I am not sure who said it, but the above line is certainly true when it comes to marketing. As mentioned in my last newsletter, people are bombarded with marketing messages. This means if you want to make appointments with decision makers and get heard, you need to develop superior access vehicles. Telephone prospecting, using the same old type of messages won’t cut it, nor will the traditional one page introductory letter accompanied by a brochure.
We have to find ways of delivering value before people will pay attention. One way to do this is to invite your prospects to participate in an event where they will learn something that will make them more successful. For example, one of our clients was selling safety equipment to firms who seemed more interested in price. Their goal was to access people in the firm above the level of the buying department, who would set the criteria for the buying department.
How do you do that?
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to attract senior people’s attention unless there has been a recent incident to make them aware of a need to do something. If you contact senior people on a subject like that, you almost certainly will be referred elsewhere in the organization, or worse, be completely ignored. So you might offer to run an executive briefing on The 4 Most Common Lawsuits Arising From On The Job Injuries And What To Do To Avoid Them. You might be able to get the VP of HR to attend and also the CFO.
This would be a lot easier to sell than safety equipment, so if you can’t sell this, it is probably safe to assume you can’t sell. How could you apply this principle to your business?
Another superior access vehicle might be to run a round table discussion with a number of your target prospective clients discussing something that is keeping them awake at night. Imagine if you wanted to sell your services to investment bankers, you could run a meeting with a number of CEOs from rapid growth firms to discuss “How To Raise Money In A Tight Market. Best Practices and New Insights.” You could probably fairly easily get a number of CEOs to attend, once you have their attendance confirmed, it would be a simple matter of getting a few targeted investment bankers to participate. Once they participate in an activity of this nature, dialog becomes easy, as does the opportunity to build a relationship. If you don’t want to do this, there are firms that specialize in running these kind of meetings. Poststone Corporation and The Access Group, both of Toronto, run meetings like this all the time. If you can’t access the people you need to reach to get decisions, you have to create a superior access vehicle that will open the doors to the people you need to meet. Be creative! What information do they need and how can you deliver it?
It’s Good to Know: How Rich Are You?
Maybe you’re in better financial shape than you think you are — relatively speaking, that is. For a reality check, click here to see how your salary compares with the salaries of people all over the world.