I had a great example yesterday of why you should ALWAYS follow-up. I recently started recruiting for an inside sales position. I had an employee tell me “I have a great person for that position. I will have them get in touch with you.” GREAT! But that just so happened to be on the same day I was working a half day and I had nine new people starting. The results? My inbox blew-up and the great candidate’s email got buried.
This is usually no big deal. I get out the shovel and work through the emails but when I came in early the next morning to catch up on emails I realized I had two projects due to colleagues and few fires to put out. So rather than digging in, I started piling on.
Late in the day that great candidate emailed me to confirm that I had received their resume. I immediately stopped what I was doing and set up a phone interview with them after searching my inbox for their resume. Would I have gotten to their email? Probably. Could it have been a week later, yes.
But be sure to follow-up with humility and assume that the person you are reaching out to has the best of intentions, they usually do. Think if the roles were reversed. Which email would you rather get?:
Thank you again for applying for our inside sales position. I am following up to make sure your received my email yesterday with some more information and an invitation to set up a day and time to talk about our opportunity.
or
I emailed you yesterday to set up a phone interview. Are you not interested?
Yes, I do receive terse emails similar to the second one WAY too often. No bueno for them.
Al
Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?
Tony Robbins