HOW TO MASTER THE FINE ART OF THE FOLLOW-UP
HERE'S YOUR GUIDE TO HOW TO (PROFESSIONALLY) PESTER
ABOUT A JOB, A PITCH, AN INVOICE, AND MORE.
Is there anything more
frustrating than waiting for an answer and getting silence? Someone is holding
onto your money, your idea, or your very future, and you need feedback before
you can breathe (or just buy groceries).
Tactfulness and
persistence are both important, but exactly how tactful and how persistent, and
also, do phone calls work? We got the points of view from several authorities
on the subject on what makes for successful pestering. (Results may vary.)
The authority: Angela
Jacobs, director, talent acquisition & development at the University of
Chicago
Write a thank-you
note. Don’t overlook
the post-interview thank-you note. If you pester and you didn’t say thank you
in the first place, it seems out of order. If you send a snail mail thank you,
it might not get to the person in a timely manner, so send an email thank you.
Don’t overdo the
follow-up. Shorter is
better. Consider a three-sentence email: "Thanks again for the interview.
You mentioned you would follow up by this time. I just want to reiterate my
interest in the position."
Do know when to
quit. Inquire weekly after
that. If you email twice and nobody responds, cut your losses.
Don’t burn bridges. It doesn’t come off well when people are
demanding and say things like, "You told me you would know by
such-and-such day." Well, things happen in business. There’s been a budget
change, people move away. You have no idea what’s happening on the other side.
Everyone remembers the second and third runners up from a year ago, and
sometimes they end up being the right person for a future position.
The authority: Kara
Corridan, health director at Parents magazine
Inquire when it’s best
to follow up. We might have
several months go by before we get back to a writer. That’s why following up
every Monday is a bad idea. Publicists, particularly the junior-level people,
tend to follow up too frequently. Certain people that send me something on a Friday
and then follow up Monday—it’s ludicrous. Even if we were interested, we
couldn’t turn things around that frequently. You can try again in a month. Give
us a chance to process.
Don’t call. I find that email is best for
everything. It’s not worth it for a writer to leave me a voice mail. I think
most people would agree.
Don’t email at the
start of the week. If you check in
on a Monday, you’ll be one of many. Midweek is preferred.
Mention the
competition. If there’s
genuinely a chance someone else might be interested in your pitch, it’s not a
bad idea to mention it in a nonthreatening way. Maybe it will light a fire if
we were interested, and I just haven’t gotten the final word yet.
Don’t be passive
aggressive. I’ve had
situations where writers have said to me, "I haven’t heard from you, so
I’ll assume you’re not interested." There’s just a tone to it. If I’m
given a deadline, I don’t respond well to it.
Don’t respond
immediately with another pitch. Sometimes I will carve out a couple hours to tackle my inbox.
When I have gone through it, I feel so good, but the next time I check my
email, 15 writers I’ve replied to have boomeranged a new pitch to me. I
understand they’re trying to strike while the iron is hot, but sometimes I feel
that they haven’t necessarily taken into consideration what didn’t work about
the pitch that I just rejected: They’re just throwing an idea at me that might
not be any more right.
Think through what
you’re volleying back. It’s also not a great idea when you send a new pitch but
haven’t heard back yet on the first, especially if we haven’t worked together
before. Editors like to see how someone does on a particular piece before
sending them another one. We won’t assign them both anyway, so it’s best to
hold onto it.
The authority: Amelia
McDonell-Parry, editor-in-chief of TheFrisky.com
Make sure you’ve made
it easy on the person handling it. The easiest way for freelancers to do their part to get
paid on time is to make sure your invoice is perfect. If something’s wrong, the
finance department won’t be able to alert you to it right away.
Make sure that you
have your name, address, email, date, date of publication, name of the piece,
individual fee per piece, and grand total at the bottom. If you’ve moved, alert
your editor. If it’s been a while and you haven’t gotten paid, reattach the
invoice. Also, don’t submit your invoices more than once per month. It’s much
less likely that something will get messed up.
Don’t follow up on
Fridays. Or in the early morning. Fridays are typically the days checks are cut, so the
finance departments are pretty busy. If you think maybe your check has fallen
through the cracks, earlier in the week is better. I tend to prefer to get
anything that is not related for the day-to-day running to the site later in
the afternoon.
The authority:
Jacqueline Flynn, literary agent and editor, Joëlle Delbourgo Associates
Research submission
guidelines first. Literary agents
have submission guidelines on their websites, which includes typical response
times. Also, did you follow the guidelines in the query? I don’t want to read
"Dear Sir or Madam" or see it’s been sent to 500 agents. You probably
won’t get an answer, and following up isn’t going to do any good. Go back and
follow the instructions if you didn’t.
Ask for confirmation
of receipt. When an agent
comes to you and asks for your manuscript or proposal, say, "Let me know
you’ve received this," when you send it. You don’t want to be sitting for
four weeks. That would certainly give you an opening to follow up.
Be specific with the
nature of your follow-up.Sometimes
people will say, "Oh, I’m just checking in." That’s not asking for a
particular action. Say, "Are you still considering my project? When might
I be expecting to hear from you?"
Don’t play dumb. Sometimes the follow-up comes across as
clueless. "Oh I don’t really know how this works and I’m new to this, so I
hope I’m not totally screwing up. I want to know if you think I should write this
blog post," like you’re their agent already. It shows that you don’t know
this process, which is good reason to say no to you. People think they will
disarm you but it doesn’t work.
The authority: Rich
Krisher, custom health-care publications editor
Don’t expect the
clients to care about your deadline. I’m working on a project right now that has a monthly
deadline, and there’s no leeway in the schedule. In that case, I have learned
my lesson: When I first was assigned the client, I assumed everything ran on
time. I got to that hard deadline and I only received materials from a few of
the people in the organization.
Pre-pester and offer
help. If clients are
supposed to provide me with an article, I offer to give them a little bit of an
outline. Then I’ll come the next day and ask, "I wanted to touch base: Is
there anything else I can do to get that together?" Then a week out, I’ll
send a friendly reminder saying, "Thanks for your help in the past. I
wanted to let you know we have this deadline next week. Let me know if I can do
anything to help you." I’ll send another one on deadline day, replying-all
to that message, saying, "Today’s the deadline, and if you anticipate any
problems, let me know and we’ll see what we can work out."
Only enlist someone to
help with your dirty work as a last resort. Sometimes, if I’m not getting a response, I talk to
someone else who is in contact with the client. Occasionally, if there’s a
different voice making the request, that proves successful. Sometimes a client
will just go AWOL, and even though I don’t like it, you have to copy their
boss.
BY CLAIRE ZULKEY
http://www.fastcompany.com/3051254/hit-the-ground-running/how-to-master-the-fine-art-of-the-follow-up?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=7&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=09242015
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