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Does the very thought of writing documents or correspondence in today's business world send you to the brink of insanity? It is not as difficult as it sounds. Honest. You just have to keep in mind that you are representing your company, and it is not your usual fluffy personal note.

Professional correspondence should begin with addressing the recipient as "Sir, Madam, or To Whom It May Concern" type of heading. Getting straight to the point and not mincing words should be your main focus. People in general, whether in other businesses or customers, do not have time to read lengthy wordy documents. A simple tip to getting all the information in a short document is to make a brief outline of what you want to cover before you get started writing the actual document. This can be done on a piece of scratch paper using a few bullet pointed notes such as:

*Budget Meeting

*Month End Financials

*Environmental Budget Update

*Lunch

The letter would look something like this:

Dear Sir,

We invite you to join the Accounting Department for our Annual Budget Meeting. We will be discussing the month-end financials for January through December 2008. We will be updating the attendees also on the Environmental Budget for 2009.

Please contact our office if you plan to attend the meeting as lunch is being provided for attendees.

Regards,

Miranda Angel

Finance Department

In documents that require lengthy correspondence make sure the words you use are absolutely necessary to the focus of the document. Excessive adjectives are often not necessary. However, if you are describing an occurrence that requires explicit detail, then you should elaborate only enough to make the point clear. It is important to stay on target with the focus of your message.

The shorter you can make a document the better. If a CEO sees a document that is two pages long, or a document that is three short paragraphs which one do you think they will read first? Of course, it will be the shorter one. The longer one may get put on a shelf for later that day, week, or month. In some cases, those lengthy ones only end up on the bottom of some stack that does the "office shuffle"into the trash can.

Using phrases that can get attention is also a good idea. If you are offering to sell products or services you should begin with phrasing that gets the customer immediately thinking about how much they need what you have to offer. Often, this is done by showing how their life or business is currently diminished by the lack of what you are offering. Subtle suggestions work well here, and do work quite well. Don't be afraid to ask the hard questions, but do use tact in doing so. For example, if you are selling life insurance, don't say: "Will your loved ones be set for life when you die?" Rather say, "Is your spouse prepared to pay the mortgage, loans, and credit card bills alone if something should happen to you?"

To see if the phrasing "works," do the following:

*Write it!

*Take a 5 minute break from it

*Read it again

When you read it again, think of yourself as a client of your company who knows nothing or little about your product or company. Then, ask this question"Would I buy it?" If the answer is yes, then great! Success has been reached. If no, then rewrite it until it works for you. Chances are, if you wouldn't buy it, neither will your potential clients.

Even with sales literature or correspondence it should be kept brief. If someone has to read more than the first sentence to be interested in what you are selling, you won't make the sale. Attention span of the average person these days is barely longer than 10 seconds. That is how long you have to wow your audience and get your major point across.

Learn more about this author, Rella Ingram.
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