Conrey is for Closers

So the big news this morning is Google’s new “Priority Inbox” feature that will be rolling out to all of Gmail this week (Coverage here from TechCrunch amongst others).

If you’re in sales you may be thinking that this is a boon to you.  Now you can be sure to never miss the important email from that one client you’re waiting to hear from!

If you had that thought, shame on you.  If you need a tool like this to find your important emails then you’re treating your clients badly.  Every client email is important.  Every one of them deserves your attention. They are opportunities for you to be a salesman and to earn business.

Be proactive on email, not reactive.  Reply to things as soon as you can after the come in.  Clients aren’t going to wait forever for you to respond, they’ll shop around. Take action on actionable items in your email as quickly as is prudent.  If you can’t do something on it right away, make a to-do item for it (in whatever format works for you). If you’ve read the email, and/or done whatever the email required, get it out of your inbox.  Gmail already lets you do this by archiving it in a way that you can easily search for it later.

Beyond the fact that you shouldn’t be trusting Google to tell you which emails are important, if you are unable to answer the emails that come in from a client in a timely manner then you need to revamp your process.

Email isn’t going away or slowing down.  Gone are the days of being able to check your email once a week to see who reached out to you by something other than your phone.  Get your inbox habits in place and in order, don’t let Google do it for you.

I was talking about Social Media and the connectedness of our world last night at a business event with some folks who are new to “The Twitters” and such things. They were asking me the usual questions about how to get a bajillion followers and what not, then asked how was it possible to follow so many people. So being the showman that I am, I broke out my iPhone to many oohs and aaahs and opened my twitter app. Immediately they saw the screen fill up with tweets from the 300 or so folks I follow, but what caught their eye was a series of a tweets from Gary Vaynerchuck getting geared up for his new SiriusXM radio show. They both recognized Gary right away and talked about how they followed him religiously on Twitter.

Now I like Gary, I think he’s a pretty cool guy in person after playing Wii Tennis with him and Matt Mullenweg at Gangplank, and I agree with a good bit of what he says when he talks business. But at the same time, he’s a relentless self promoter. To the point where I feel as though I understand his message, and repeated exposure to it gains me less and less value.

There are plenty of folks like this out there on Twitter and other Social Media outlets – and I went through last night and unfollowed them all. You could say I was insprired by Carlos‘s post about doing the same with Seth Godin .There is plenty of great content from both of those guys, and others, but once it gets to the point where you start skipping it because you’ve heard a post just like this before, its ok – you can make your own ideas too.

Challenge yourself to unfollow the “idols” on Twitter (and the shameless ballwashers that follow behind them) and start finding new interesting content.

I’ve seen both sides of this. Funny stuff if you’ve ever been in sales. Some language not safe for work (at all).