Asking vs. Broadcasting
What should consultants (and others) do when their email list stops producing?
Note: I’m moving off Medium and refocusing a little bit. This is the first email you’ve gotten from me after signing up (probably years ago). What was Effective CRM is now just a new name, Practical Jobs-to-be-Done. This is a simple initial post. If you’re no longer interested in my ramblings about digital transformation in the CRM/CX space, I hope you will share this with someone that is. Thanks
When lists begin to fail
This is one of those things that should be blatantly obvious. You spend years building a prized mailing list. Sometimes you get great results. Sometimes you don’t. Hmm. I wonder why that is?
Should marketing lists be targeted at a specific domain (a group with a common purpose)? Should that domain be broken down into smaller groups that have different needs? Do you know what problem a particular recipient is likely to be facing at this particular point in time? Are they a past customer, and do you know how the last project went for them?
Or do you broadcast a singular message to the entire list because you need to find revenue now?
I’ve experienced this trap in many organizations. I’m sure you have as well. I wonder what simple questions we could ask our mailing list that would help us to place them into more productive, and less brand-destroying messaging buckets? Let’s assume your sales or customer success teams don’t do this for you.
When broadcasting to a list, consulting firms are actually asking…
“Would you like some of our expensive consulting now?”
What if the person that signed up for your list doesn’t have budget authority to spend on expensive consulting? Or what if they are an executive who needs to answer a key question right now, but doesn’t trust other sources because they use different methods? What if sometimes they do hire consulting services, and other times they don’t? Do you ask them to hire you when they are in those “don’t” times?
Ask more questions, get better answers
Maybe it would make sense to take the time to devise a simple set of questions to understand who you’re talking to, what they ideally want from you, and when they want it. Here are some thoughts on what you might want to learn:
Does this recipient have the authority and budget to hire us? If not, will they have it in the future, and when? Is there someone that trusts them that does?
Is this recipient interested in learning how to solve problems our way so the have more control? Are they concerned that we can’t scale to meet their demand and schedule? Are they willing to invest, but prefer to invest in their own people?
Is this recipient willing to accept less precision in order to solve a larger set of related problems? Or, are they constrained by time to get answers they can act upon?
Do we know what level of value the recipient places on solving their key problems?
Does their organization prefer large upfront fees, or do they prefer lower monthly/annual subscriptions? Is one of these structures easier than the other to access? Should you just give up on them if they don’t fit your current business model?
The answers to simple questions like these may actually send you down the path of rethinking your entire portfolio of offerings. If a competitor is successfully offering a single workshop using a different method, don’t match them by compressing a more rigorous, time-consuming method. Create a new modality with your method at the core. This will likely require a new business model. I know, it sounds painful.
I would really like to hear what you think. Do you like to hire consultants? Do you prefer subscribing to more general industry research? Do you purchase commercial-off-the-shelf software (COTS) or do you develop your own bespoke solutions? Do different groups in your organization value different solutions and pricing structures when solving strategic problems? Are you a consultant with an opinion?
What other questions should we ask?