A business goal of mine is to find nice folks that are doing awesome things and to help them do even more awesome things via excellent graphic design.
I researched and collected a list of one hundred Non-Profit organizations in the Oklahoma City metro area that I felt met that criteria.
One month ago I send them each an research/qualifying email that asked two simple questions: 1. Do they hired the services of print designers? 2. If so, what do they hire them to design?
All the emails were sent to an actual human that worked for the NPO I was qualifying. The following are my results:
• 89 did not reply
• 6 use in-house designers
• 4 said they’d keep my info on file
• 1 prospect meeting
It is impossible to not receive an email that someone sends to you. Every email is date and time stamped to the second. So I wasn’t worried about folks not getting my qualifying email. Each email contained text only and was sent directly to a human so I was not worried about my email going into a junk mail or spam folder. None of the messages I sent were kicked back as an invalid email address. All of this to say that one hundred real business people saw my message in their inbox.
The evidence would suggest that 89 of them have poor communication skills due to the fact that there was zero response to my message. Since folks that don’t communicate well are nightmares to work with, I view their lack of a response as a headache averted.
Six of these folks responded to my email with a single sentence, “We use in-house designers.” Their response makes me wonder if:
A) They did not read my message.
B) They did not understand my simple questions.
C) They can not read the English language to a proficient level that would allow them to comprehend the questions I asked of them.
We are left to assume that these professionals’ curt responses were their attempt at a polite ‘piss off’; ‘go away’; ‘I’m too busy and too important to answer your questions.’
Again, headache averted.
The four professionals that sent a, “I will keep your info on file” had more to say. Their general consensus was, “Thank you for your interest, your work looks great, we don’t have a project coming up right now but please stay in touch.”
Those responses left me feeling a lot better about research and they went into the ‘contact once a month for potential projects’ folder.
Now we come to the one client meeting that actually occurred as a result of my research/qualifying email. The Marketing Director I emailed was delighted to receive my inquiries and we scheduled a time to sit down over coffee to discuss the details of a current project that they needed soon, a brochure.
The morning of the meeting I met the eager Marketing Director and she brought with her the Executive Director. I asked a bunch of questions about the project, showed tangible portfolio examples of similar brochures completed for other area Non-Profits, explained how I work and asked about their own process.
They both seemed very engaged in what I had to say and would positively chatter between themselves about the work I showed them, picking up the examples and studying each of them.
I felt that the prospective client interview was going well enough to bring up the project budget and started in with, “Let’s talk about money.” I told them the flat-fee price range for my work on the project they were considering.
The Marketing Director nodded her head in approval and wrote down my price range. I glanced at the Executive Director and noticed a look on his face that I can only describe as a combination of panic and disgust.
After our meeting it was clear that the Executive Director:
• was not aware that the work I do costs money
• was disgusted that I didn't work for free
• did not have a budget in mind
• had not researched what a project like that costs in this area
• does not value what design does
• does not value his NOPs perception
The Marketing Directors response was, “Your work looks great! It looks like we (her and the ED) have a few things to discuss, I’ll keep in touch with you.”
It was an interesting waste of their time and mine to say the very least. I listened to my gut and chalked the meeting up to experience. I’m now thankful that we didn’t move forward with that project simply because it would have tied me to an unhealthy business experience.
On my drive home from the meeting I thought about my combined research on area NPOs, “Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree.” What about the next 100 NPOs I contact? Should I even try? I think it’s time to find a different tree.
So, what about your client search/research? How do you fill your pipeline with sustainable work? Please post your helpful comments and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your time :)
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