B.G. Melanson @BGMelanson: When do you stop calling an investor who never takes or returns you calls?
ANSWER:
Read my post on when I met Stevie Cohen, head of one of the largest hedge funds on the planet. He never returned my calls at first. But you don’t want to be rude. Most people are very busy. We live on a busy planet. Everyone has their eyes glazed either doing one of two things: thinking about their angry past, or worrying about their obsessive future. They can’t take your call. Of course not! Who are you?
But water eventually withers away rock. If an investor doesn’t return your calls, even if you had a great first meeting, even if you’ve never met before, and even if you’ve met and he’s rejected you, then do this: every month send a personal update. Show consistent friendliness and growth. Its a no-hard-feelings world. Show that in your world, though, everything is good, everything is growing. They can participate in it if they want. Or not. Doesn’t matter to you. Your world is about friendliness, growth, abundance, reaching out, connections, networking, and no-hard-feelings.
Never be rude. Never do the hail-mary call. Never say “why aren’t you returning my calls.”
I’ll give you an example: On Friday I had a call set up for 2pm with someone. HE actually set up the time. Then I got on the conference call and he never showed up. Nor did he respond to a follow-up call or email. You can’t take something like that personally. Perhaps he was busy. Perhaps something bad happened. Or perhaps he just didn’t want to talk to me. Maybe he realized too late that he hates my guts.
Whatever. As Jay-Z says, “onto the next one.”