I heard once that “Good Things Come In Three.” I suppose that’s true… probably LOTS of things come in three. Even weird things… anyway, I digress.
But strangely enough, I did get THREE of darn-near the exact same question… about the same topic… from THREE totally unrelated people… over the last THREE days.
As I travel from Point A to Points B, C, or D each day… I make it a habit to return ALL calls that have been left on voicemail.
Supposedly that’s weird… as is… my 23 year practice of NOT screening calls in my office. If I’m available, I just pick up… no big deal.
Why do I do that?
Well, I guess because there’s usually people on the other end… and you never know where that can lead. It’s a practice I learned from Bob Harlan… the legendary CEO of the Green Bay Packers many years ago… and, well… it’s paid off in ways unimaginable.
You can read about it in Can We Talk… Part I, Part II, and Part III.
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Anyway, back to today’s thought… the flip side of taking calls… is returning them, and it is what my voicemail message says…
“Hi this is Steve… I’m either on the other line right now or away from my phone… but if you leave your information… I do return EVERY phone call. So I will look forward to speaking with you soon… and in the meantime I hope you’re having an awesome day…”
EVERY call? Yeah… every call. Salespeople, fundraisers, family, friends, enemies (thankfully… not too many enemies call)… you name it. So, imagine THREE people being shocked to get a return call after they’ve left a message asking me to return their call… on a voicemail system that says I return EVERY call.
The stunned callers exclaiming, “You ACTUALLY DO return ALL your calls!!!?”
Yup, it’s your lucky day.
I guess it must be weird… I don’t know… maybe I’m weird. But I just kinda like having MY calls returned too. Life’s pretty simple when you figure that principle out.
Question:
In the last 30 days, it is likely that someone called with an idea that was an absolute game changer…
Did you take the call?
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