Sequential or shotgun approach when contacting providers?

[Muscle_Admirer]

I definitely prefer contacting providers sequentially rather than throwing spaghetti at the wall by reaching out to a bunch at once. That approach just gets you labeled a time-waster by providers in general. They can sometimes tell when someone is blasting inquiries everywhere, then picking the first one who responds and giving the rest the proverbial broom.

In my experience, it’s rare for a provider not to reply to a serious availability inquiry—who in their right mind would pass up $350+ for an hour of their time? The real issue isn’t whether they respond, but how quickly. With a little patience, you can land the right provider at the right time, every single time. When I’m traveling, I’ll usually reach out to just two providers I’m genuinely interested in. Often one will reply fairly quickly while the other takes longer. If both are available and a good fit, I’m happy to hire them both. That said, I never contact anyone unless I have serious intent to book them. To me, inquiring without real interest feels selfish, even though I know providers…especially the more popular ones…will sometimes cancel at the last minute for a better payday.  I find this happens rarely if I’m a regular with someone, but if they find a more lucrative offer for their time, I remain flexible and encourage them to take it.

That’s their prerogative. I suspect I’ve had two-hour appointments bumped for a $3,500 overnight or a $10k weekend getaway to the Turks & Caicos. It comes with the territory in this hobby.

[+ nycman]

I’m #1 sequential, but my tolerance for a response has rapidly declined from 24-48 hours to under 2 hours. Experience has taught me that if I don’t get a prompt response, he’s either unavailable, uninterested, or unprofessional.

I have no desire to attempt hiring anyone with any of those traits, so I’ve learned to move on quickly. I’m still not personally ok with shotgunning, but I’m becoming more and more warm to the idea. 

[soloyo215]

On 7/8/2026 at 8:33 PM, Wings246 said:

Which method(s) do you follow when you contact a provider?

1. Reach out to 1 person first, wait for a series of back and forth communications before confirming an appointment or moving on to the next person in line
2. Blast (as with a shotgun) a group of potential hires all at once and book an appointment on a first-come, first-served basis (or whoever gives you the best 1^st impressions via the initial communications)
3. Do you have any other strategies?

Thus far, I have only used the sequential method.  TBH, though, it is very time consuming and the waiting period for a single person to respond is quite agonizing.  And when this single person’s response doesn’t work out (e.g. time, place, into, rates), it’s a huge waste of time and opportunity because the 2^nd person in line is no longer available after the waiting period of the 1^st person.  On the other hand, I feel like it’s unethical and inappropriate to use the shotgun approach to "shop around" simultaneously with the intention to pick only 1 at the end.  Am I too cordial, considerate, and naïve?

Yes, I have my own strategy, and it was criticized for for some reason (well, it's online, so I'm not sure why I was surprised).

Anyway, I don't blast a group of potential clients at once, but I reach out to no more than three. Since I never do "available now", I have time to sort out who I'll be meeting and where. I also try to make each message as personalized as possible to show that I actually read their profile.

Some providers here, and some clients, told me that I waste their time if I message more than one because there will be two who will not do business with me. The reality, however, is that almost every single time I use that strategy, what I get are two or all three who are unable, unwilling or unavailable. Only once I got a positive reply from more than one of the three I reached out. That means that my strategy works.

As for communication, I have my own personal preferences in how I like the provider to conduct himself in that initial conversation; some things do it for me, some don't. I tend to use a friendly tone and avoid being "all business". Then there have been a few replies that have been quite off-putting, giving me a list of "requirements" or in a tone that doesn't inspire trust (I mostly do in-call).

Something that I don't do is spend an excessive amount of time looking, browsing or looking for my next adventure. I feel tempted to do that, but I am mature enough to know that it's not in my best interest to go down that path.