Audio Article: The Tennis Technique
Listen to the article here
Music: “All That” from Bensound.com
The Tennis Technique
There are moments in all our careers when we need to reach out to new people to make things happen.
However, whether it’s a case of contacting curators, artistic collaborators or potential sponsors, the process of reaching out and initiating a dialogue can sometimes be a little daunting or disappointing.
So how can we make the most of initiating new contact?
Here’s how we get there using the metaphor of hitting a tennis serve!
Step 1: Research your opponent
Before picking up a ball and swinging your racket your firstly need to gain a good understanding of the person standing at the other side of the net.
For organisations, what do they do, how do they do it and why do they exist? What have they been up to lately? What are their plans for the future?
And, crucially, who are the one or two key individuals that you will need to direct your serve to and what are their contact details?
Ideally you need to end this research process with a good understanding of the organisation as well as the names, email addresses, postal address, phone number and social channels of the key people that you need to contact. Email me at oliver@theartistwingman.com for further tips on how to do this!
At this point there’s nothing better you can do before swinging the racket than to engage with them a little bit beforehand. If the organisation is in reach, go to their events and say hello. If the people are on social media then interact with their posts that resonate with you: Plant your name in their mind if you can.
Step 2: Hit a First Serve
Flat serves, kick serves, wide serves, body serves - there’s a great deal of variety at your disposal when it comes to making first contact!
To decide upon the nature of your serve simply put yourself in the shoes of the recipient and think about what would genuinely excite and inspire you to reply and take action.
And what could you do that no other artist would? It’s all too easy to send a bland email or DM with your pdf portfolio, so whether it’s sending something in the post, knocking on their office door or picking up the phone, how can you cut through all the noise of the other artists?
Once you’ve done your research and asked yourself these key questions you may now have a strong idea of how to hit that first serve.
But before doing so here’s a quick checklist to run through.
Direct your contact to a specific person
Briefly explain who you are & why you’re getting in touch
Explain why you’re getting in touch with them specifically. This is the crucial point as it demonstrates that you’ve done your homework and that there’s a good reason why you are reaching out to them in particular.
Sign off with a simple call-to-action, question or statement. Bear in mind at this point that your aim might not be to hit an ace first-time but to initiate a rally of dialogue, in which case signing off by simply asking them for their advice on a specific matter for example would suffice.
Thank them and give them your contact details.
Once you’ve smacked the ball there are then four possible outcomes from your first first: Either you hit an ace (you get what you want immediately) or the recipient starts a rally of dialogue with you, or the recipient hits you with a big bold ‘no thanks’, or the ball goes out of play and you need to try again.
In the case of an ace, you are a legend!
In the case of a rally, just keep the dialogue going until you both get what you need.
In the case of a no-thanks, thank them for their time and ask if they have any recommendations for other people or organisations who could be interested in your proposition (and then ask for an introduction to them if poss!)
In the case of the ball going out and you not receiving a reply, move on to step 3.
Step 3: Hit a Second Serve
The reality is that many first serves don’t hit the mark.
But not to worry, people are busy, inboxes are full and new distractions enter the fray all the time - just because you haven’t heard back yet doesn’t mean they’re not interested, you just need to back it up with a second serve.
As with first serves there is a great deal of variety at your disposal for the second swing. If you’ve sent them something in the post, can you call them to check that they’ve received it? If you’ve knocked on their door can you DM them afterwards to solidify the details? If you’ve emailed them something can you go to their next event to ask for their thoughts?
One commonality here is to try a different mode of contact for the second serve to mix things up and to reduce the risk of slipping through the cracks of spam filters and unread messages. The only exception here is if you know that your first serve has landed, for example if your email or package is tracked or your DM has been read you may want to try the same mode of contact for that second serve.
If your second serve goes out and you don’t hear back from them then cut your losses and move on to a different person in that organisation or to different organisation all together. In exceptional cases you might want to try one more swing of the racket, but two attempts at a serve usually strikes the right balance between being persistent without being desperate.
Example of an Ace
When I ran my own arts company one of our aims was to provide creative services to brands and companies.
One of our targets was a large online retailer called AO.com, and after some initial research and a tip-off from a mutual contact we discovered that they had a particular interest in recycling at the time, having just invested millions into their own fridge recycling system.
Armed with this information the team commissioned an artist to upcycle some bits from the local dump into a beautiful clock in the brand colours of AO.com. We placed this into a branded box with a handwritten cover note explaining who we were and that we could help them utilise artistic expression to tell their story in a deeper and more engaging way.
Two days later the phone rang. It was one of their marketing managers getting in touch to invite us to pitch for two projects. ACE!
Final thoughts
Even with this curated approach the process of initiating dialogue can be somewhat of a numbers game.
Depending on your aims and ambitions you may need to suck up several double faults before you can engage in a rally - even the box example detailed above only worked every handful of times, so you will just need to pepper your process with a degree of cool persistence in your quest to level-up.
Practice really does make perfect though, especially when it comes to confidence, so if you can just keep swinging, persisting and reflecting until you reach the heights of a Federer or Nadal you will possess the greatest gift of all - to have your own destiny in your own hands.
Apply this to your practice!