I've Got a List... So Now What

This year we’ve been talking about and going through the steps of building your business. Last month we talked about How to Master the Art of Prospecting and we covered a lot of ground on how to define and build a list. So hopefully you’ve done that!

But what now?

How do you go about reaching out to your list?

What is the goal?

Well, the end goal is obviously to get a new client, but the next step in the process is to land an appointment, so let’s focus on that now.

To get an appointment, you need to have something of value for the other person. We are all busy and time is at a premium so you need to know that whatever it is that you are selling is going to benefit your client. If you aren’t convinced of that, just stop. There’s no point in reaching out to that person. Let’s assume though that you’ve got that covered and your offering is just what they need. Then the next challenge is getting in touch with them and doing that in a way that cuts through all the other “noise” that is ever present. You’ve got to put your thinking cap on and get a little creative with this sometimes. Do something silly. Do something ostentatious. Employ radical candor. Whatever you need to do to get through to the right person. Let me give you a couple examples:

Back when I was selling suits I would go out and knock doors all the time. It’s a tricky thing to identify good high-quality prospects especially when you can’t see them. But I figured that if you drive a nice car, you probably dress fairly well, or at least you should. So, I would go out to single level office and industrial parks and I would look for the really nice cars. Porsche, Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW etc… I would walk into the office it was parked in front of and say “Hey, who drives that (fill in nice car model here) parked outside? I think I may have door dinged it.” Without fail, they would always go get the owner of the car and they would always come out to make sure their car was okay. My line after that would vary based on what kind of mood they were in, but it would always be something to the effect of “Hey, your car is fine, I just wanted to give you my card and ask where you buy your clothes. Because anyone driving that fine of a vehicle should be dressed to match!” The response wasn’t always positive mind you, but it was a surefire way to get in front of my ideal client!

The other way that I got creative when reaching out was to have a drop-off piece that you couldn’t ignore. This cost me a little bit of money so I wanted it to be very targeted. I would find my best prospects and have a custom-made hangar made for them. Beautiful wood, wide shouldered hanger with a brass plate with their name on it. I would write a letter to them and hang it on the pant bar along with some sample swatches of suit cloth. The letter said “I would love to make you a suit to hang on this hanger.” I would put it inside a garment bag and then drop it off at their office. It would always make it to them because it looked like a clothing delivery. No one was throwing that away. Often times they would call me, but if I didn’t hear from them within 48 hours I would call and follow up.

At any rate, you can get creative with email, phone calls, texts, direct mail, drop-ins, sky writing, etc… We’ll cover some additional ideas and have some great conversations about how to get an appointment at our 4^th Firestorm Educational Lunch n’ Learn! Join us!

We’d love to hear all of your creative stories about how you’ve got an appointment with an ideal prospect.

Cheers!

Philip