Jan 20

Making your emails count

Nearly 200 billion emails are sent and received every day.  It is no wonder that even in the era of electronic communications; sometimes our message doesn’t have the intended impact.

The consultants at Mendel Consulting came up with a six-step method for increasing the impact of short conversations, voicemails, and emails.  The SCIPAB sequence (Situation, Challenge, Implication, Position, Action, Benefit) helps link your ideas in a way that grabs your listener’s attention by connecting with their interests and needs.

Situation – State what you know about your listeners’ circumstance that is relevant to your discussion. 

Complication – Identify the critical issues (changes, pressures, demands, etc.) that are impacting the Situation and creating problems, challenges, or opportunities.  

Implication – Show the personal or business consequences of failing to act on the problems or opportunities described in the Complication.  

Position – State clearly what needs to be done to solve your listeners’ problem.  

Action – Help listener understand the role you want them to play, or the questions you’d like them to consider.  

Benefit – Describe how your recommended Action will address listeners’ specific needs. State the results clearly and quantifiably.

Sample email using SCIPAB:

It has been two weeks since we met in Dallas (situation).  We have been unable to connect since then (challenge).  Thus we have not been able to continue our discussion (implication).  We need to talk about the next steps (position).  So please let me know when you are available to talk (action).  So you and I can continue to move toward success with this project (benefit).

Use SCIPAB to increase the impact of your emails by connecting to the receiver’s interests in a structured and logical way.