Communicating with Busy Business People

contributed by: Jeff Snyder - SecurityRecruiter.com

Communication Overload

Our world has been overrun with automated phone calls, emails, facebook alerts, invitations to connect, text messages, tweets, newsletters, webinar invitations and the list goes on and on.


Though it is likely hard to believe, this security recruiter receives in excess of 500 emails per day. Add to that additional messages on various social networks like facebook and LinkedIn and pretty soon, the amount of data I review over the course of a day is overwhelming.


I’m not by any means alone in this world of data overload. Think for a moment about a busy human resource professional’s potential to be overloaded and quite frankly overwhelmed with data. I’ve been told by hiring authorities that they’ve been the recipient of 300-500 resumes when they post a job to a major job board.


Too Many Emails

If they experience what I’ve recently experienced, these hiring authorities are likely overwhelmed as well. Consider this recent example and then multiply it many times over. A security job seeker sent a resume to my office at 3 PM on a Friday afternoon. By that time in the day on a Friday, the rest of the day is booked and I’m trying to get out of the office by 6 PM to spend time with my family.


This resume that arrived at 3 PM was not reviewed on Friday afternoon. Having not received an instant response, the security job seeker sent another resume at 8 AM on Monday morning. Add this email to the Friday email and there is a small pile building. Monday mornings in the office of a security recruiter, a human resources representative or a hiring decision maker are very busy.


On Monday afternoon, the security job seeker who sent an email on Friday afternoon and then again on Monday morning sent another email asking about the status of his resume that had yet to be reviewed. Add these emails to the hundreds of other messages that accumulated in our office between Friday and Monday and anyone can soon see how data overwhelmed we can become.


A Different Approach


On a practical level, may I suggest that a resume sent to anyone anywhere late on a Friday afternoon will likely not be reviewed until Monday. Sending another resume on Monday morning before the recipient has a chance to clean up a weekend’s worth of junk mail to get their Inbox down to relevant business communication is probably not a good idea.


Consider instead waiting until later in the day on Monday and leaving a carefully thought out voice mail. The right voice mail left at the right time for the right person just might cause that person to go into their overflowing Inbox where they just might look for the Friday email mentioned politely in the carefully thought out voice mail.


Consider This Approach


Here is another idea. I recently followed up on a security job opening at the “C” level. The position has been open since January so while I didn’t know what was wrong, I knew that something was wrong with this company’s search process. Rather than sending email, I placed a strategically timed call with the company’s global CSO. Even thought I caught the CSO in a meeting, we were on the phone long enough for me to get the CSO’s permission to send an email. He even stopped long enough to give me his email address.


I followed with a well-written email that briefly introduced my company. Remember, the CSO was now expecting my email even though he didn’t know me prior to the moment when I made his phone ring.


A couple of days went by without any communication from this prospective new client. I had a suspicion that the CSO was traveling and I was correct. After several days, I sent another email to the CSO. This email was different from the first email and it quickly caught the CSO’s attention. While sitting in another country, the CSO communicated with an HR Director in the US and asked her to schedule a call with me.


Setting a business appointment happens this way all the time, but a carefully planned communication approach with thoughtfully spaced-out communication attempts will be appreciated by busy business executives more often than not.


Connecting With Busy Business People


The next time you’re trying to reach a busy recruiter or a busy human resources representative or a busy hiring manager, stop and think about the data overload the person you’re reaching out to might be experiencing. As silly as it might sound, try calling the person you’re trying to reach and asking for permission to use their Inbox. Since this type of call rarely comes in to my office, I guarantee you that you’ll be setting yourself apart in a good way by asking permission before adding another email to a busy person’s Inbox.