The Knowledge Center

Why Clients Don't Answer Open Invitations

As an Accidental Entrepreneur, you need clients and customers. And if you’re not 100% confident that folks are interested, you may feel that the best way to approach getting clients is with an open invitation.

After all, you wouldn’t want anyone to feel excluded, would you?

But being specific about which clients and customers are just-right isn’t about exclusion. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite.

How are your just-right clients supposed to know you are talking to them if you don’t tell them?

The Problem with Open Invitations

The problem with open invitations is that there’s no way for your just-right clients to know you’re aware of their existence, let alone that you actually care about their concerns.

From your point of view, the open invitation makes it ultra-easy for them to approach.

From their point of view, the open invitation disappears into the background noise of everyday life. To get their attention, you’re going to have to be more inviting.

When John Amatt led the 1982 Canadian team on a successful Mount Everest Expedition, only three people reached the summit. Many climbers who were part of the team, whose lifetime ambition was to stand on top of Everest, made the conscious choice to stay in the base camp.

Why? Because they knew the effort was likely to fail if everyone tried to make it. They chose to forego their individual dreams in favor of helping the team succeed.

This wasn't John Amatt's first time to plan an Everest expedition. Ten years earlier, with one of his friends from Norway, he had gathered a team of world- class climbers from many different countries, for the challenge. But at the last minute, he backed out. Officially, it was to get married.

"But that was just an excuse," he said later. "I knew that, despite having the best climbers in the world, this expedition would not succeed. Everyone wanted to reach the top for their own glory or that of their country. No one seemed willing to make decisions for the good of the team."

Kent "The Nitpicker" Butler

There are countless thousands of articles posted on the Web on every subject on God’s green Earth. The vast majority have one thing in common: The authors could have done a better, more readable job with a little more effort.

The writers do their readers and themselves a disservice by not presenting their material in the best way they can. They may damage their own credibility, they may discourage their readers.

by Kent Butler