Stu Heinecke: How To Get A Meeting With Anyone
The moment you reach out to a VIP, two questions flash in their minds:
You'll make them aware of what you want when you express your value proposition in a single sentence containing no more than a dozen words.
You'll make them aware of who you are through your VIP statement, something like:
"I'm one of the Wall Street Journal Cartoonists, a hall of fame-nominated marketer, and an author"
Or
"I'm one of the most-followed athletic footwear influencers on Instagram, and the highest paid social media consultant for my age"
Having a VIP Statement that leaves the CEO feeling honored that you called is the goal.
Contact Marketing isn't about contacting everyone. It's about reaching a handful of people who can make the biggest difference to your efforts.
Top 100 = top 100 of your highest value sales prospects
Strategic 100 = top 100 people who can help you strategically through networking or connections.
Engagement 100 = the 100 people currently helping you the most as current clients and brand champions.
- Gifts and Visual Metaphors
Gifts are a natural solution for a contact campaign because they make the recipient feel excited.
They must be carefully planned; some VIPs aren't allowed to accept gifts over a certain value.
These gifts can be in the Art, Humor, and Film category
Ex. Send a Dr. Seuss book "Green Eggs and Ham" because it's one of the best sales books. When you call, identify yourself as "Chris-I-Am". You can talk about Sam's transformation from unsuccessful to successful from the first to second half of the book and how you could do it for your potential client.
The most important factor when giving art is to follow a theme which connects to the value you plan to bring to your VIP members.
Give a gift or a half of a gift.
You can give a creative gift with purpose behind it.
Or you can give a gift meant to be re-gifted to others around that target individual.
Or you can give half a gift.
Ex. Give 1 nice dress shoe, with a note saying you wanted to get your foot in the door and that you will bring the other shoe when the meeting takes place.
Send a visual metaphor.
Ex. Dan sends a full-size medieval sword with the target's name engraved on the hilt This delivers a message - he's sending a physical representation of the ferocity which he does battle for his clients, and the war of business which his clients are going through.
When calling directly, and accosted by a gatekeeper, turn them into your friend.
When you call, ask them for help, give them a brief outline of who you are and what you do, and ask who you should be transferred to.
Remember the receptionist is there to let the right people in.
Once connected, unless it's the CEO, say "I'm trying to reach the person in charge of such and such. I was referred to you, not sure if you're the right person, may I explain what I'm calling about?"
By the time you're finished, you will have reached the right person, explained why you're calling, and the whole thing has taken place in nonresistance mode, because you were asking for help.
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An interesting tactic is to call 5 minutes before the hour or 3 minutes after the hour because most scheduled call start on the hour, so the CEO will be answering the phone directly.
10 A.M and 2 P.M are the 2 most commonly chosen times to schedule calls, so center around those two hours.
Interesting email strategy is to either have a fear or doubt-inducing headline
Or
(Recipients company name) + (your company name) = (desired outcome)
When sending a book, whether it's your own or someone else's which would help the VIP,
You want to address specific concerns in the cover note - like a handwritten note pointing them to a page which solves a problem they have.
Another interesting contact campaign is sending a prepaid phone with your number preprogrammed into speed dial, with instructions to call you.
This approach can be combined with the other contact campaigns for more effective outreach.