How to get your sales message noticed when selling to executives

This Week's Edition

• Introduction
• The Article - How to get your sales message noticed - part one
• Tactic of the week - How to make sure your executive email gets opened and read
• Push-Up Update

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago we discussed identifying the specific people to to speak to in your target prospects (as always I'm talking about selling high value (>$250,000) products and services to senior executives).

To recap, I said you need to know which companies you're targeting; that is which specific companies fit (or are close to) your Ideal Customer Profile; which specific roles you're targeting and who the individuals are in each company that hold those roles.

So the Article starts with the assumption that we've already identified one or more specific individuals in one target company and we want to make contact with them.

The questions then become "How do we get out message in front of them?" and "What should that message be?"

This week's Article looks at the first of those questions.

The Tactic of the Week looks at another specific situation where you're dealing with a senior executive's Executive Assistant. I've written about it before so if you've already seen it - here it is again. Are you using it? If you are let me know in the comments.

If you haven't seen it and you ever have to deal with an EA it's pretty damn good, even though I say so myself (and I use this one a lot).

As always, if you find this useful please "like" it and (if you have time & the inclination) please share it so more people can see it. And I will answer all questions and comments, positive and negative - so ask away. Of course you'll have to do this on LinkedIn.

The Article - How to get your sales message noticed - part one

We'll cover developing the right message next week. But for now let's assume you've already crafted just the right message for the person you're targeting. Now, how do you get it to them so they will actually see/read/hear/watch it? And get them to pay enough attention to it so they will absorb, understand and act on it.

This is a big challenge. Even if you have a referral - and we all know referrals are the best way to be introduced to someone, which is why I'll do an entire newsletter on referrals in a few weeks - that's no guarantee you'll get a meeting.

So - there are several channels through which you can transmit a message. They include, but aren't limited to, the following:

• Using the telephone - direct call; voicemail; SMS
• Sending an email
• Sending a message via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Speaking to the Executive Assistant (see Tactic of the Week)
• Sending a printed letter
• Sending a FedEx package
• Sending a personalised cartoon
• Driving to their office and asking for them at the door
• Putting a note under their car windscreen wiper
• Joining their golf club, Rotary Club, QAnon chapter or whatever
• Running a full page ad in the Washington Times or WSJ or whatever

Some of these are a bit extreme of course - but depending on the situation and how important it is to meet a specific person any of them can be used and most have been.

For example, Stu Heineke's excellent book "How to Get a Meeting with Anyone" tells how someone used a full page ad in the WSJ to get a meeting with Larry Ellison of Oracle and scored a $350 million deal.

But for this article let's stick to the most common channels - phone, email, LinkedIn, written letter on paper.

Each of those channels have their pros and cons and often you need to use a combination. How and in which order? Let's see. But first, the pros and cons.

Telephone - calling prospects

I prefer to talk about using the phone rather than "cold calling" because a) cold calling has a bad name, often rightly so; b) I NEVER call anyone without knowing a fair bit about them, their company and what they're likely to be interested in, so it isn't really cold and c) you can do a lot more with a phone than just call.

Advantages

The BIG advantage of the phone, and one reason it's my favourite medium, is that you usually get instant feedback. If you call a prospect and get through to them you know where you stand at the end of the call.

Introducing yourself to a prospect for the first time via a phone call poses many challenges. You need to have a decent strategy and excellent tactics, which I'm not going to discuss today, but if you know what you're doing it can be very effective.

And if you speak with the prospect you get feedback. The feedback might be that you suck at making phone calls (hopefully not) or that they aren't interested or that the company went bankrupt yesterday. But it's the only medium when you get an instant response.

Disadvantages

If you're going to call senior executives out of the blue you really, really need to know what you're doing. You need plan for how to interrupt their pattern, to grab their attention, you need to know exactly what you want and have a strategy to maximise your chances of getting it.

I'll discuss this in more depth in a later edition. But usually what I want is to get them curious or interested enough for them to schedule a time - 5 minutes is enough - to give me their full, focused attention.

