Written By: Karen Deis
Emails have ruined the careers of many people and companies:
Michael Brown (FEMA) – When all hell was breaking loose after Hurricane Katrina, he emailed his staff asking if anyone knew a “good dog-sitter” for his dog.
Enron: “Did we get this illegal stuff about withholding expenses and retirement money worked out?”
Britney Spears dumped Kevin with a message from her Blackberry.
Or, the subject line of an email that was considered the “smoking gun” in court. It said: DELETE THIS EMAIL!
In a new book called Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home (by David Shipley and Will Schwable), it’s a comprehensive guide to:
- When should you email and when should you call, fax or just show up?
- What is crucial—and the most often overlooked line in an email?
- When is the best strategy when you send a potentially career-ending electronic bombshell?
The acronym for the word SEND means:
S stands for Simple - If it isn’t simple, it will create confusion.
E stands for Effective – If it isn’t effective if people don’t pay attention to your message and tone.
N stands for Necessary — If it isn’t necessary, it should be deleted.
D stands for Done – If your email requires someone to respond (or take action), you need to figure out how you are going to follow up before you hit the send button. Just because you “asked” does not mean that it’s going to happen.
As a loan officer, emails can be one of the best ways to effectively communicate with prospects, past clients, real estate agents, underwriters and processors. However, it also has the potential of people misunderstanding your message with delayed closing dates when it could have closed on time; or loans being rejected when they could have been approved.
The authors provide tips on how to create the PERFECT email message and some of the big mistakes you could make too.
Subscribers - listen to an audio interview with author David Shipley, on the 8 Deadly Sins of Email.
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