So I agree with most of what is stated here..
Except... I don't like the part about the don't start off the conversation with "Hi. How are you?"
honestly when anyone contacts me and gets straight to business I find it offensive, and will force the conversation to slow down and it's actually one of my red flags if they don't take a moment to talk and understand I am a real human being, and not just an object for them to play with and discard...
Personally i agree with this statement overall but it seem in general, well especially agencies due to the volume they receive, but also a lot of indies, prefer a more straight to the point because they have to deal with a lot of time wasters.
Now of course there is a difference between going for the point politely and simply saying "hey, avai now" or any other terrible intros like this. I think saying Hi or Salut is a minimum.
That said its so different from one to another and i feel there is no exact science. I will upload my last "try" to meet someone indy. I blurred all the names and numbers so beside the provider itself wich may recognize my text (and i don't mind) there is really no sensitive infos there. I just want to "analyze it with you guys".
I came personally to 3 conclusions why communication was stopped.
1) Last answer too long. I seen some peoples who really have an aversion for anything more than 2 lines. But i wanted to be clear with the situation and show im really not wasting her time, fully intended to book in the next 2 or 3 days and was open to multiple time slots.
2) Didn't liked i said i was speaking with a booker. I didn't meant it pejoratively. Its fine to have a booker handle your ...bookings. It really just didn't felt like the SP i met the way it was answered. Very generic and almost auto-reply...
3) She just has no interest for pre-booking and is fine with meeting peoples on the fly... Wich a last answer just letting me know pre-booking is not possible would had been nice ..
Now personally i think i was direct enough while polite, didn't asked for a "menu" or anything (it was auto-sent to me). I did mentioned i met the lady before so i wouldn't be a new client. I used french because the SP in question speak french as first language. The "auto-reply menu" was also sent in french anyway so it was not an issue. Oh and no screening at all was mentioned in the ads. Now maybe i could have added a first name. Like Mike here but i do think i told her my real first name in person (always do, its no issue for me) but i wasn't sure if it wouldn't looked awkward.
Anyway looking back on it its easy to analyze it on a bunch of factors and im sure most of you will have their theories why it avorted like that, either from my options or maybe something else. But on the spot, i taught it was fine. Its a text too, not an email, much harder to all condense into 1 small message.
So base on that what should i do? Retry at some point? Just forget about it?
