Communicate With Intent.

If you are a manager or salesperson (or anything for that matter), how are you communicating with your charges, peers and or customers? These days, Text and email seems to be the preferred method. Maybe you have sent a message (text or email) that reads something like this: "Dear (Customer, Client, Friend(s)), I just wanted to know that during the Covid-19 Crisis we her at (enter company name) are open for business. Please call if there is anything you need help with. Sincerely (enter you name)."

Wow, how impersonal is that? What's worse is your customer/client probably got twenty others just like it. Definitely forgettable and certainly not impactful.

The first step to crafting an impactful message is to have "Intent". Why are you sending the message in the first place? If it is just because you think you should, don't bother, the recipient of the message can tell. Now, if it is because you actually care about the message and the person in which you are trying to communicate, we have something to work with!

The Medium: I don't care what anybody says, in terms of impact, face to face is best (obviously not an option at the moment), Voice/Video Call is next, email/text is dead last. Strangely, hand written and posted notes/letters is right up there with Voice (try it some time!).

The Message: It has to be personal as we can all spot a generic script or form letter a mile away. Organisations are made up of people and people have families. In times like this (Covid-19), well, all the time really, I believe that we should care about the people before the business. The former will look after the latter.

I have made a lot of calls to peers, colleagues and customers over the past couple weeks (and some texts as well when a phone call wasn't possible). In all of these calls, the "Intent" is always to ask how they and their families are managing through all of the craziness. It is amazing how they open up (talk about relationship building!!). The topic of business always manages to come up but it is on their terms so there is never any perception of me having an ulterior motive (which of course I do not because I genuinely care about the person I reached out to in the first place). They know you are open for business because they will ask you!

Make some calls today with "Intent". I can assure you that they will be impactful and remembered!