The Cost of Not Replying

We are all guilty of it. Let's not pretend we are not. I am as guilty as you are. You are as guilty as me.

We get a message from a connection on LinkedIn, perhaps someone we even know well. We might read that message or not - but we ignore it either way.

We have excuses of course (we are experts at making excuses aren't we?). We're busy. We think we don't need what they have to offer. We think it's just going to be another sales pitch. We don't see any way we could build synergy. We're tired. The boss upset us. The coffee was bad this morning...so we say we will deal with it later.

I came across an article in Psychology Today about this a few years back and the the final line struck me: " I sometimes wonder what the longer-term business implications are for productivity in a world with diminished responsiveness."

This made me really think about the possible opportunities for new connections and synergy I have been missing - not just by replying late or not replying at all.

As business is ALL about connections (Yes, it really is about who you know not who you are) so why isn't this a priority for more of us? I know we all get bad sales pitches and recruiters adding us just to expand their pools of connection (and few seem to ask if that's ok when they connect but that's another matter!) but what out our emails, or our other message mediums? Do we stop to think we could be sitting on gold mines if we took the trouble to reply a bit more often?

One McKinsey report says email alone can take up to 28% of our working week these days. Then we have Linkedin, WhatsApp, even Facebook Messenger. People who never reply to email will reply on WhatsApp. Someone who never gets back to you on LinkedIn will immediately reply by Facebook Messenger about even the most frivolous things.

We're getting overloaded with different platforms and many of us don't seem to be able to differentiate the business ones from the personal ones. But is this an excuse really? A kind of overload of tech which is making us weary? Are we afraid to say no when we are not interested? Are we just hiding behind technology designed to serve us because it's easier that improving our time management...and our good manners?

There are many reasons. But for the sender our lack of response does send them a message even when we don't type a thing - and it's not a positive message which does us any favours.

At the very least the cost of our not replying makes us look less credible, less reliable and less mannered. Some people won't care at all about that - as is their right.

But I think any serious person who wants more from their business relationships and personal relationships we should be looking at how we can handle this better. I'm going to start with myself...I'd love it if you'd join me - and please let me know when I slip up too :)