If you really care about getting something done, then you're going to need to stay on it. The best way to do it without being annoying is:
1. To be extremely polite and articulate each time you follow-up as it will not only make people more receptive to in your inquiry, but will help them have a better understanding of what it is you actually need;
2. Try to secure a "when can I expect to hear from you?" ballpark figure from the parties involved; that way they can set the expectation for when you should hear back from them and you can politely hold them to it;
3. Give people a reasonable amount of leeway - if the person you're contacting is extremely busy, it might take them weeks to follow up on a simple email. I contacted a CEO of a company which represents a model customer for my own startup service in late March to get some feedback from him; I didn't actually end up speaking to him until yesterday. That's just how it goes with busy people some times - just stay organized, keep a list of all of the people you've contacted and when, and periodically remind them when enough time has passed.
I would also add that it's important to follow up personally, at least for major accounts. (And if you do hire virtual assistant, train them to be able to follow up as if you were doing so somehow...)
I also sometimes try to add some value to my follow up. If I see a bit of news about the person's company or industry, I'll contact them and mention it, then tack on my gentle follow-up afterwards.
Thanks for sharing your tips and experiences. Yeah I guess there's no magical solution. One thing also I find gets people's response is using 'I know you're busy, but...'. Ofcourse I haven't done any A/B testing on that or anything.
Comments
"do you just fire an email and forget about it?"
If you really care about getting something done, then you're going to need to stay on it. The best way to do it without being annoying is:
1. To be extremely polite and articulate each time you follow-up as it will not only make people more receptive to in your inquiry, but will help them have a better understanding of what it is you actually need;
2. Try to secure a "when can I expect to hear from you?" ballpark figure from the parties involved; that way they can set the expectation for when you should hear back from them and you can politely hold them to it;
3. Give people a reasonable amount of leeway - if the person you're contacting is extremely busy, it might take them weeks to follow up on a simple email. I contacted a CEO of a company which represents a model customer for my own startup service in late March to get some feedback from him; I didn't actually end up speaking to him until yesterday. That's just how it goes with busy people some times - just stay organized, keep a list of all of the people you've contacted and when, and periodically remind them when enough time has passed.
+1 for the great tips. Especially for #2.
I would also add that it's important to follow up personally, at least for major accounts. (And if you do hire virtual assistant, train them to be able to follow up as if you were doing so somehow...)
I also sometimes try to add some value to my follow up. If I see a bit of news about the person's company or industry, I'll contact them and mention it, then tack on my gentle follow-up afterwards.
Thanks for sharing your tips and experiences. Yeah I guess there's no magical solution. One thing also I find gets people's response is using 'I know you're busy, but...'. Ofcourse I haven't done any A/B testing on that or anything.
A/B testing for this sort of thing is probably overthinking it :p, but I get your meaning though