..in the end you will reap what you sow

A couple of weeks ago I planted some potatoes with my two children, aged three and six. Each had three potatoes in their smaller vegetable patches, whilst I planted 12 in my larger area.

Of course you can guess what has happened. Green shoots are appearing on the kids plots and nothing is showing on mine! Perhaps my children are better gardeners than me, or maybe it’s the luck of better soil over by their small squares.

After sending out some e-mailers last week, the exercise felt a little similar. Prospecting is not an exact science and responses are expected to be low. But like the potatoes growing at the end of our garden, the results can be a little surprising. Of the two mailings I sent, the smaller list of 53 names resulted in two responses. The larger mailing to 531 names netting no responses as yet.

So, would I get better responses if I got my children to compose the copy of the e-mailers? Probably not. Maybe though, I might employ them to press the send button, once everything is ready to go. But just to prove the point that my own farming methods are hopefully sound, today I found potato shoots breaking through the barren earth on my own plot. I remain confident that we will get replies to our email campaign. We have in the past and I expect us to again. It does make me realise though that prospecting for clients is a little like farming, and if you keep at it, you will in the end, reap what you sow.