The other day, as we worked on a project here in the office, we realized that a professional acquaintance of ours would be an excellent source to gain some additional perspective. Later on in the day I asked if we had made contact and the reply was, “Yes, sent him an email.” I asked why we simply didn’t place a call to him. There really wasn’t any reason. And then I started thinking about how business people communicate today.

Sending email in business today has become essentially an automatic form of communication. Often, we don’t even think about it. We just “shoot over an email”. And don’t give it another thought. Just like what happened in my office – and happens in business offices every day.

Now I happen to be a big fan of email. Email certainly has enhanced my business and how I communicate with clients and other business contacts. But you can’t build a business relationship via email. Relationships require human interaction. We need to hear the sound of each other’s voices.

The next time you go to send an email, think about should you send the email or is this an opportunity to talk to your business contact and build a relationship?