Think about a time that you’ve reached out to a prospective client and received no response. There are many reasons voicemails and emails go unreturned. It could be that something personal is going on with the recipient and you won’t know that. In general though, analyzing the message can improve your chances for success in the future.
Let’s look at two scenarios.
Scenario #1: You call a prospective client and leave a voicemail suggesting lunch. Your message concludes with “call me when you get a chance and we’ll schedule a time to get together.”
The issue: You haven’t provided any value to the prospective client (assuming the recipient isn’t broke and hungry). My assumption is most of your contacts are busy, so the value of a one-hour lunch for no apparent reason is not a compelling reason to meet.
Next time: Consider a topic that you’d like to discuss with the prospective client (something of perceived value to him/her) and make the lunch a forum for discussion, not the end result.
Scenario #2: You email a prospective client stating that the attached might be of interest. Your email concludes with “please call if you would like to discuss further.”
The issue: Even though you may have added value, your communique lacked a sense of urgency and so most likely ended up in the not so urgent ‘I’ll get around to it at some point’ pile on the desk of the recipient. Emails end up in one of three piles on the desks of your clients. One pile is ‘must deal with immediately.’ The second pile is ‘will focus on sometime today.’ And the third (and least important) pile is the ‘I’ll get around to it at some point.’
Next time: Consider creating a sense of urgency in your next email by offering to discuss or share some ideas regarding the subject at hand. Include a call to action such as “I’d be happy to share more with you. How does your schedule look next week for a brief call?” Your readers will determine the fate of your email in less than 2.4 seconds. You’d better make it good.
