Nobody likes delivering bad news. A very wise former boss of mine used to say “when you see a problem, run towards it, not away from it.” Easier said than done.
I recently had to tell someone their work was not up to par. It was not a conversation I was eager to have. And it took me back to the very beginning of my publishing career….
Many of you know that I started my publishing career, not in books, but in newsletters. To be honest, I didn’t even know that was a job — never mind a whole industry — before I was hired as a junior editor at Phillips Publishing in 1986. I also didn’t know that taking that job would be the most important decision I made in my entire career.
I learned many things at Phillips Publishing, Inc. (which grew into Phillips Publishing International during the 13 years I worked there). I learned the secrets of direct marketing. I learned all about Austrian economics and the hard money movement. I learned how to build a mail plan, wrangle celebrity authors, hire and fire and manage a team, read a marketing report (an MP2, for all you direct mail junkies), grow a business, be a publisher.
The founder and owner of Phillips Publishing is a remarkable entrepreneur named Tom Phillips. Starting with $1,000 in his garage, he built a newsletter empire that he eventually sold for several hundred million dollars. I was lucky enough to work for Tom at both Phillips and at Regnery, which he also owned until 2014, when Salem Media Group bought Regnery.
I say lucky, because there were many important lessons I learned from Tom himself over the years. Like the value of people (which Tom always said was his company’s biggest asset). Like how to read a complex financial statement and find the one number that didn’t make sense — and how that anomaly often unlocked a huge problem or opportunity.
There were little things, too. Tom insisted our newsletters be printed on colored paper (and yes, this was in the day when we actually mailed printed newsletters – did I mention that I’m old?). Tom said that colored paper stood out on someone’s desk, while white paper got lost in the shuffle. True. Tom insisted that lists be numbered, not bulleted – so you could refer to them without confusion in a meeting or conversation. He instructed that every communication end with a “call to action.” If you’re sending a business note or email, he said, tell the person what you want them to do!
And my personal favorite: Tom taught us that every business communication, no matter what the topic or situation, should start with one of three phrases: “Good news,” “Congratulations,” or “Thank you.” This was a well-known rule in our company, and in my family. I remember texting my eldest daughter when she was in high school “Good news, you have a dentist appointment today!” To which she replied “Don’t you Tom-Phillips me!”
I love the sentiment behind this rule: find a friendly way to start every communication. I also love the marketing genius behind it. As a gifted writer once told me, “the job of every sentence I write is to make you want to read the next sentence.” So, too, with Tom’s rule.
My biggest challenge came when I was writing a letter to a very long-time business partner, informing them that we were canceling our contract with them and going with their #1 competitor. “Congratulations” was obviously not appropriate; “good news” wasn’t right either. But “thank you” worked well. In fact, it reminded me to start by thanking them for their years of service, for their partnership, for their hard work. Many years later, the CEO of that company did a vital favor for Regnery, something that did not benefit his business at all, and I greatly admired his character. I also was grateful that Tom had taught me that lesson.
I have often challenged friends, colleagues, my daughters (ceaselessly), my staff to follow Tom’s “good news” rule. Next time you have to deliver bad news, next time you have to write an email or letter you dread, try starting with one of Tom’s three openers. I assure you: even when you think there’s no way you can possibly start your message with one of the golden three, try it. I bet you can. In fact, it might lead you to write an entirely different message.