Tried and Tested Methods to Get More Meetings

My Tried and Tested Methods To Get More Meetings

Prospecting is tough, and the main reason is that today’s buyer is much more savvy when it comes to doing their own due diligence. The art of prospecting is also difficult as there is no magic bullet that will always get you meetings…You could write the perfect email, have the perfect solution to the customers toughest problem, and you might get “crickets” from your prospects. It takes an average of 8-10 follow ups before you usually get some sort of response.

What the really good Salespeople will do is gain attention, before they even do any type of selling. How do we do this? By being original, going the extra mile, doing the deeper research…let me break down what I mean. Below are some of my favorite tried and tested methods for getting attention from your buyers and prospects that will get you more meetings.

Let’s start with the basics…

Video:  

Studies show that purely having the word “Video” in your subject line can increase your email open rates by 13%. Email with videos embedded will also have an almost 300% increase in click through rates over emails without video. Some great solutions I have used for this is Vidyard or BombBomb. We’ll do a post on this topic specifically in the near future.

Cameo:

This is a more recent one for me, and only used when you are trying to get the attention of someone at the VP Level or C-Level. For those of you who don’t know, Cameo is a platform that matches a person like me or you, and a celebrity who would be willing to send a video message to a person of your choosing. You need to do your research on this one to be effective, but this has gotten me in front of CEO’s in the past. The idea is to understand what likes or interests your prospect | buyer has and what person on Cameo would align to those interests. In one scenario, I identified that a C-Level in one of my top accounts was a huge “The Office” fan. So I paid for Brian Baumgartner aka “Kevin Malone” from the office to send a video message to my prospect. The message was very simple, and all I asked was that “Kevin Malone” included my name and company in the message. Needless to say, I got an email response to set up a meeting the day after the Cameo was delivered. Again, choose this for high level prospects in your top accounts as this was $200.00 to invest in this type of campaign.

Alma Mater Campaign:

Here is a relatively cheap option that is easy, and usually provides surprisingly solid results in scoring meetings. The concept here is to go on Linkedin or whatever resource you need (Facebook/Twitter) to in order to understand where your prospect went to College or Grad School. From there, you simply go onto the School’s online store and try to find something unique. Again, do some research here because you don’t want to buy someone a Golf Headcover if they have never picked up a golf club. The “safe” plays are things like hats, drinkware (coffee mug or thermos), or stationary like a nice pen and notebook set. What I would do, which took a little more time is send this gift to myself, then package it up with a handwritten note, and either drop it by the prospects office in person (sometimes you can score meetings if you just say you are dropping off a gift to the receptionist), or send it off via UPS, Fedex or USPS. You’ll want to make sure you have tracking so you can email them the day that their gift arrives. You’ll find you can scale this to 2-4 people per account for your top accounts. The response rates here is usually in the 40%-50% rate for me…give this one a shot.

The Bet:

Another one of my favorite campaigns that falls in the “value” category. I have used this campaign on pretty much every major sporting event in existence. What you do here is offer something small like a Starbucks gift card, a donation in their name, or something in the $10-$20 range. What you do is offer up a “bet” for the upcoming event. For example, the Super Bowl: You let them choose who they think is going to win. If they win the bet, they get the gift. If they lose the bet (you win), you get a 30 minute intro meeting.

I use this around March Madness often because you can mix this and the Alma Mater campaign. If your prospect’s Alma Mater happens to make the NCAA Men’s or Women’s Tournament, you can make the bet where they can pick their Alma Mater. This specific campaign will receive some very impressive results on responses and meetings.

Send Half Campaign:

I love this one because you almost always get engagement. The concept behind the “Send Half” campaign is you choose something of value, and then split that up in two parts. For example, if they are a big golfer, send them one of the new Golf shoes. You then keep the other half, and the idea is to ask them in a unique way to create a pair by meeting. “Hey Mrs. or Mr. Prospect, I have the other shoe, and would love to bring it by to your office. Can I stop by, shake your hand, and take 10 minutes of your time? Or if virtual and you don’t live in the same location as your prospects, you can ask for 15 minutes over the phone and would be happy to send the other shoe.

Some ideas here are:

Kindle > Send them a Kindle Case

Tumbler > Send them a hot/cold lid

Wine > Send them a wine opener

Custom Song:

Very similar to Cameo, but you are instead writing a custom song for your prospect. Again, this is very selected and you will only leverage this to get in front of the C-Suite or very influential VP’s. In my experience this will get you a response if you make it about the prospect..something about their role and what they care about. Bonus points if you happen to know something about them personally. If not creative, you can use ChatGPT to write this for you. Usually a sense of humor works best for this, and make sure to have the song close with asking for a meeting. You’ll be surprised at the rates at which you will get meetings with this tactic. You can use a platform like SongFinch to write this and it usually takes about a week to get your finished song.

Multi-Touch Physical Mail Campaign:

This campaign can be as advanced or basic as you would like, but does take a bit of preparation in order to be effective. The concept here is that I usually send a targeted list of prospects something every week for a month. This does not have to be extremely valuable items, but instead you could send a handwritten note with a relevant report your company has published. You send one package every week (or until they respond to you) and continue to do so for a month. You and your company start to become like a “commercial” in the prospects head and will start to notice your solutions and offerings. Again, use this one sparingly for only the top targets you want to get in front of with your account base.

Want some even crazier ideas?

-Send a prepaid phone via UPS/FEDEX and then tell them with a note you will be calling them at a specific time on a specific date.

-Create a custom cake with your prospect's face on it, or their name and company logo. Worst case scenario they get a cake to share with their team.

-Place a coffee cart or ice cream cart in the office park, or building of the organization you are looking to get in front of. Caution: You will need permission to do this. You can give away free coffee to all the employees that work at your prospect and they will be much more open to conversations. Hint: Make sure you are there handing out business cards with every item that is given out.

You want to differentiate yourself, stand out from the competition? Try a few of these methods and I guarantee you will get more meetings.