Broad options breeds paralysis. A variety gives them an out. Offering the option to respond is different than offering an option to respond to.
Feel free to book time on my calendar to chat might work… a bit.
But.
Would you invest 30 minutes next Monday at 10 a.m. works better.
Not in that it gets a better positive response than the former option, but it does get a response faster than the former option.
And speed is everything isn’t it? It’s all a numbers game.
Either you reach out to 30 people with the opportunity to connect with you and spend the next few weeks constantly following up or you reach out to 30 people with a specific request, date and time, to connect with you and rather than spending the next few weeks constantly following up, a quarter of the 30 respond saying no thanks, freeing that otherwise wasted bandwidth up on reaching out to the next group.
And just for shits and giggles, let’s assume one of those you triggered a response from shares why the answer is no.
Now on top of the time you’ve pivoted to being proactive with other targets, you also got a tidbit of actionable information to share with the team.
Niceties and passiveness is often a form of hiding. It delays getting an answer which means you’ll then have to take a new action.
If you’re following up more than 3 times, chances are either that person is dead (to date I’ve never gotten an OoO auto response stating a person must admit they have passed and they’d get back to me never) or your way of asking isn’t working.
Which is likelier?
If you clearly communicate the value of the reason for connecting, then it’s worth approaching the ask to connect with just as much confidence and specificity.
Stay Positive & You Know What Einstein Says About Insanity
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