Or a commitment to read a message from me, usually via email.

The problem is unless you're very good at this it can turn into what Mike Scher of Frontline Selling calls a "do or die death match" where you risk blowing your chances with that person.

Other disadvantages of the phone are a) many people don't answer numbers they don't recognise; b) you may not be able to get their mobile number (although there are many tools to help with this); c) Voicemail, which we'll cover below; and d) you're interrupting them.

The interruption factor is one you need to address in your calling strategy. When I call someone I don't know what they're doing when the phone rings. They could be in a board meeting, in the gym, driving, eating a croissant, in flagrante delicto with their partner (or someone else's), having a haircut or anything. I have no way of knowing.

However I do know what they aren't doing. They aren't thinking "I wonder if Steve is going to call me and try to sell me stuff" So I need a plan to overcome that interruptive element.

Telephone - SMS

Assuming you have their mobile number you can always send them an SMS. Again this has pros and cons.

Advantages

• There's a much better chance they will read an SMS compared to an email.
• The format encourages you to be short and to the point, which is good.

Disadvantages

• You need ther mobile (cell) number.
• A disadvantage that's shared by every other medium except the phone - no feedback. See the section on Feedback.
• It can be viewed as being intrusive.

There are some things you can use SMS for that are very effective. For example, you can send someone an SMS letting them know you've sent an email and what the heading is to make sure they receive it. This is usually after first contact though.

Telephone - Voicemail

Voicemail is an inevitability when you prospect via the phone. So have a plan. When you get voicemail do you leave a message and if you do, what message? You should already know exactly what you're going to say when you get voicemail - it's not exactly a surprise, is it?

Advantages

• There's a pretty good chance they'll listen to it.
• You can plan it in advance and leave a message that makes them curious enough to call back (or read your email if that's why you're leaving a message)

Disadvantages

• Again, no feedback. Again, see the section on Feedback.
• Stammering, stuttering or being tongue tied - or too cold and formal.
• Those annoying "you have 10 seconds and it will be sent as a text" things. But of course you know that happens too, don't you, so you can plan what to do in advance.

Executive Assistant

I very much prefer it if the executive I'm trying to reach has an Executive Assistant. It makes life so much easier. If, that is, you know how to handle an EA.

If you view an Executive Assistant as the Gatekeeper you'll probably quail at the thought of encountering one. But if you view them as a tour guide and an assistant they can be your best friend.

I'm not going to go into how to handle an EA today (except for the tactic in "Tactic of the Week") but if you know how they can be a great help.

Advantages

• You get almost instant feedback
• You get to talk to a real live human being
• They're usually much easier to reach on the phone than their executive
• They are amazingly helpful if asked nicely and correctly
• If you send them an email after speaking to them there's a very good chance they will read it and pass it on to their execuitve

Disadvantages

• Part of their job is to protect their executives from salespeople who are going to waste their boss' time. You need to show them why you're not such a salesperson.
• They are very well practised at getting rid of salespeople
• It can be hard to find their names and it's always better to start a telephone conversation with someone when you know their name
• They have a list of standard questions they use to screen people out. Such as "Does he/she know you?", "Will he/she know what it's about?",

Email and LinkedIn

I am NOT a fan of using email as a prospecting tool. There's simply too much spam. I spend the first five minutes of my day deleting about 50 emails without opening them and usually without reading the headline.

And LinkedIn is getting the same. I get a heap of spam LinkedIn connection requests (and as a writer I WANT connections, or as I call them, an audience - but not bots or spammers) and a heap more generic InMails that have no relevanc e to me.

That doesn't mean I don't use emails and LinkedIn but I do so carefully and with a fair degree of thought and planning. On a one-on-one basis. I never send mass emails.

Advantages

• They're cheap. But this is actually a disadvantage because everyone uses them and people are overwhelmed by them
• You can say as much as you want - there's no limit on length. But that's also a disadvantage because many, if not most, salespeople write too much, and the longer the email the less likely it is to be read - unless you're a very, very compelling writer AND your topic is one they really care about. Topics they certainly don't care about are you, your company and your product or service.
• It's a very good medium for sending relevant targeted information AFTER you've initially contacted someone via other means. But even then (as we covered last week) you need to be concise and it needs to be hyperpersonalised.

