Business correspondance
 

I am now finding myself in the position of having to email potential clients and beat the bushes looking for work. I have nearly zero experience at writing letters to clients who I do not already know or have met.

I think my style may tend towards too informal and breezy and I am concerned that this may be off putting to people who don't know me.

On the other hand, I think when letters sound too formal they are easier to ignore or sound like form letters.

Anyone have any ideas about how to learn to write great business letters. next step google...

I don't have a lot of advice, but I can tell you that as a person who receives a large number of cold calls & emails at work, that the chances of your message NOT going in the trash immediately is really low.

Make your message short, to the point, and include a good subject line. You'll probably get ignored anyway--but maybe not if I happen to be thinking about getting something like your product at the moment. You'll definitely be deleted if I can't figure out what you're selling immediately.

Oh, and if you call and get no answer, leave a voice mail.

There are some good books out there regarding cold calling, making smalltalk, networking etc. Check out your local library. FWIW, Red loves Zig Ziglar. I just bought him a book, I will PM you the title when I can get ahold of him to find out exactly what it was.

foot, i'm sorry but i forget what type of photography you're trying to gather clients for.

i know a couple photographers have gotten business simply by going to the soccer fields on saturday and taking pictures of the kids playing and handing out their cards to the parents directing them to the website where the families can buy prints, mugs, mousepads, and the like.

even if they don't buy the photos, they know what you do.

Lookout- I'm doing studio work, products mainly, but would love to move to "lifestyle" stuff. I'm looking now for a mentor in that field. I'll pm you a link to my website.

Lab- looking up Zig now, name sounds familiar.

Steve, I figured a lot goes into the circular file even if the subject line *is* hot, wet, teens. I suppose there is no experience like experience, the old 20 nos for each yes.

You might check out Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman. There is a chapter on his work with the Met Life insurance sales force.

Steve Schiffman is the cold call king. just ask him. he'll direct you to his books.

Foot - I write a pretty good business letter, but as Steve and Lab have picked up, cold selling is completely different. I also bin many letters and put off many callers on a daily basis.

To be fair, this is mostly because we've been targetted incorrectly - we get calls re business mobiles, water coolers, vending machines etc and we're a tiny office and a registered charity.

All I can say is lay out what you are offering as clearly and concisely as possible. And try to make it eye-catching. Free gifts always get your letter a second look in every office I've worked in, but of course that can involve huge outlay if you've not narrowed your mailing list down.

Yeah, he called me last week trying to sell me some.

his company actually does that. or at least they used to.

You could hire me. That's what I do for a living. :)

I "know" a guy who's made it and i'm sure he'd be up to giving you a few pointers if you contacted him, he's a nice guy. His name's Andrew Wheeler and after initially aiming for the equine photography market, he found his niche in Motorsport. Here are his websites:

http://www.automotophoto.com/
http://www.whimwham.com/

of course he started out by being extremely talented, but I think rather than cold-calling, he went out there, met and made friends with the people who were his potential market, got examples of his work and put it under people's noses until they had to admit it was pretty darn good. He'll be able to tell you more. I know him from the Britnet website. He has a cool accent too :)

Book I bought for Red: Dirk Zeller, Telephone Sales for Dummies

Books he bought: Stephan Schiffman, Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work
and George Dudley The Psychology of Sales Calls Reluctance. Earning What you are Worth.


Good Luck.

Thanks Monster. I am checking out his websites and will contact him. He's a Brit or just a fan of Brits?

Just checked his websites. Really astounding work and hard to believe it's by the same guy.

Upgrade your spel checker.

correspondence. Ouch ouch ouch.

LOL, I noticed that, but I have a policy of not correcting anybody's spelling or grammar in posts. 'Cause you know, there's an unwritten law that whenever you do that, there will be a mistake in YOUR post too. :D

It's not unwritten anymore.

have someone else proof read whatever you send.

That's a good rule. But my remark was pertinent to the topic of the post. In addition, I consider footfootfoot a good friend, and my correction was not made in malice.

He's a Brit, F3. He posts on Britnet as Maczippy, although he's too busy to be there much now. Somewhere in the archives is his entire career progression -when he first joined the board he was a cube farm worker who took pics in his spare time andposted a few on the Britnet... that's right, we knew him before he was famous! :lol:

I tried the email approach, but was concerned that I would be lumped with spammers. What seems to work for me is a concise letter (who, what, etc.), sent with a composite print that I did in Photoshop that fits in a #10 envelope. I also send a larger postcard (printed by Modern) to current and former clients, just to jog their brain that I am still alive and shooting. As far as email, I have used a bulk email creator to send messages to current and former clients about things I've been up to. Seems to work for me. I'm really terrible at writing those letters, so I'd rather let the work do the selling.:cool:

I thought you were just being ironic and clever (correspon-dance, and all that that implies).

Ha! Me too...like the whole process is painful.

And Pico, Well thanks for that, it would be my style. I used to have mad spelling skills...