I have a friend who is in the insurance business. I haven’t heard from him in awhile other than via email. He sends me the most creative emails of anyone. They’re visually appealing, informative and dynamic. That is, the ones that I have time to read. Most of them I don’t.
Summer Time
The summer season is generally the time of year when business is a bit slower in both his industry and mine. If you allow it to be. One of his summertime emails got me thinking. I should have had the time to read it, but I didn’t. I was busy making calls to past clients. It dawned on me that I was doing the same thing that he was, by phone instead of email.
Clear Advantages
There are clear advantages to both. Email of course allows you to touch more people in a shorter period of time. It certainly is efficient in disseminating information that may be important but does not require a lot of explanation or discourse. The other great thing about email is that you can send it at any time without feeling like you’re interrupting the recipient. They can read your email whenever. But do they? The longer the email sits in their inbox, the greater the chance that they won’t.
Phone contact on the other hand allows:
- Confirmation of the contact
- The opportunity to connect on a personal level
- More in-depth dialogue
- Better opportunity to reveal and respond to any questions or concerns
- The ability to clarify any misconstrued messages or false perceptions
Spring Market
The spring market is now here and I certainly feel that the contacts that I made back in the summer are generating some good opportunities for all those involved. I’m sure that the email system that we have in place has been helpful in that regard too. That’s the entire point. It’s necessary in today’s environment to utilize both means of communication, along with social media. There are a variety of ways in which to “reach out and touch someone.” More than ever before in our history. Many, however, use other methods as a “crutch” and neglect initiating verbal contact all together. They do so at their own peril.
What other advantages are there to contacting prospects by phone?
