Here are 10 tactics to consider when trying to reach that hard to reach decision maker;
1) Are you using your social network to get warm intros to your prospects? It can make a world of difference. Don’t know how to use your social network to get warm intros? Click HERE to enhance your Jedi skills young Padawan!
2) Speaking of social network, try sending an email to them through your social network. Emails sent via a social network yield a 24% higher open rate (according to Epsilon)! When using traditional email, try this embedded email tactic.
3) Have you included snail mail in your sales mix? I like to skip all the fancy brochures and “corporate” stuff and send a “blank card”. Check out a sample of mine here.
4) Have you tried using creative door openers?
5) When you reach out to them, how is your messaging? Are you well informed about them and reference something specific and meaningful for THEM . . . or does your message have an underlying tone of “ME, ME, ME”? Failing to do this conditions your potential to disregard and delete you going forward.
6) Have you ever had ideas or a resource that you simply passed along to them or is every one of your messages basically an infomercial? If every one of your messages is of the infomercial variety, and then you call or email,is it possible that you conditioned them not to pick up the phone, listen to your voicemail or read your email? I mean, why would they?
7) Are you calling at the same time, with the same message? Doing so makes you predictable and conditions a behavior known as “not listening to your message”.
8) Are you dead set on only calling “top down”? Sometimes it works out better if you start “bottom up” and get the buy in of someone who’s actually in the trenches. Then together, you go for the top level decision maker.
9) Have you tried my “Reverse Call To Action” technique? It actually increases the probability of someone taking your call or calling you back when you leave a voicemail. I talk about it HERE.
10) Feel free to call me “silly” but you are leaving a message when you get voicemail, right? It doesn’t have to be on every call, but you really do need to let them know you called. Let them hear the sound of your voice, experience your personality and your incredible enthusiasm for wanting to help!
