Outreach adjustments

Although I respect people trying to get my business, lately I’ve been getting a lot of cold outreach emails trying to sell me lead-placement services and the messages are always focusing on the opposite things that would actually help me. Whatever happened to people asking someone, “Hey, what do you need help with right now?” It’s that simple.

And when it’s not simple, you need to take the time to actually understand your potential customers’ needs. How? By slowing down and asking questions and waiting until the time to sell has arrived. How long does that take? It can take a week, or it can take years. It depends on the customer.

If you go right for a sale without understanding the need, the sale will not close. If you sell something you can’t provide, the customer experience will be poor, and it will hurt your reputation. Both are unacceptable outcomes.

Take the time to understand what you can help someone accomplish. When you know how to make this happen, present it as a solution, but not before that time. Don’t rely on people you can’t trust to help you accomplish the task at hand either. I’ve done this before early on — someone said “oh yeah, I’ll do that for you,” and it turned into a nightmare being pinned between a client and them when they decided they didn’t feel like helping anymore. Best to rely on yourself only, or if you need to, a directly aligned and tightly organized small team.