Years ago, when my manager called me on a Friday afternoon (never a good sign) I just knew I was being laid off.
But this isn’t about being laid off. It’s about starting communications with the main point.
Our Skype call (remember Skype?) kept dropping. So what should have been a rip-off-the-bandaid short session kept restarting. 5 times, in all, for a single lay-off call.
The 5 mini-conversations just made it worse. I’m sure it crossed his mind that I might be messing with him, as he tried to do an unpleasant task (Tony, I wasn’t, and wouldn’t — I’ve been in your shoes and felt awful every time).
What my manager should have done was lead with the bad news, and after the first dropped call, re-up once to make sure I didn’t have any questions.
Instead, like a lot of marketing, and especially content marketing these days, he just kept going. Quantity over quality. And since my livelihood was being discussed, I had to keep joining the calls.
Don’t make your prospects keep joining the call. Unlike an employee, they don’t have to. Do as much of the thinking and feeling on their behalf as you can up front , so they get what they need most, first.
Everyone deserves that level of respect.
Photo by Leon Macapagal