The lawyer who told me to stop apologizing in emails

My business partner's uncle, a corporate lawyer in Austin, told me last year that saying 'sorry for the delay' in client emails makes you look weak in negotiations, and after I stopped doing it for 6 months I actually got a 15% faster response rate on payment invoices. Has anyone else noticed a change after dropping apology language?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_knight712d ago

I get what the lawyer's saying but honestly 'sorry for the delay' is just basic politeness to me, it shows you respect their time. Dropping it made my clients think I didn't care about being late.

lucasschmidt12d ago

Right, I think you hit on something there. People don't just want a done deal, they want to be treated like a person, and that little apology goes a long way for that. Take away the polite buffer and you're basically just saying "I was late, deal with it," which makes folks feel like you don't value their schedule or their business. It's a small cost for keeping a client happy, and in my experience that's always worth the effort.