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The email line that's client repellent

letsworkshop.com

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Re: The email line that's client repellent

#51

Post by gus_massa »

jxf wrote: post #7

Interesting; I ran essentially the exact same experiment a while back (June to August 2012) and had a different conclusion! -- 68 incoming consulting leads -- group A: responded to 34 with "let me know how I can help" -- group B: responded to 34 with "would work to discuss this further?" -- group A: 20/34 (59%) responded, 14/20 (70%) led to contract negotiation stage -- group B: 6/34 (18%) responded, 5/6 (83%) led to…

Another interpretation:

-- group A: 14/34 (41%) led to contract negotiation stage

-- group B: 5/34 (15%) led to contract negotiation stage

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#53

Post by lifeisstillgood »

gus_massa wrote: post #51
jxf wrote: post #7

Interesting; I ran essentially the exact same experiment a while back (June to August 2012) and had a different conclusion! -- 68 incoming consulting leads -- group A: responded to 34 with "let me know how I can help" -- group B: responded to 34 with "would work to discuss this further?" -- group A: 20/34 (59%) responded, 14/20 (70%) led to contract negotiation stage -- group B: 6/34 (18%) responded, 5/6 (83%) led to…

Another interpretation: -- group A: 14/34 (41%) led to contract negotiation stage -- group B: 5/34 (15%) led to contract negotiation stage

Yes exactly.

Its the distance down the road to forking over cash you care about - group A (the specific email line) led to a better outcome for the GP - more interested clients.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#54

Post by lifeisstillgood »

jxf wrote: post #7

Interesting; I ran essentially the exact same experiment a while back (June to August 2012) and had a different conclusion! -- 68 incoming consulting leads -- group A: responded to 34 with "let me know how I can help" -- group B: responded to 34 with "would work to discuss this further?" -- group A: 20/34 (59%) responded, 14/20 (70%) led to contract negotiation stage -- group B: 6/34 (18%) responded, 5/6 (83%) led to…

I am just impressed by 68 people mailing you saying "can you quote". How ?

Edit: Well, it seems that 100K on stackoverflow, a robust background across a wide variety of languages and domains and a nice smile seems how.

edit edit: that seems sarcastic or otherwise trying to diminish the effort and discipline and passion needed to develop and maintain an online persona that will be attractive to clients. I do not mean to - but that is what I get from a scan of his public profiles - and frankly I would be willing to hand over many software projects to him just on those profiles. Its interesting the value I place on them, yet the small amount of attention I pay to my own.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#56

Post by apinstein »

You can also leverage this "problem" to your advantage in some cases... when someone wants to meet with me but I'd rather not do it soon (or ever), I will purposefully respond with "Sure just let me know when is a good time" and it gracefully delays the occurrence of the meeting. Whereas if I want the meeting to occur, I will suggest a hard time. This really helps prevent your life from being interrupt-driven by low-value activities.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#57

Post by jh3 »

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #52

I use this phrase all the time in my work. Do you think it has the same effect in an organization?

Sure. An organization is just a bunch of people. And all those people have other things to do, too. So if you respond to all of their emails with an open ended "Let me know..." you're now asking them to make a decision for you.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#58

Post by slazaro »

jader201 wrote: post #50
robwilliams88 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not exactly the same, assuming you've already proposed a solution in the email, but it is still kind of redundant to say. I think most clients will let you know if they have a question, regardless if you write that. If you think they might have questions, why not anticipate a question and answer it in the email?

I also feel it's technically redundant -- like you said, they will follow up regardless -- but I think I do it to just give a more inviting tone/closing to the email. However, I also used to end all of my StackOverflow questions with "Thanks in advance." just to be polite and appreciative to those spending their time reading/responding to my questions, until it kept getting edited out (for the same reason, redundant…

About StackOverflow, it's probably because questions there are not supposed to be like a forum (as in, someone has a problem and wants a solution), but more like future reference for anyone searching for that. So they remove stuff that sounds more personal. That's my guess.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#59

Post by monkeyspaw »

bananacurve wrote: post #41
aestra wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this the idea of a mail in rebate? That they attract attention and people buy the product but hardly nobody bothers to mail them in? I might be off base on that, but that was my thought as to why they are offered.

The mail in rebate is also trying to get feedback from the customer, which is very difficult.

How so?

I always thought mail in rebates were a good way to experiment with the price-sensitivity of the purchase. Is that the feedback you mean?

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