Don’t Impersonalize the Personal (Part 1)

by Doc Pratt

If you are using a Contact Manager or a CRM application to send e-mails or letters to groups of people, there is a detail you need to pay close attention to. You need to make sure there is a Nickname Field for each person and that you use it.  If there is any chance you will send correspondence to someone you know and you address them by a name they do not use, it will be more than embarrassing; it will cost you business and potentially damage the relationship. A great example of this is someone whose name is Robert, but goes by Bobby to his friends. Whenever he gets something addressed to Robert, he automatically knows it is from someone who does not know him.  He gets a letter or e-mail from you addressing him as Robert when it should be Bobby, then his whole attitude changes, especially toward you, and the letter loses all impact. The effect on someone when that happens is like fingernails running down a chalkboard: it really rubs them the wrong way

When you set up contacts in your database, make certain to pay attention to all of the details, including Nicknames. You want to be sure that you address people you know using the name they want you to use and not the name the IRS would use!

Don’t Impersonalize the Personal (Part 2)

Now that you have names in the database correctly, there is one other pitfall you need to watch out for. If you personally know these people and are entering the data yourself, this should not be an issue. If you are entering information from a list of contacts, or have another person entering the data for you, watch out for salutation. As you are entering names, you will have some names like Walter, Jane, Teresa and Richard. You will also have names like Lynn, Terry, Jamie, Charlie, Sam and Alex. Are you seeing a potential problem here?  Sam and Alex may be short for Samantha and Alexis, while there are men with names like Leslie and Laurie. Laurie is my favorite since it is my “real” name, and when I get mail addressed to “Ms” Laurie, I don’t even read it.

Think about how many people you know who have a name that can go either way. Sometimes the differentiation is in the spelling. Frances is a woman’s, while Francis is a man’s name, so if someone asks you to send something to “Franc_s”, you need to find out the spelling to get the gender right.  

When you set up your database, you not only need to have the name right (from Part 1), but you also need to have the correct salutation. If you send anything and get the salutation wrong, by gender, it will probably be thrown away.  On the other hand, taking the time and energy to get the name and salutation right may be something your competitors don’t think of doing. If you have a prospect who gets a letter from you and two of your competitors and yours is the only one addressed correctly, who do you think is going to have the advantage?

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