Some things are easier to do in person than in writing. Closing high-value monetary transactions may be a challenge without being able to sit with someone to coax them through the process. But, there are many parts of a business which can work just fine as written communication other than the closing of sales.
Imagine this: you close your eyes. You think about something. You open your eyes. The person across the room knows what you thought. Since we are in the realm of imagination now, let’s make it even better. You leave the room and go have lunch. You come back and five more people have walked through that room. Every one of them knew your thoughts like that first person did. But, they only get the thoughts you want them to get! That’s what writing is like! When you write something down, you can dream it up once and other people can read it over and over again!
It is like recording a video of yourself talking, except you don’t have to be good looking or well dressed to have it work! If you have a list of questions you know people need to have answered before they’ll do business, it can be helpful to write those things down and post them somewhere so people can get that information without needing to have you stand there and tell it to them…one person after another…all day…until you are so bored you are struggling to stay awake.
What kinds of things can you put in writing rather than having to use your voice?
Lead generation: 9-word emails, list building/buying
Businesses need to communicate with people to earn money. (No one makes money unless someone sells something!) Businesses have to find likely buyers before verifying they are in the target market. Objections from the target market receive explanations. That whole time, the salesperson needs to build trust and create rapport. Once the prospect is in a buying mood, only then can the salesperson get paid. When you are finding those likely buyers, that is lead generation. But, if you have likely buyers who’ve stopped writing back for whatever reason, and you leave them alone for a little while, you can sometimes get them back using a 9 word email. For example, if you are a recruiter, the email could be:
Jim,
Do you still want a new job?
Dave
These short and to-the-point emails can often get people interested in doing business again. By posing it as a question, people often feel obligated to answer back…especially if they know you and might feel a little bad about not having taken action.
6 More Ways to Use Writing to Build Your Business
Sometimes, building something new can be all about finding the time to build something at all. If you are spending all your time persuading people to take action, you won’t have time to do the other things you need to do to grow your business. (If you sell on commission, that’s almost the same thing as owning a business.) Business owners need to deal with taxes, and health insurance, payroll and banking. If you let any of those things go, you’ll have a problem sooner or later. You may not enjoy these aspects of your business, but they have to get done. The quicker you can get people through the sales process, the more time you have for getting other necessary things done. The more you can avoid spending time repeating things in your business, the more it will thrive. Avoiding repetition, delegating and eliminating work all make your business more efficient. This is the essence of streamlining operations. If you can delegate work to a machine, that’s even better! By sending one well written email 100 times instead of having to use the phone, you’ll spend less time repeating yourself. Below is a list of areas where you can stop talking… if you can write down things you would say and present the same content to people in writing:
- Build trust and conviction: Authority building content, Testimonials, and Case Studies
- Deal with buyer’s remorse: Sell with emotion, justify with logic
- Get referrals: build excitement, help people see that it will help them to help others
- Be present at the right time: newsletters are great for this. Read more about how here.
- Maintain connections with existing customers (another use for newsletters and 9-word emails)
- Stream-line customer interactions by removing work-load from staff by putting info on website
In case you don’t understand any of the above points, I will be expanding on those in future blog posts. Stay informed about new blog posts coming out by signing up for automatic notifications of new posts at the bottom of the About page.
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