What to do Right with Clients

Watch the episode here:

• Powerful people do not write paragraphs
• Put your ask up front
• Being up-front is the best way to go
• Your ask should be no more than two sentences
• Respect their time

What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re Going ALL IN. 

Something that grinds my gears is the way that people communicate with customers, with clients, with other people via email, text message, or just any sort of written form. And today, I’m gonna change your life forever as far as how you communicate. And you’re actually gonna get responses back. Have you ever like went out to a customer or client or something, or meaning reached out to them and you don’t get a response? Or somebody’s like, I don’t really know what you mean. You know, when they’re reading some, some, uh, whatever. I mean, I’ve seen sure you’ve seen TLDR too long but didn’t read it. This is something that I had to teach out and I learned this method and this process that I do this, this really like protocol, like the golden Rule of communication when I started working with a lot of law firms, right? You’ll notice that a lot of powerful people do not write paragraphs in their communications. 

They don’t because they get straight to the point and things are very clear and concise, and you just know what’s expected or know what they want pretty much right away. Now, sometimes people like, man, that’s cold, you know, but at the same time, they get the job done, right? And here’s, I’m gonna give you this, this happy middle and the right way to communicate with people in a written form in order to get responses, make more sales, and just get the job done. Okay? That’s what we’re going through today. Now, what really started this, right? Because of the internal communication within my company, I start to see a lot of these paragraphs, and everybody goes to the long explanations of it. And I saw this, I’m like, nobody’s gonna read this stuff. And, and I’ve been seeing that, or, you know, like, my customer’s not responding to me when I, when I reach out to ’em, like, well, you didn’t put your ask upfront or you didn’t say what you needed right away. 

And it’s like, well, what do you mean? I’m like, take a look at what happens with, uh, with lawyers, right? Have you ever communicated with a lawyer? Pretty much right out of the gate, they’ll be like, Hey, I need you to do this. And then sometimes that’s the whole freaking email. Sometimes that’s the whole text message. This is gonna change your life. And you could think right now that this is gonna make you sound cold. Uncaring w name any negative term or adjective that you want. However, flip your framing today because this is actually respecting the time of the other person. So when you need something, if, if you’re gonna ask a customer or a, or even a friend or whatever it is right there, even a text message, you know, you don’t put in dinner for a text message. Maybe this is the best example. 

No, I’m thinking about this. You know you don’t have to say, Hey, you know what, Friday night, you know, I’m really not doing anything. I got me, my husband, who’s out of town, and we’re gonna go to all of this other than you know, I, I could do this. I could clean, I could actually go to, uh, I don’t know why I’m taking the perspective of the woman here, but it’s funny, uh, or, you know, I’ve got this other stuff and all that stuff. Well, what do you think? Maybe we could go out to dinner or maybe I could do these other things or whatever. It’s like, no, it’s like right away it’s like, Hey, Friday night you want to go out to dinner? Hey, Friday night you want to hang out? And then you go into all that stuff. So I started like teaching this out and reaching out in my company years ago because it’s like support tickets, right? 

For it. And they would go through, it’s like, Hey, you know, this is performing this way, or whatever, you know, you, and, and they go through like these three paragraphs of stuff. I can’t even give you examples of what it would say. It’s like because this app doesn’t do this, but this other app does it, so maybe we could go there and all this stuff. And, and then at the very bottom, like building up, you know, all this suspense <laugh> as I looked at this thing, and then at the very bottom it’s like, could you just let me know which way you want to go? Okay, thanks. Goodbye. And, after paragraphs of crap and, it’s just no response to these things, rather than saying right at the top, Hey, I have a decision for you to make. Would you like to do this? 

