Help me with a reply!

Question

I'm sick of my prospects getting my name wrong via email. I'm constantly called by my last name (as if it's my first name). I have a very unique first name, and my last name I guess could be a first name but would not be a common one (not like my last name is Ashley or something). I also share my last name with a VERY famous person who everyone knows so I feel like it should be obvious it's a last name and not a first, but alas here we are and it's causing confusion with my team.

I'm fine correcting this in person, but via email I'm struggling to find the right wording that conveys "I want your business but please call me by the right name" without sounding like a real asshole. The demographic I interact with is College professors and administrators, so they typically don't take well to being corrected on anything.

Accepted Answer

What if you didn’t correct them at all and just kept moving along with the process? First name, last name, middle name - who cares? Go for gold. 🤟🏽

Answer

I've gotten this from time to time. Someone using what is CLEARLY my last name in the "Hi Obvious Last Name" format makes me scratch my head.

Answer

"Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language." - Dale Carnegie. This could be on a intro slide where you can have it be on the bottom.

Answer

It happens to me very often and I don't bother much as far as the communication is on; when I respond I just remove my signature and write Regards, First name and catch their mistake many a times. This happens especially in the EU region; I have seen many emails there as lastname.firstname@XYZ.com.

Answer

Have you considered a nick name? Like Skippy or Slappy?

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Dive head first with this. When you first introduce yourself say "I'm UserNotFound, but some people call me FoundNotUser. Feel free to use either, but can we agree that UserNotFound is a pretty bad ass name?"

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Do you ever hop on calls with these buyers? If so, a simple introduction would probably do the trick. If not, you could delete your last name from email signature as a way to not "call out" a prospect who likely would not respond well to it.

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find a way to make it fun, When you see your last name used you throw up in your mouth a little bit because it reminds you of being yelled at by your parents or something, if it isn't too much to ask I'd so appreciate if you can refer to me as first name."

Answer

Haven't you thought of attaching the name you wanna be called with on the email signature, definitely that would help!

Answer

"College professors and administrators" are typically book smart with no street smarts. IMO, you're wasting your energy struggling with these people who are too smart for their own good. Simply ignore their lameness and sign your emails with your first and last name. Move on to the next. 😎

UserNotFound

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