More or Less · Topics · Episode #160
The Power Move of the Week: Booking Next Year's Invite Before This Year's Party Is Over
Clip from the full recording, 59:19–63:05 · download mp4 · watch at this point on YouTube
An EA emails on behalf of someone who attended your conference last year, quietly asking for next year's dates months before invitations go out. Sam calls it brilliant, and the trio builds out an entire genre of BD moves from it.
Jess’s culture rant: what do you do when an assistant reaches out on behalf of last year’s conference attendee, fishing for next year’s dates long before invitations are even sent? Sam, who’s apparently lived this exact situation, calls it a brilliant move — so good he wants his own EA doing it proactively to conferences he isn’t even invited to yet, on the theory that organizers will think they must have already invited him rather than risk the awkwardness of saying no.
Dave one-ups it: he’s literally put events directly onto other people’s calendars (for a holiday party) without asking, and it worked. Sam admits this can backfire on him personally — he has a scheduler who books things on his behalf, and he sometimes can’t tell what he actually agreed to versus what got auto-approved. He offers a companion move for cold outreach: never open with an ask, always start a message mid-conversation as though a relationship already exists (“love to continue our conversation from last week”) — it forces the other person to assume they must have talked before, rather than deleting a cold pitch outright.
Key points
- Jess: an EA reached out on behalf of a past attendee to get next year's conference dates, months before invitations are sent.
- Sam: calls it brilliant, wants his own assistant proactively fishing for dates to conferences he isn't even invited to.
- Dave: has literally placed events directly onto other people's calendars (for a holiday party) without asking, successfully.
- Sam: this can backfire on the receiving end — he sometimes can't tell what his own scheduler booked on his behalf versus what he actually approved.
- Sam's companion BD tip: for cold outreach, open as if a conversation is already underway ("continuing our conversation from last week") rather than pitching cold, since a direct pitch gets deleted.
Where they landed
Quotes
“”— Sam
“”— Dave
“”— Sam
Suggested tweets
The power move of the week: have your EA email asking for next year's conference dates before invitations even go out. Sam Lessin: “Very, very smart. I'm in.”
Tweet this →Dave Morin's trick: just put the event directly on people's calendars without asking. “It worked like a charm.”
Tweet this →Sam Lessin's BD tip for cold outreach: never pitch cold — open as if you're already mid-conversation. “Oh shit, were we talking?”
Tweet this →All topics · Full episode #160 + transcript · Subscribe on YouTube · Spotify