Contacting prospective clients: E-mail versus phone and other foolishness

It should come as no surprise that I'm intent on growing my business. That intention requires me to contact prospective clients.

I actually have the perfect excuse to nudge them: I recently joined Chicago Book Clinic and the Council of Science Editors. It's time to broadcast the news.

While my workload so far, thankfully, has only suffered the expected seasonal lull, I am reaching out once again to contacts in publishing to bolster my clientele.

I opt to e-mail. I justify this choice by insisting (to myself) that people are more receptive to e-mail; that I like to allow them to respond in their own time rather than command them to speak when I call; that, most of all, I display my talents best in a written format rather than a spoken exchange.

Therein lies my current problem. Earlier today I drafted a note to a potential client, using a previously sent e-mail as my boilerplate. Sound familiar? See where this is going?

I began to rework the new e-mail to appeal to the second recipient. Instead of deleting a block of text I had highlighted, I moved it to an unflattering position and quickly, stupidly, blindly clicked "send" instead of...what? I don't really know what I was planning to do with that click. Maybe "undo"? Oops, no undo button on my e-mail.

I crossed this potential client off the potentials list and was just moving on when I received an automatic reply thanking me for my interest and saying someone would be in touch soon.

That did it. I had to 'fess up. Still relying on the gentle glide of e-mail, I apologized to the anonymous automatic message processor and included my originally intended note, complete with humorous aside.

The irony is all too clear, to all of us, so I won't bother. But I am reminded that, sometimes, calling is the path of fewest land mines.

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