And then below that, you can put the T L D R and all of the supporting information and even links to articles and all that other stuff. I’ve done this in sales too, to be like, Hey, what do you want to do? Do you want to move forward? Question mark. And then everything else, like last meeting we talked about this and we told you we can meet your demands here. Last, uh, or two weeks ago, we, went through this and you were ready to move forward, but your finances had some, some issues with them for that time period. You needed to wait two weeks. But you’re putting upfront, it’s like, would you like to move forward? You’re putting the ask right away, right at the beginning. You have to save your pleasantries towards the end. I mean, I’m even talking, you know, you can put good morning, in the greeting line if you want. 

Like, good morning Donna. And then that’s it. Rather than like, hello Donna. Like, I hope you’re having a good morning today. The weather outside is a fantastic day, isn’t it? You know what, last night I decided to have some dinner and you put all this crap up front, people are not gonna read. You are disrespecting their time when you do that stuff, save the pleasantries towards the end. This even comes down to in-person meetings. You start to get, it’s like, the reason I’m here today is to this and get a decision out of you around this. You are setting your expectations right away. And then you can go into stuff even in person. I wait for pleasantries until the end. And then it’s like, Hey, how’d your daughter do in that competition the other day? They’re like, oh, that’s awesome. Thanks, great about that. You can leave them with a phenomenal impression. 

Same in written forms of communication. And that’s what I’m really getting on today in the written form of communication. It is your task upfront, very first thing. Then you’re supporting information. And then after that can be your niceties, can be your, roundup too, to leave a good personal impression. Like, Hey, I remember, your son just graduated last week. How did that go? How did what did he throw his hat up? All of those other things, you know? And then that’s it. And then you can sign off. But your ask has to go up front. You are respecting the people’s time that you’re dealing with, and it is so much more effective because it is simple and clear. And I’m gonna give you a hard and fast rule for this. Your ask should be no more than two sentences. I used to say one sentence, but you know, I’m gonna give you a little leeway here. 

No more than two sentences. Most of mine are always one sentence. That’s it. And then go into whatever supporting information you feel is necessary there. Put what you need upfront and you’ll get responses faster, you’ll get more deals done, and you’ll be able to accomplish a lot more for that person by just getting the right information, and the right ask out of the gate to them. It is respectful and you will get the crap done. Man, I thought this was gonna be a super long episode. Maybe because I mean, there are a lot of opportunities, but you know what? Here’s an example. I’ll give you another example. This applies to anything too, because, you have to put your perspective in the shoes of the person who is actually reading your crap. Like, for real. That’s what you, that’s this whole concept that I’m talking about. 

I was looking at some job descriptions for even my company just the other day, taking a look at them and they were published job posts. And I, I’m looking, I’m like, there’s so much internal speak that’s in this thing. Like nobody knows, nobody’s gonna know. No applicant is gonna know what three-quarters of this stuff means because it’s all phrases that we use. It’s like internal reachout lingo, like cultural phrasing that we use in-house that nobody outside would understand all the way down to the titles. And this comes back to the same way of communicating and written communication as far as what your ask is to people. The reason why I’m saying put yourself in their shoes. Would you like to read something that is just paragraph upon paragraph and paragraph? And then finally at the end, you know, it’s like you just get bored. 

I just l I don’t read that stuff. It takes too much time. Please get down to it. And then when I’m interested, if I want more supporting information, I will continue reading. And then you get down to the end, it’s like, oh, this is nice. This is gonna change your life by just doing this one thing. And you’re gonna have to retrain your brain to do this. Put your ask up front, in written communication, especially also in person. It comes down to setting the right expectations right out of the gate. What you’re looking for outta spending that time with that person. And you can even say, Hey, I really respect your time, so I want to set my intentions. Could you do this? That’s a phrase. You can even type in an email or a text message. And then this is why I said it’s, it could be two sentences, right? Because then you can make your ask right after that. I respect your time and I really want to set my intentions. I know you want to move forward with this. And what do you want to do? Right? There it is, right? Two sentences, boom. Done. Your ask goes up front, then you’re supporting information and then your niceties at the end, communicate, sell, get crap done, and Go ALL IN.