Heelblog

The importance of conveying clear and concise instruction when dealing with clients and partners.

I don’t know about you, but time is my most precious commodity. There isn’t enough of it, and once its gone you can’t get it back.

If you are at Tim Horton’s and you order a coffee and you want a large double-double – odds are you are going to have ask out loud for exactly what it is you want. Same goes when dealing with staff, vendors and clients.

We all want to help one another out for the most part, but you are not doing anyone any favors by rushing through the explanation of a task or providing very limited details when asking one of your trusted vendors for an estimate. Take for granted that the person on the receiving end of your instruction is slow…not stupid. But slow. This way, there will be no mistake or miss-communication as to how a task or project must be completed, because you will have made a point of clearly itemizing important considerations. If at all possible, get your target in front of you or on the phone and quiz them. It only takes a few moments.

A lot gets lost as more and more business people (and people in general I guess) are replacing face-to-face time and time on the phone by email and texts. The only way you should comfortably be giving a vendor or employee the go ahead on a project without prior discussion via a one-liner email when it comes to anything critical (re: expensive or costly if not done right) is if you know the person well. Very well. As in, you have established a working relationship. Otherwise, the 2 minutes you just tried to save by being curt might not only cost you countless hours down the road, but could also cost you money, as well as tarnish a relationship with an employee, client, or vendor.

I get flack all the time for writing long-winded emails, and going into too much detail. Just like I’ve told all the girls who dumped me in high school for being ”too nice” how ”too nice” didn’t exist…..there is no such thing as too much detail. The time you put into understanding a prospect or clarifying a job or task to a vendor or employee is priceless. Do this religiously. Each and every time. And then, over time, you will develop a pattern with those you deal with most – and slowly but surely, you won’t have to go into such detail when asking for something. They’ll just get it. Until then remember…there is no such thing as too much detail.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 8:59 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.