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Following the suggestion of a University client, I will email a short promotional message to the ~150 local university staff and faculty in my address book, suggesting they contact me if they have money that needs spending by Jun 30. (I've had personal contact with every person on the list, BTW, so hopefully they won't think it spam, just promotional.) |
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If anyone replies in the positive. |
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Jun 30! |
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This is very scary for me because I think recipients will be angry and email me back. So I'll enjoy the boldness of my action, and use this as an opportunity to manage my reaction to any emails I might get back. I'll use this as a chance to compare negative expectations to reality, and therefore to calibrate myself. Also, I'll enjoy satisfying my curiosity about whether this kind of method works. Plus, it might be a chance to clean up my address book. :-) Good luck to me! |
Tags consulting, gtd, marketing, productivity, sales, time, management, organizing
Comments & Observations
Matthew Cornell OK, it's off! I expect a number of immediate system replies that the address wasn't found.
Jun 10, 2010
Brock Tice Brilliant! Is that date specific to Umass?
Jun 10, 2010
Matthew Cornell Re data, I don't know, though a quick check of U of I shows it looks pretty standard. The US used to be Jun 30, but is now September 30 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_year#United_States).
Jun 10, 2010
Brock Tice I'm very curious about how this will turn out. Keep us posted!
Jun 11, 2010
Lizzy Great thinking!
Jun 11, 2010
Matthew Cornell Results so far:
Bounced emails: 12
Replies: 2
The first reply was from a recent client, who referred me to one of her staff. The second was from that staff person, who said she had no money.
Surprises:
o Any replies at all!
o No angry emails
Jun 12, 2010
Matthew Cornell A few people from one of the university's colleges replied that they'd used up their funds "long ago". Good to know - maybe this approach won't succeed for that reason.
Jun 14, 2010
Matthew Cornell Experiment complete. What I learned:
o 1/155 responded (0.65%), which led to two responses from her staff
o The response was from a recent client
o Zero unhappy responses
o A handful of bounced emails
o The two responses indicated all money had been used up
Conclusion: A useful experiment, but will not do again.
Jun 15, 2010
Brock Tice Didn't achieve the primary purpose of the email, but you still put the L in TTL! Nice work!
Jun 15, 2010
Lizzy And, worth noting, you are on people's radar for future consulting which has long term benefits.
Jun 15, 2010