It made him stand out in a good way, and as a result, we eventually had a call. Why? He’d seen a blog post where I mentioned I’d eat pizza 24/7 if I could, and cleverly worked that into his follow-up. Every week, he’d send me a new email quickly re-explaining what he sold-as well as a suggestion for good pizza to try around the city. I once had someone trying to sell me something that I was remotely interested in but that was nowhere near the top of my priority list. Just let me know if you’d prefer I stop following up.” Most people respect honesty and don’t want to waste someone’s time, and they’ll at least let you know one way or another. But I don’t want to bombard you with emails if you’re not interested. I’ll sometimes say, “I know how busy you are and completely understand if you just haven’t had the time to reach back out. After all, you don’t want to waste your time, either. If you’ve followed up a few times and still haven’t heard back, it’s worth directly asking if you should stop following up. Rule 3: Directly Ask if You Should Stop Reaching Out I typically start off with an email every week, and then switch to every couple of weeks. Any sooner, and it might come off as pushy let too much time pass, and you risk the other person not having any clue who you are. The general rule of thumb is to give at least a week before following up. Sending a follow-up email every day doesn’t show you have gumption or passion-it shows you don’t respect a person’s time. Rule 2: Persistent Doesn’t Mean Every Day Showing that you’re friendly and that you understand how busy your contact is is a good way to keep him or her interested (and not mad). Resist the urge to get upset or mad, and never take your feelings out in an email, saying something like, “You haven’t responded yet,” or “You ignored my first email.” Just maintain an extremely polite tone throughout the entire email thread. That seems obvious enough, but a lot of people take it personally when they don’t hear back from someone right away. Here are a few tips on how to (nicely) follow up on that interview, sales lead, or networking contact-and get the answer you’re looking for. Or, as I call it, to be “pleasantly persistent.” The important thing is to do it the right way. So, to the question: Should you follow up?Īnd how often should you do so? My philosophy is: as many times as it takes. If you don’t get a response, it doesn’t mean that someone’s ignoring you-it just may mean that he or she is too busy. That makes it pretty tough to respond to all of them, and things naturally fall to the bottom of the list. The average person can get a few hundred emails a day. No one wants to be annoying or bothersome to a professional contact, especially when you want a job, meeting, sales dollars, or something else very important from that person.īut here’s the rub. Friend: I wrote to him last week and still haven’t heard back.
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