You can create excellent business relationships through following up quickly. If you go to a meeting with a potential customer, you will spend some time just chatting about what each of you would like to see happen in the future. You will also be giving some free advice or steering the conversation towards a possible contract. During these conversations you will more than likely promise to send a link to a special website, you may promise to give some information about a valuable resource for this person. When you make these promises, you need to make sure that you write them down. Do not rely on your memory or you will fail to follow-up with the information. As soon as you leave the meeting and go back to your office, you need to send the information. This means you had the meeting today, you immediately look up the information requested or suggested and send it NOW.

The potential client will be very impressed with how promptly you act. This will leave a good impression on them and they will likely relate this to how you do business. Promptness will also help to build the business relationship as you will gain the reputation of getting things done and getting them done quickly. Nothing works better than quick responses. I also respond to meeting requests the second I get back to the office plus I also respond very quickly to email and phone messages. I do not let anyone wait for a response. It may seem like a series of interruptions but I actually schedule time to read emails and return calls several times a day (once every ninety minutes).

For most of us, email is a distracter as you can see them coming in. It is tempting to read emails as they arrive. This will actually be more of a distracter than waiting until you have your scheduled time to answer. The only exception is when you are sending out a request for information and are waiting for the response. I still glance at the emails as they arrive just to make sure there is nothing urgent. If there are no responses that require immediate attention, I wait until my scheduled time.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D., has spent 25 years in various technical and business leadership roles. Dr. Daoust brings to the table a successful executive career combining many years working with government, non-profit and for profit organizations in a broad variety of industries. Her positions have included executive, financial, marketing, sales, and service management. She has worked with such companies as Peet?s Coffee & Tea, Mobile BIS, Cisco, Accenture and Avaya in the field of knowledge management.