,” or I might find a reason to send them some news article or information or …

If push comes to shove and all diplomatic methods have failed, I’ll flat-out state I need a reply and give the reasons why. If I know their phone number, this is the point when I’ll consider calling them.

If it’s something that I *can* let go and not worry about consequences, after the above step, I’ll wash my hands of them. And, being the personality type I am, I’ll tell at least five of my friends about them.

Email is becoming LESS effective. I have a client that simply cannot receive my emails, and we cannot figure out why. They just disappear somewhere.

I suspect that we are all guilty of not responding quickly but at the same time been victims.

So why do we delay giving answers to other people?

Sometimes it is sheer pressure of work. There are only 24 hours per day.

Sometimes it is because we are genuinely undecided. We can see good and bad and not yet reached our verdict.

Sometimes the approach has been made in such a clumsy way as to be clearly a waste of time. Remember if you waste someone’s time, you waste a small proportion of their life. Also remember that, the more bad approaches we receive, the more cynical we become.

Sometimes we don’t realise that there is a “deadline”.

Paul Simister
http://www.yourprofitcoachblog.com