Sunday, August 14, 2005
The Power of Presence Part III
What not to do.
Years ago I put together a fairly high quality information package (resume, work samples, testimonials, business card) along with a self- addressed stamped postcard. They were to go to prospective clients who were no doubt waiting to hear from someone no doubt as wondrous as me. In a short cover letter I explained who I was and what I did for a living. On the back of the postcard I had three boxes, one of which they could check off.
The first box said - "Yes, call us and we will set up a meeting. The second - "Nothing now. Try us again in a few months". The third - "Sorry, we don't need your services"
All they had to do was check off one of those boxes and toss the card into their outbox. How hard could that be?
So I sent these fancy packages out to I don't know how many corporate and government Directors of Communication. I was feeling very smug about this.
I waited for the responses to roll in.
And waited and waited.
I was very disappointed and learned a lesson.
Here I was sending them my very best, and they were ignoring me. How could this be?
Well, "my very best" was "their junk mail." Here I was thinking that I had made the process easy for them - but that assumed they would actually read my resume, work samples and cover letter. It was just more unsolicited crap on their desks they had to do something with. They just added my crap to the piles in the corner that came in weekly from freelancers.
The moral here is that if they don't ask to see your work samples, don't send them out willy nilly. You are wasting your money and ticking off a lot of people with your junk mail and wasting trees.
Of course you should always have a mini-portfolio ready in the off chance you are asked. If you have gotten that far in the discussion with a potential client - you absolutely have to have one. Its absence could be a deal breaker.
There is an exception to sending unsolicited missives - and that is via email. Now you have to be very careful here. You don't actually send your work samples - you just send a very short introductory note with a hyperlink to your web site or blog where your work is stashed.
You have to be very smart and articulate in your email so they think you would be interesting enough to meet. Generally speaking recipients are more amenable to this approach because you aren't cluttering up their offices with paper - just electrons.
It is still not my preferred approach to finding work, but it can work if its electronically done in a non- spam like fashion. Be judicious.
