A CEO received an email with a PDF attachment from her VP of sales. The email said, “Please review the attached territory realignment plan for next year and let me know your thoughts.”
Two hours later, the VP received an email back from the CEO saying simply: “Too long.”
The next day, the VP of sales emailed the CEO again with an updated version of the realignment PDF.
That afternoon, he received an email from the CEO saying, “Clarify your thoughts.”
Early the next day, the VP of sales emailed an updated version of the updated plan to the CEO.
Her mid-morning email in response said: “Please add an executive summary and include what exactly you’re wanting from me.”
That afternoon, the VP sent a short email—with that requested executive summary and a simple plan of action—to the CEO.
And she replied: “Now I will read it.”
Just telling this story raises my blood pressure and frustration level, and I wasn’t even part of this exasperating and discouraging back and forth!
Here’s the takeaway: When communicating with others, especially with executives, remember the Five Bs of Communication: Be Brief, Baby, Be Brief!
Say what you need to say as clearly and concisely as possible and then stop talking. People don’t have time for more. And they won’t make time, either.
In a recent (2022) study, Litmus, the email testing tool, found people spent just nine seconds, on average, looking at an email. The researchers found that 30% of emails, on average, are looked at for fewer than two seconds, 41% are looked at for between two and eight seconds, and only 29% are looked at for more than eight seconds.
I cannot stress how important it is to start with the important part and then be brief and clear with any sort of business-related communications. With all communication, period.