By Larry Coffman
No, not the Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmetic you learned in grade school—or more recently—the eco-friendly reminders to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. I’m talking about the three R’s of business success, gleaned from more than five decades of my—and many others’—experiences in the workaday world.
Reachability: It’s crystal clear that there’s a direct correlation between one’s accessibility and success in business—as well as life. For the past too many years, the impediment has been—and continues to be—impenetrable voicemail systems, designed to shield the callee from any and all callers. And with the advent of the digital/online era, it’s now virtually impossible to communicate directly with a decision maker. In fact, one Amazon exec warns never to divulge one’s phone number or email address in today’s business environment.
Despite the increasing impersonality of that environment—abetted by the misnomer that is “social media”—personal relationships nurtured by phone and face-time contacts are not passe. In fact, they arguably have more value now than ever before. Like snail mail, the growing rarity of these forms of personal communications make them a refreshing change of pace for the recipient and, thus, more effective than ever.
Responsiveness: This is the reciprocal of Reachability. Assuming one or more of the above forms of communications has reached the intended recipient, the next test is how that person responds. Not surprisingly, the response rate is in the low single digits, both from my experience and that of those “many others” with whom I’ve discussed the subject.
The response—or lack thereof—from the recipient of a personally addressed email, phone call or written invitation actually reveals more about the recipient than the sender of said message. It’s an opportunity for him or her to display a range of commendable character traits—awareness, insight, sense of humor, wisdom, respect for the sender and the list goes on an on. Silence, on the other hand, also speaks volumes. Again, we’re talking about measuring that person’s standing on the business-success scale—where Responsiveness is a critical criterion—not the personal feelings of the one reaching out.
Reliability: It’s not enough to be good at just the first two R’s. With the third—Reliability—we’re talking about follow-through: Keeping promises; being punctual; meeting deadlines and the like. Failure here negates any benefits from the first two R’s.
In my many years of advertising sales, I actually was delighted when a client—or potential client—stood me up for a scheduled meeting. They invariably were apologetic and felt obligated to buy whatever I was selling—and perhaps even a bit more—when we finally got in contact.
Everyone agrees that being late for a meeting is inconsiderate of other peoples’ time, but that fact pales by comparison with what it says about the offender. In my experience, there are two punctuality categories: the one, and by far the largest, populated by those who perpetually are five or 10 minutes late for everything; and the other, those who consider themselves late when they arrive only five minutes early for a meeting.
Think of the business people you most admire and consider successful and then rate them on the Three R’s. I’m betting they’ll score highly on all three.
Most importantly, you can employ these Three R’s with confidence—and to your advantage—going forward.
P.S. Check out this article on the wisdom of using texting as a business tool. https://www.zdnet.com/article/texting-in-business-not-a-good-idea/