http://www.subramoney.com/personal-financial-planning-workshop

If you belong to a category of people who mix personal relationships and business relationships, welcome to being an Indian! However there is a marked change happening – and there is no age group which is changing. Let me give you some examples.

I deal with a person who heads training in a Wealth management company. He replies to all my professional emails promptly. He engages me often, gives feedback, shares concerns, rarely talks about the rates I charge, and pays bills on time. No doubt he is a good customer.

However, HE NEVER replies to mails outside of training. Never. And nothing comes out that he will not. Have travelled with him on 2-3 ocassions from Kol to Mum – longish journeys. He is jovial, talks about a lot of things,….stumps me.

There is another person for whom I write – anything from copy for an ad to an article which a top executive in the BFSI space wants to ‘publish’ …you get the drift, do u not? Again this person reacts ONLY to professional mail. For example I have no clue whether this person has seen my book, leave alone read it.

Another CEO of a big bfsi company – reacts to all my sms’s but IGNORES all my emails. One more Director Finance of a huge corporate – replies to all my emails, ignores SMS.

One CEO promoter of a tech company – has ALWAYS reacted to emails within 4-6 hours of my mailing him. Once his secretary told me he is travelling. I recd. a reply in 1 hour (much before blackberry days!) – he had connected from Paris – at a stopover!!

One CEO of a media company even SMSed me in the midst of a concall…asking if it was urgent :).

Amazing – does one worry about how people communicate? Does one feel ‘ignored’ if a sms or an email is not replied to? Does one go about saying ‘as long as he/she is engaging with me and paying on time, they are respecting me’ – very difficult to answer. Also Iam not using this as a forum for complaining. Just that different people communicate differently. Some people keep their business relationships diff from their personal relationships. Some do not.

To each is own, but for the young professional reading this, a simple lesson of life. Each person is an individual style of communicating – learn to respect that. Some like to do all business face to face. Some like email. Some like sms. Some like the telephone.

You have to like all communication media – and adapt to each person. In communication, sales, and generally in life, keeping your ego in a seperate box helps.