My approach to communication: from cold emails to everyday messages
Everyone knows how it is to get a cold sales email in the morning.
“I hope this email finds you well.”
How this email found me:
This and other staple phrases are haunting every person who has been receiving emails more than a couple of times in their life.
So I decided to share some of the insights and tricks we’ve been using recently and also talk about how we at Merge are communicating with clients. And in addition, tell you more about our communication culture.
First of all, we barely use cold emails per se. Yeah, sometimes we send emails with personalized videos or other small touches that will melt a client’s heart, but I think today, people are pretty fed up with “standard” sales emails.
So that’s why we use a more personalized and friendly approach to communication. Of course, you cannot be best buddies with someone you just met on the Internet, but they are most likely not Queen of England either.
We usually pass a couple of stages before building a trusting relationship with the client and getting them to love us.
- Getting to know each other
- Building trust
- Becoming long-time partners
In the first stage, we are still cautious about communicating with the client. We are trying to learn about the client and how they approach communication. Are they up for a small talk or want to go to the business side of things immediately? Are they more casual or more strict in their communication? What are their pains and problems? It might sound a bit terrible, but humans, either conscious or subconscious, are profiling everyone to find a style of communication that will fit them well. So it’s only natural that we are being a bit strict in terms of the ways we communicate.
We start building trust with the client from the first call. Show them your experience and expertise. The next step will be getting the job done and utilizing certain aspects of communication with your clients:
- personalized approach to every message
- honesty
- empathy
- willingness to help
Personalized approach to communication
I try to treat every prospect and every lead not like I treated the previous one. The thing is that people are different, so it’s only logical that we need to approach every email differently.
When writing to someone I haven’t spoken to yet, I look at different hints that might help me write the email so it at least clicks with the recipient. Ideally — impresses, of course. Age, interests, how the person writes, and what they read can help me tailor the message so it will stand out among dozens of similar messages from a template.
Honesty
Honesty is embodied in our corporate culture. We are not only honest with our clients, but with each other as well. Even if something goes wrong or there are delivery delays, we try to communicate that to the client immediately. Yeah, it might cause some issues short-term, but when you are trying to build long-term relationships with your clients, it’s the only way to approach communication.
By being honest, you also prevent some cringe situations from happening in the future. Sometimes you might say something untrue or try to hide some facts or aspects, then forget about it, and eventually, the truth will come up, and people will feel uncomfortable. Being honest is easier from a managing standpoint.
Empathy
Today it’s impossible to be a successful entrepreneur without empathy. Being receiver-oriented, which is a fancy way to say “keep your attention on your clients’ and prospects’ needs and goals,” is the finest advice I can offer. There are methods for improving a variety of communication abilities, including self-assurance, the “know, like, and trust” factor, speech preparation, and email etiquette. Expanding your knowledge in all of these areas will enhance your ability to communicate professionally.
But the most crucial thing to remember is to keep your client or prospect in mind constantly. Put yourself in your client’s shoes, and think about their struggles and problems. This way, you will be practicing empathy.
Just imagine the person who’s getting hundreds of emails. If you are trying to sell something to that person, it may be better to approach them slightly differently from “hey, buy our service.”
Willingness to help
When I started Merge as a design and development studio, I added “We are here to help you” as one of the company’s values.
We are helping businesses reach their goals and solve their problems, and we are also willing to help the people we work with. And not only with business-related stuff. It goes beyond that. If one of my partners is having an issue, my employees and I will step up to help. Not much to say about this; just be ready to help, and you’ll build that trust in no time.
Communication is not a chess game.
As much as we need to respect each other, we also should be able to listen, be empathetic, and be willing to help no matter what. Business relations are relations between humans, first of all. Remembering that and building your communication according to it is the first step to success.
