The Pitch Episode 64: Don’t be the Girl who cried URGENT

Learn:

Using the urgent email flag can backfire on you. Learn how to gauge your urgent messages to avoid being ignored.

Read:

It is challenging to get someone’s attention especially in a sea of emails, but be careful to not be the girl (or boy) who cried, “urgent,” by marking your emails urgent, when something really isn’t urgent. Before you mark a pitch email urgent, check your timeline and motive. If you are marking it urgent because you are trying to meet a personal deadline or goal, or if you’ve become frustrated with the person not responding to you, then don’t mark it urgent. Only mark it urgent if there is an impending deadline that is out of your control and it’s important that you bring this to the person’s attention you are pitching. After two urgent emails and no response, it’s time to pick up the phone and make a call. Using the urgent email flag is extremely effective, but not if you are overusing it, because over time all your communications will be ignored just like the boy who cried wolf. “The Pitch” challenge today: Think back to a time when you felt tricked into reading an email because of some sort of urgency that wasn’t actually urgent. Then remember a time someone did send you an urgent message that was helpful and helped you achieve something you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to accomplish without the notice. Then use those feelings as a barometer before you mark your outgoing emails urgent.

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