Agree it verbally; confirm in writing

23rd November 2021

Want someone to agree with you?

In that case, remember the Golden Rule of Agreement:

       GO VERBAL

After all, it’s much easier to reach consensus when you’re talking.

It’s certainly much easier than when:

  • You send an email containing surprises
  • That they read when you aren’t there
  • That they may or may not like
  • And you aren’t there to explain/justify your message

That leads to:

  1. Lengthy Email Tennis – a horrible, stressful waste of time that probably won’t get the outcome you want; or
  2. Ghosting – if they don’t like it, and don’t reply to you… you have the rubbish choice of chasing them (‘am I pestering?’) or waiting to hear back (‘what if they don’t reply?’)

So instead – agree everything verbally. Don’t just send an email, and hope they like it.

For example, when you’re selling, always VERBALLY agree things like their:

  • Priorities
  • Measures of success – how they’ll know they have achieved these priorities
  • Solution they want
  • £value-add it will give them
  • Price
  • Next actions
  • Date of your follow-up meeting

Nail this VERBALLY, and your subsequent email is a quick confirmation, not a loooooong conversation!

Action Point

What needs agreeing today? And how can you do so verbally? And watch the ‘free preview’ videos here – they’ll help too!

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