Studio Note #79: A Better Yes.
The water's fine. Probably.
Image: Bill Murray as Herman Blume in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore.
When you’ve paid for something that didn’t deliver, the next person offering it has a harder job.
That may not be entirely fair to them, but it’s understandable. You’re bringing experience into the conversation. You remember the money, the time and the optimism you had going into the last attempt.
This week, I worked through a proposal for some outside help with cold outreach for Vendorfied Network. We’ve spent money on outreach before without particularly compelling results, so I had questions.
What would the activity actually look like? How would follow-up be handled? What would qualify as a worthwhile opportunity? How would our business be represented to someone hearing about us for the first time?
That last question matters quite a bit. When someone reaches out on your behalf, their approach becomes part of your brand. The person receiving the call or email doesn’t know where your business ends and an outside partner begins. They’re forming an impression of you.
The proposal included a small pilot, which gave us room to evaluate the work before making a larger commitment. That was appealing. We could have a real conversation about expectations, compensation and what each of us would be responsible for.
He would help open the conversations. I would handle closing them. We worked toward a structure that made sense for both sides.
And we’re moving forward.
I think there’s a temptation after an underwhelming experience to turn it into a permanent rule. Tried that. Didn’t work. Next.
I understand the impulse. Money is finite, time is finite and repeating an expensive lesson gets old quickly.
But I also want to leave room for a different person, a different approach and a better agreement. The previous experience gave me specific things to ask about. It helped me explain why the pilot mattered and what I needed to feel comfortable taking the next step.
We haven’t run it yet, so there’s no success story to tell. There’s an agreement we’ve put thought into and an opportunity to see how it works in practice.
For now, I feel good about saying yes because I know what I’m saying yes to.