Write Before You Call?
Professionals sometimes ask me if it is best to send a prospective client an email before calling her, especially if it is someone you don’t know well. They are usually looking for affirmation. I respond with this story:
Many years ago, I was taught how to make cold-call appointments with senior executives by Bruce McNaughton, a brilliant rainmaker who could get a meeting with anyone. We were to send letters (no email in those days) to people we wanted to meet, and he would come in a week later to show us how to follow up with a call to the execs’ assistants. Something went wrong and the letters weren’t sent. When I told Bruce this, he asked for the phone number of the first person on the list of those who should have received a letter. He picked up the phone and called the man’s assistant. “My name is Bruce McNaughton,” he said. “Has Mr. Smith received the letter I sent?” Of course, the assistant said he hadn’t. “Well, never mind,” said Bruce. “It said this . . .” He proceeded to describe what we were looking for, was passed on to the Chief Financial Officer and got us a meeting. The letter hadn’t been necessary, but Bruce knew that sending one would make me more comfortable with calling.
So, yes. Send an email, if it makes calling easier for you, but realize that you are doing it as much for your own comfort as you are for the executive you send it to. And what if your emails don’t get sent, call anyway.
