HARD TIME GETTING MEETINGS WITH NEW CLIENTS? TRY THIS

Winning net new business (new logos) ranks as one of the least enjoyable but most important activities you face when building your practice and achieving your revenue objectives. It’s time consuming, ego deflating and becoming more difficult as client attention spans shorten.

Even I hate it and I teach this stuff. Think about it from the client’s perspective. When someone you don’t know asks you for a meeting, what is your response? No matter what the selling provider says, to you it sounds like, “Hi. I’m someone you don’t know, who wants to take time you don’t have to force you to make a decision you don’t want to make. Can we do that?” The following offers are few suggestions to make this unpleasant task a little easier.

When you ask a client for a meeting, the client has four questions that must be answered quickly and compellingly before they will share their time:

1. Who are you?

2. Why do I need you?

3. How are you different?

4. What is the value of this meeting?

1. Who Are You?

The typical includes your name, company and role. However, you can improve your yield if you have worked with them previously, know someone in common, have been referred or you have worked with others in their industry. Obviously if the client already knows and likes you, getting a meeting is not that challenging. So start with clients you have worked with in the past. Stay in touch with clients who have moved to new companies. If you know someone in common or you have been referred, your chances of getting the meeting are significantly increased. Finally, if you have done work for someone else in the industry or market, that will add to your credibility and their curiosity.

2. Why Do I Need You?

This one is trickier. Remember, your value is in the problems that you solve, not in your capabilities. Yet most providers define themselves by their capabilities and solutions. Instead, focus on the problems you solve and the objectives that clients have.

For example, when I am talking to a potential client, I don’t just say that I am a sales coach or a sales strategy consultant. I tell them that I work with clients who face increasing competition, are experiencing low win rates, or being forced to compete on price. I focus on the problem (value) that makes my capability valuable.

3. How Are You Different?

Likely, the client already has or knows a service provider, so they will want to know how you are different to determine if this is a good use of their time. What will this client get from you that they may not get from other providers? What are your key differentiators? What do you do differently, or better yet, what problems do you solve better than competitors? When clients have a choice, you must be able to answer 3 more questions:

1.     What is different about you?;

2.     Why is that difference important to me?; and

3.     Why should I believe you?

That last question is the most important. What evidence can you offer? Do you have stories, benchmarks and testimonials that support your differentiators?

4. What Is the Value of This Meeting?

A meeting is a transaction. Unless both parties perceive that they are getting value, the meeting will not happen. Yet most requests for meetings are one-sided transactions. “I would like to understand your situation and get to know your company.” Once again, what the client is hearing is, “I want to take your time to have you tell me something about your company so that I can sell you something you don’t feel you need now.” The client wants to know what they are going to get out of it. The client knows what you want. What are you offering for their time? Always try to give something before you ask for something.

One service buyer that I interviewed for one of my books told me that he would meet with anyone who could tell him something about his market, his competition, or his company that he did not know. Use your knowledge as a quid pro quo for a meeting and watch your cold calling efforts improve dramatically.

You are in the market as much or more than your clients. Although they know what is going on with their company, they don’t have your view of the broader market. Why not share that broader view? Not just research. Take a position or a point of view.

For example, a managing director of a brokerage firm told me a story of how two new brokers used this point-of-view technique to quickly access and build their reputation in their market. Initially they took company research, created a three-page white paper on the market, and then asked potential clients if they could come in and share their point of view (POV) of trends in the client’s market. With each meeting their expertise, reputation, and relationships grew creating a virtuous cycle. These new brokers quickly became the biggest hitters in the office, a feat that normally would have taken years.

Sometimes the best way to get a meeting is to simply reduce the ask. When selling investment banking services in a past life, I had had the most success by asking for the least amount of time and commitment from the client. “Hi John, We haven’t met, but I am going to be in Seattle next Monday and Tuesday and would love to stop by and introduce myself and give you my card. Does late Monday morning work for you?” Notice how this approach reduces the client’s commitment (cost) of a meeting. Even if I get five minutes of face to face time, the next meeting will be much easier to get.

In summary, the best way to increase the yield of your new client access efforts to increase the value of the meeting (What does the client get?) and/or reduce the cost by asking for less.

We work with MD's, RM's, SVP's and Partners to to win, retain and expand client relationships. If you would like to preview the entire 25 module eLearning version of Third Level Selling for your company, please contact us.

Bob Potter is the author of Winning In The Invisible Market: A Guide to Selling Professional Services In Turbulent Times and the Third Level Selling and Third Level Service Excellence training series. He is also the managing principal of RA Potter Advisors, a marketing and sales strategy consulting practice service providers. www.rapotter.com You can reach him at [email protected] or (415) 717-1662.