How to Make a Request Over Email

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By Mo Bunnell

Hi, this is Mo Bunnell, your business development expert and author of "The Snowball System: How to Win More Business and Turn Clients into Raving Fans". Have you ever wanted to make a request over email to someone and either hesitated doing it, or you made a request and you didn't get a reply back ever? Well, what I'm gonna do in this video is show you how to make a request over email.

I'm gonna have a precursor upfront. I'm gonna show you exactly how to make a request. And I'll give you an idea at the end that would help you immensely more if you could do it, and that has a multiplicative effect on your success. So the precursor. The precursor is what I don't want you to do.

What I don't want you to do when you make a request over email is include a whole bunch of flowery language up front and then have your request at the bottom. Even if you know someone or already know them, well, please don't do it this way. What it looks like from the receiver is, "Hey, really great, hope your family's doing great, we should get together", and all this other flowery stuff. And then your request comes. Would you mind being a reference for us or whatever it is? Well, the problem with that is it seems like all that other stuff was fake. And you're really asking me for this request. It makes me a little angry. When I get that email, I'm like, "Ugh, you were just asking for the request". It makes me not wanna respond to the request. And it makes me think all the stuff upfront was fake.

Here's the other way of doing. Be direct. Just come out and make the request. Hey, it would really mean a lot for me if you could be a reference for us. Here's the person. Here's the situation. It would take about this much time. Here's the time frame they're looking to do it in the next two weeks. And you make the request very directly. Then after that,"How are things going?" It changes the entire tone of the email.

And I've found that you get a yes much more often that way, and it feels better to the requester. Don't think that you need a big incentive for the person to do this. It feels good to help people. When you make a request of somebody else, it's one of the most powerful ways you can deepen a relationship because from the other side, it feels great to help others.

So be bold. Just make the request, and put some flowery stuff after that if you want that's truthful, by the way, and authentic. But you definitely want the request first and the other stuff second. Here's the thing that can be a complete game changer. If you can make the request in person, the data shows that in person requests can have up to a 34 times more likely chance of a yes than email request.

So when we got our clients on things like that, if it's important, we'd far rather have you wait a month, let's say if you had a lunch on the books or you're gonna see someone in another meeting. You're far better off waiting a little longer and making the request in person than you are making it quick, getting it off your to-do list, but having a high chance of a no.

So that's your tip that can help you a lot. The research on that came out of Cornell and Western University in Canada, and Vanessa Bowes found that if you make a request in person, it has up to a 34 times more likely chance of a yes than one over email.

So there's your game changer if you choose to use it. So, we hope you love this video. If you did, please share it with others. That's how people find out about us. And as always, we hope our videos help you help your clients succeed. Well, that's it for today. Thank you so much for watching. For more content like this, check out my most recent video and be sure to like them so other people can find out about us.

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