Sometimes, you think everything is running smoothly with your buyer.
You’ve had your conversations, they’re interested in your work, they’re buying in, they’ve asked for a proposal… things are looking good!
Next, you spend some time carefully crafting an email to your buyer.
You review your notes, you lay out your proposal and theory and insights, you ask a few pertinent questions, you even include a call to action.
Next you send it if off, proud of a job well done, happily awaiting a positive response
And then: crickets.
But wait… didn’t you do your due diligence?
Did you not carefully calibrate your messaging to their world and the goals and challenges they have?
Well… yes, you did.
So then, why no reply?
Very often, it’s because you said too much.
Meaning, you’ve put too much density and content in your message, and you trigger procrastination.
The buyer reads your email, sees all the processing and thinking they’ll need to do, and they park your message and proposal away as "I’ll deal with it later".
Except each time they open the email, they get the same feeling of overwhelm, for the sheer volume and density of notions and things to think about, and so they keep putting off sending you a reply.
In other words: you’ve ‘sold them a problem‘: they have to do a lot of mental processing – and hey, brain cycles are costly.
Much of the communication we put out there is far too complex, too complete, too filled.
Instead, keep your messaging simple, to the point, short, and above all, remember the golden rule of copywriting:
One missive, one message. Be specific, on-point, don’t branch off into sub-topics or sideways-related notions. Each missive you send should focus on only one single problem, topic, or issue. There’s only one core issue and all others should be in support of that, not in competition with it.
In other words:
Say less, to get more.
Meaning: give people the single most important notion you need to get across, and keep everything else for the next time you talk.
The more notions and ideas and questions you load into your message, the bigger the chance that you won’t get a reply.
One missive, one message.