550 plus!

J. Paul Everett JPESeeker at aol.com
Wed Oct 24 13:20:08 PDT 2001


In a message dated 10/22/01 6:39:50 AM, kenoli at igc.org writes:

<<
One of the things that I have found is that the way to get people to
attend is to invite them.  And the people who can most effectively do
that inviting are people that the people being invited know.  For
this reason, I usually work with a planning team from a sponsoring
organization.  The team can be a smaller group (less than 15) who
represent the organization or community involved.  These people will
know who needs to come to the OS and will know how to approach them
so they will come. >>

This is excellent advice.  I would like to generalize it.  It is not very
possible to advocate for yourself.  Or your meeting.  Or your idea, directly.
 You will be seen as having a self-interest, which creates blocks in the
minds of those who would attend or who need to hear the idea, meaning accept
and act on it.  You must get others to advocate for you and the meeting or
the idea.  This is called "third party advocacy", to give it a name.  Used
properly, tpa is very powerful.

One way that you can use it is to go to people who have experienced an event
led by you that was successful.  Ask them who they know, especially who they
know in power, that might benefit from attending.  Then, ask them if they
would write a letter or make a telephone call to that person on behalf of you
and your event.  Most will do so.  Have a draft letter you can hand them for
their editing.  That relieves them of having to construct it from scratch.
Follow up with them if they are going to call and ask if this is the time to
contact Mr. or Ms.------, assuming the call has been made.  If it hasn't,
it's a gentle nudge to do as agreed.  If it has, you can move forward.

One can also use this process to gain clients.  All my work comes from
referrals.  I've never "marketed", as such.  I give an occasional speech.
Nothing else.  It works well enough.

Paul Everett

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