Everyone's method or mode of communication is different. It's true with people of different ages. It's true in different industries. It's definitely true with business professionals versus those not in the business community.
One method of communication doesn't fit all people!
A client of mine sells insurance. She receives a lot of inquiries from people looking to refinance their home. But there's no immediate pain, because they already have a policy.
My client was having difficulty getting in touch with those people. She would call them back, and they weren't answering. She would call and leave multiple voicemails, and ended up wasting a lot of time and energy chasing them, even though they were the ones who had initially reached out! My client was busy enough that she didn't have the time to waste.
Finally, she decided to change her approach.
Instead of calling them multiple times, she started calling them just once. She would leave a polite, professional message that she was giving them a call as requested. Then she would say something like, "Just so you know, I won't be calling you again, but I will send you an email."
Then, since she actually had their email address, she would send them an email. In fact, typically she had both spouses' email addresses, so she would email them both.
Magically, she started getting calls back! In just one week, she closed four of those deals.
What happened?
Sometimes it's hard for us in the business world to imagine, but there are a slew of people out there that just never check or return their voicemail. I've actually had people, typically under 30, tell me something along the lines of, "Well, if it's important enough, they'll send me a text."
The key is that everyone's preferred mode of communication is different. If you don't adjust your method of communication to fit specific prospects, you'll probably lose sales. And that's true after the sale happens as well. If you don't adjust to fit a current client's preferred mode of communication, you could lose them.
