Are you providing enough information?

You must provide enough information whenever you expect an answer from someone. It seems fairly simple doesn’t it? And yet, look at this email I received a couple of days ago:

Deborah,
Hope you’re well. We’re looking for some freelance technical/medical writers and I thought you might be interested or might know some people. We have some general needs and a very specific need for someone in Boston.
[name]

No email signature with contact information or point of reference here. I do not know the sender–have never met him or even heard of him. Did he find me on LinkedIn, doing a web search or what? No clue.

I looked up the sender based on his email address, and found out he is the president (!!!!) of what looks to be an advertising agency (very confusing website…that is another blog post) with presence in multiple states, not around where I am located.

Would you respond to this person? After looking up, I did.  I sent back an email asking for more details. Guess what? He never responded.

If you are prospecting for clients or consultants or anything else, you need to provide information, like:

• Complete contact information
• How you found or know of the prospect
• What you are looking for specifically
• How to respond

Do you have an email template that you use when prospecting? What information do you provide?