If you’ve attended any of the recent pitch festivals such as NATPE and RealScreen you’re probably in the middle of following up with all the people you met. At least you SHOULD be.
Sending emails along the theme of “Hey, remember me?” will not get you as far as you’d like. The key to developing relationships with Execs is more about what you can do for them than vice versa.
Everyone you met at these festivals went with a job to do. Whether that is developers learning to pitch a show, actually pitching a show, or Execs taking show pitches in the hopes of finding the next big show: everyone is there for the same reason; themselves.
Remembering that as you write your follow-up emails (or hand-written postcards) can help you stand out from the hundreds or thousands of other people emailing them.
Set your tone more to “how can I be of service” than “here’s how you can help me”.
The Exec’s job is to find the next big show, option it, pitch it, sell it, produce it, deliver it, and repeat.
Find the point of who they are and whom they work for and tailor your communication to what you have that relates to what they’re looking for. Aka; here’s how I can help you.
Helping them check something off their to-do list is always going to serve you better than trying to add something onto their to-do list. It serves you, because it serves them, and they are the ones who will decide if they are going to take your show up the ladder or not.
If you keep in mind that you need to help them find the next big show when you’re following up you’ll get more positive responses than by asking them to do things for you.
Have fun.