Want A Response To Your Emails? Part 2

Part 1 is here.

Here’s the other reason busy people aren’t responding to your emails: your emails got buried in their inbox.

Don’t think they don’t like you, or they don’t want to respond, or they don’t care about your message…

Sometimes, people are just really busy, and they keep getting emails… and your email drops to the bottom of the page. Or worse, your email drops to their second page, in which case it’s cast off to the winds.

This isn’t something you can fix – if they are busy, and their email has gotten the best of them, you aren’t going to go to their office and change their habits or systems… so what can you do?

There’s a simple solution that you have control over… and that is to to email the person again, with a fresh email.

Do it gently, do it tactfully, and do it as a reminder.  Don’t send the whole email before, don’t be condescending, or preachy, or assume you can teach or preach about email management… just sent a simple, gentle email.  I would suggest maybe 2 or 3 sentences, referring back to the other email, and possibly even offering an alternative response (like a phone call).

“Hi Jason, I’m just checking in on an email I sent you a couple of weeks ago about _____.  I just wanted to make sure this doesn’t fall off of your radar. I’m happy to have a short call about it, if you prefer that, instead of an email dialog.”

Make sure you end with a call-to-action, usually a question.

Sorry for not responding to your emails in a timely manner… but if you have sent emails that you want a response to, this might help.