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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

#81

Post by at-fates-hands »

As someone who spent a fair deal of time in sales, this is the worst thing you can do to close an email.

You're essentially saying, "If you need me, contact me." and allowing the client to just opt out of working with you.

In sales, you always had to have a path where you want to lead the client. "Let's put together a time frame for A, B, C and I follow up when A is done." or "Once the budget is approved, we're going to do A, B, and C by this date." It also shows you're invested in the client and invested in what they want to accomplish.

It does take extra work to nail down clients, and at times will feel like you're trying to herd cats, but it's quite effective in the long run.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#82

Post by jxf »

chc wrote: post #72
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Really? I'm going to have to throw my email on my Stack Overflow profile and see if it actually works like that. I didn't figure anybody actually looked at them unless they were trying to find an old answer of yours or something.

SO ranks very high on Google searches, so people Googling for my name usually find my SO profile quickly. It's definitely helped even though I don't use it much these days.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#83

Post by jxf »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #54
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…

I didn't track this for purposes of the experiment, but most people were referrals from past clients. I think consulting-type work benefits from this a lot, because you work with a lot of people. Your professional network gets larger much more quickly than if you were taking on 3-to-6-month projects, just because you work with more folks over time.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#84

Post by lifeisstillgood »

jxf wrote: post #83
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I didn't track this for purposes of the experiment, but most people were referrals from past clients. I think consulting-type work benefits from this a lot, because you work with a lot of people. Your professional network gets larger much more quickly than if you were taking on 3-to-6-month projects, just because you work with more folks over time.

That's certainly something I have not considered - short burst consulting as a means of expanding the list of people who might think kindly of me (or not !)

Hard to do in practise I suspect - which is why the dry patch.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#85

Post by instaheat »

I have definitely been the subject of this article. I had a particularly demanding client that didn't seem to want to put any work in, work you and I would probably both consider her responsibility.

I was brought in for consulting on A & B - but she wanted me to do the rest of the alphabet too. Ultimately my billable hours drizzled away to nothing, and my client was impossible to get a hold of.

I did find myself using these lines in various emails whilst working on the things I deemed my responsibility.

I still don't know if they had success with their project because she decided to go at it on her own.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#86

Post by hosh »

I used to do independent consulting. I don't right now. I had already been informally doing this these days for taking uncertainty out of things. I think I am going to do this deliberately for all work related matters. I seem to get better results (getting shit done, people think I communicate better).

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#87

Post by lotyrin »

mdda wrote: post #61
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.

From my recollection, the industry stats on mail-in-rebates on (say) hard disks is something like 80% are unclaimed. Cutting a UPC out of the side of a box (and finding a stamp, and copying a tricky address exactly, etc) is a >$15 job for most people...

But for elementary school age me growing up with my poor single mom, when I could string rebates and sales together to build a computer inside $5 case with similar deals on components, it's crazy magic. Thank you lazy people, for making my childhoodd hobby (and the consulting career that has followed) possible.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#88

Post by Brian-Puccio »

henryaj wrote: post #63
cantbecool wrote: post #17

This article clearly illustrates the red pill philosophy. He demonstrates a few things with his emails, his time is money, he has a plan and will make your live easier, and you get the impression he's not desperate for work, making him more attractive to future clients. I want someone successful mentality.

...the 'red pill philosophy'?

http://www.reddit.com/r/theredpill maybe?

(I don't endorse the ideas discussed there.)

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#89

Post by joshka »

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…

From a purely semantic level, I'm not sure that your group B is any different to what the OP is suggesting is their problem:

"If someone wanted a meeting, I’d suggest a time and instead of saying, “Let me know if this works for you.” I’d switch that out for, “If not, than X time/day also works or I’m free at X time/day.”

Instead of your response, the aligned with this article statement is to state a next step as a statement and forgo the question "Let's discus this further tomorrow, otherwise I'm available on Monday at midday". It's a matter of suggestion compared to questioning, These trigger different cognitions on the part of the receiver.

Re: The email line that's client repellent

#90

Post by kirse »

swombat wrote: post #12

Very good article. Posted my response here: http://swombat.com/2014/1/31/let-me-know-if-i-can-help

Communication is ultimately an expression of an individual's inner attitude, and to call this a quirk of language is focusing too much on the actions without giving any thought as to the attitude that produces those actions.

If one has an internally confident, go-gettin', "always be closing" attitude, all of their actions and communication will flow from that. It's a much better use of energy to focus on cultivating a quiet confidence, rather than attempting to build up a collection of manipulative "power tricks" to be deployed in an inauthentic fashion.

Another thing to recognize is that people who are confident will pick up on the motives of these power tricks, because they'll sense an incongruity in character during communication. When someone who is typically timid and passive acts in an aggressive manner, it stands out like a nerd taking a swing at the jock. Even worse, confident people will push back to see if the user of said "power trick" is for real, which requires the next "power trick" to keep up the act.

So yeah, these might work on some people, but I personally intensely dislike it when I pick up on these things. Not that I'm the paragon of confidence by any means, but I actively rebel & push back when I feel like I'm being controlled/constrained or "should-ed" into doing something. What ultimately ends up happening with these "power tricks" is you have people like Dustin Curtis writing about how "you should do X", and then a ton of idiots mimicking the behavior and annoying the rest of us.

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