One of the biggest tools in getting ahead is likely already in your hand. Your phone.
I remember a time not too long ago when a persistent publicist wouldn’t get off my jock about covering her client. Her pitch over email wasn’t particularly interesting. In fact, I barely skimmed the first two sentences before typing back a quick but polite pass.
Instead of licking her wounds and giving up, this crafty gal went “old school” and picked up the phone. I answered.
It was way harder to say no over the phone to her friendly pleading than it was to dismiss her over email. In fact, it was a lot harder. I told her the things I didn’t like about her pitch and why it didn’t appeal to me. She thought creatively and quickly on ways to amend the pitch to fit what I was looking for.
It took two more phone calls from her, but eventually, I greenlit her pitch.
Technology has given us every conceivable way to communicate with people to avoid actually communicating with them. We hide behind emails and texts when simple phone calls or in-person meetings would actually be a lot more efficient.
Here are a few examples of when picking up the phone will up your game:
An Argument: Email or texts are NO places to have arguments–especially in the workplace. I don’t care how tempting it may be to shoot back a good ol’ textual smackdown to whoever is bugging you but do not, under ANY circumstances, put that shit in email. I don’t care if it’s a bad boss, a creepy coworker, a snooty client…anyone, anywhere. DO. NOT. PUT. THAT. SHIT. IN. WRITING.- A New Pitch: Email is for efficiency of information, not for pitching something. Unless you really know the person on the other end of the email and you’ve done business with them over email before, begin your pitch with a phone call or in-person meeting. You should email beforehand to set up an amenable time to phone. But leave the pitch part to the phone. That way you can amend the pitch as you read the room.
- The Check In: You’ve made your sale, now what? You want a repeat customer or a referral from this person. No one wants to feel like the sucker that bought what you were selling and then were completely abandoned. Pick up the phone and call your longtime customer–ask what’s working in your service and what isn’t. Picking up the phone and having a willingness to have those conversations will set you apart and remind the person on the receiving end that there is, in fact, a concerned human behind the product.
- Dating: The number of text-only romances I had with guys too afraid or too uninterested to pick up the phone and ask me out resulted in a ton of wasted time. I got to the point in my long dating career (10 strong years in NYC) where if someone actually picked up the phone to call me, they were immediately at an advantage above the guys who pussed out and just sent a text.
So remember, if you want to land the deal the job or the girl/guy, follow what everyone from Petula Clark to Al Green to Blondie to Carly Rae Jepsen told you: CALL ME.