When you’re trying to move a project along according to schedule, timely communication is essential. Unfortunately, not all of your prospects and customers are going to be as quick to respond to your questions and requests as you’d like.
So what do you do when a person fails to respond to a time-sensitive email? There are several ways to handle the situation. If you know that your prospect or customer prefers email, you can send a second email with a subject line like, “Did you get my email?” or “Just wanted to make sure you received my email. Please respond.” Most of the time, the recipient will say, “Shoot! That was rude of me not to respond,” and then they’ll follow up immediately.
If you are not having success with this email strategy, you might consider switching communication modalities. You could call them (or leave a voicemail) and say, “I sent you an important email last week. I didn’t hear back and if we don’t get a response soon, I won’t know how to proceed with your project.” If they prefer text, you can send them a text.
Of course, you should always use discretion when communicating. I would not send an email, make a phone call, and send them a text at the same time – that’s just overwhelming! However, switching up your communication modality in certain situations just might clear the communication clog.
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