Consulting

Customers, After They've Signed

• A customer signed and their team hasn't started. Send what's happened so far and what you've sent them. I'll tell you where it stalled inside their organization and what to send next, to whom.
• The person who bought it has gone quiet. That's the most common one.
• Users say it's too different from what they had, and my champion says they'll come around. They won't, on their own. I'll tell you what the champion needs to hear from you, and what she needs to say to her team.
• A customer's IT or finance person is blocking the rollout. Send the thread, redacted. I'll tell you what they're protecting and how to get past it without going around them.
• A customer wants a "rollout plan" from us and we don't have one. I'll tell you what belongs on the one page and what doesn't. You write it, and you'll have the shape for the next one.
• Renewal is coming and their executive wants a "business case." I'll tell you what that document actually is for them and what has to be in it.
• A customer is angry. Send what they wrote. I'll tell you what they actually want and what your reply has to do.
• A customer wants to expand to another team and I don't know how to run that. Same rollout, second time. I'll tell you the sequence.
• I want to ask a customer for a testimonial, a case study, or a reference call. Timing, and what the ask has to say. You write it.
• My onboarding emails, kickoff agenda, or "what to expect" page. Send what you have and I'll tell you what to change. If you have nothing yet, I'll tell you what each one needs to do, and you write it.

Selling

• Watch a demo I gave. Record it the way you'd give it, no prospect on the call, and send it with a few lines about who it's for. You'll get notes back with what the buyer heard and what to change.
• A prospect went quiet after the demo. Send the thread. I'll tell you what probably happened on their side and what to write.
• A prospect wants a proposal, a pilot, or to "socialize it internally." I'll tell you what each of those actually means and how to answer it.
• Help me figure out who else at the customer needs to be involved before I sign them. That's the question that decides whether the account stalls later.
• Tell me what's wrong with my deck or my sales page. Send it. I'm not a graphic designer, so I won't make it pretty, but I'll tear down why it currently doesn't work.

Product Changes

• We're raising prices. Who hears it, in what order, and what each message has to say.
• We're retiring a feature or a plan.
• We're migrating everyone to a new version.
• We had an outage and I need to write to customers. What the message has to do, and the sequence. Not the incident report.
• A customer keeps asking for a feature we're not building. How to say no without losing them.

Your Team

• My first hire pushed back on me in front of a customer. Send what happened. I'll tell you if you're overreacting and what to say either way.
• My co-founder keeps reopening decisions we've made.
• I have to let someone go and I don't know how to say it. How to say it, yes. What you owe them legally, no. I don't give legal advice. Get that answered by a lawyer first.
• I'm about to hire my first customer success person and I need to describe the job. I'll tell you what the job actually is at your company. You write the page.
• I need to tell my team about a change in how we work, and I know it'll land badly. That's the original use of the system.
• A contractor or partner went quiet on me.

Investors and the Board

• An investor's reply got short. Send both messages, redacted.
• I have to write an investor update and something went badly.
• I need to ask an investor for something: an intro, more time, a hard conversation. What the ask has to say, and what they're likely to say back.

Things You Wrote and Haven't Sent

• I wrote something angry at midnight. Send it before you send it.
• I've rewritten this email four times. Send all four. The first one is usually the right one, minus a sentence.