Imagine This New Technique, “Honesty!”

My friend, Aaron Evans, posted something fascinating in LinkedIn. I find myself confused, perhaps more importantly, dismayed.

Aaron, was showing a simple, direct prospecting email. His comment was, “Honest, funny, to the point, respectful and human.” While he responded “No,” he was impressed by the approach.

A few things struck me and I commented on it:

1. Why is honesty, respect, humor, being to the point and human so unusual that it makes this email standout.
2. The email, while honest and respectful, was totally irrelevant to Aaron’s interests. He replied no.

I’m struggling with this whole idea. In what world is honesty, respect, directness; something that stands out as being differentiated–even though it is irrelevant?

We have become accustomed to a new norm. One that is completely the opposite of what we have come to accept in our interactions on social media, email, and other channels.

What has happened that causes us to be surprised by doing things right and doing the right thing?

Our feeds are filled with so much that is so bad, that we celebrate something does what we should be doing all the time, in every interaction. Consciously or unconsciously, we fall into the trap of responding to these things or exhibiting similar behaviors. And we do these things in our interactions with others.

While I don’t believe the majority of sellers seek to misrepresent themselves or offering, in our rush for attention and engaging people, our outreach, too often falls short. We employ the “techniques,” that are intended to generate response, yet some how don’t. connect.

Too many of our engagement attempts are so poorly targeted, people looking at them say, “Why the hell did they send this to me…..”

Too many of these attempts focus on what’s important to us, not what may be important to the customer. As a result, they are perceived as disingenuous.

We adapt techniques that manipulative. However subtle these are, they are still manipulative.

Despite the overwhelming flood of garbage we find in or inboxes, texts, feeds; respectful, honest, concise outreaches do and can standout. Aaron’s post is a great example of this.

So here’s a new “technique.” Be very focused and targeted at those that are most likely to want to hear from you. Be direct about why you are trying to reach out. Be concise–if you are targeting the right people, you don’t have to say a lot. Focus on what they want to hear. Inject some light humor. And be honest.

Those seem so “unusual,” it’s worth a try.

Afterword:  Here is the AI generated discussion of this post.  It’s a good, concise, straightforward discussion.  Clearly. the characters have internalized the concepts of this message   😉   Enjoy!