Disdavantages

• You're competing with dozens or hundreds of others for thei attention
• Spam filters - it may never reach them
• There's a good chance they'll delete it without even reading the headline
• There's an even better chance they'll delete it without reading it after they read the headline
• If they do open it there's a pretty good chance they'll delete it after the first sentence.
• No feedback - if you don't get a response you have no idea why you didn't.

Written (typed) letter

Once upon a time our post used to be cluttered by direct mail and we chucked it in the bin as rapidly as we now delete emails without reading them

But now a letter - particularly a hand addressed letter in an unmarked envelope - is unusual. It certainly has much more chance of being opened and read than an email.

Advantages

• Much better chance of it being read
• It can be as long as you like - with the same proviso as emails, keep it short, focused and relevant.
• It's much more likely to be remembered than an email

Disadvantages

• No feedback
• Postage cost - but as you're only sending them one at a time and you're personalising them this is negligible

Feedback

So here's why I go on about feedback. Imagine you send one or more messages via the non-feedback channels? For example you send a personalised email with a very specific headline to maximise the chances of them opening it and with a very targeted message that's all about them and their situation.

(Ditto voicemail, SMS, LinkedIn message, letter)

And - crickets. No response. What do you do? How long do you wait before you send another message? And another. Do you send the same message by different channels? Do you send a different message by the same channels?

It's as if you're on a desert island and you keep chucking messages in bottles into the ocean and no ship appears.

One reason you aren't getting a response may be, as The Police said, there are 100 million other bottles washed up on the shore. Or it may be your message wasn't right. Who knows?

There are strategies and answers to all those questions but the big advantage of using the phone to speak to prospects and EAs is you learn what works and what doesn't.

Summary

I've only stroked the surface when it comes to getting your message to the right person so they receive it and take notice of it. There are more channels and there are more advantages and disadvantages.

But my key point is this. If you have a high value, high importance prospect the question you need to answer, and to have a strategy for, is this.

"How do I get this message to this person in these circumstances at this time the best way to make sure they see it, pay attention to it and act on it?"

We'll discuss the structure of the actual message and how to gain attention and stimulate action next week. But for now its time for ....

Tactic of the Week - How to make sure your executive email gets opened and read

OK, here's the situation. You've called an Executive Assistant and asked them what you have to do in order to get a five minute meeting with their boss.

They're there to protect their bosses from people who want to waste their time. But they're also there to put through people who the boss may be learn something useful from.

So ask them "Can you help me? I want to schedule a brief five minute discussion with Susan - how do I do that?".

Sometimes they'll ask what it's about. Sometimes they'll ask one of their standard questions ("Will she know what it's about?" - my favourite answer to that is "I don't know - is she psychic" followed by "Sorry, only joking - it's about xxxxx"). You need to be prepared to handle every eventuality.

But often they will say "Can you send more information?". Or I'll ask "Would it help you if I sent more information?" - they almost always say "yes". So they've agreed to receive an email.

(Incidentally I prefer asking for 5 minutes when talking to an EA - it should be long enough for you to interest them enough in taking a longer meeting, it isn't intimidating or off-putting like a 30 minute meeting and it isn't as gimmicky or obvious as 27 seconds.)

Then you get their email address and as quickly as possible you send them a personalised email focusing on the executive and what he or she cares about. As we'll cover next week.

Ten minutes after you send it you call back and say "Hi, this is Steve. I just wanted to make sure you received my email, I know these things can get lost in the ether sometimes" - or something similar that suits your own approach (and don't say Steve unless that's your name).

This does a few things:

1. You get permission to send an email - and if you say "would it help you" you're doing it for their benefit.
2. You make sure the email actually gets there
3. It reminds her or him about it and makes it more likely they will read it and pass it on
4. It gives you a chance to build a bit more rapport and to leave an impression so they remember you next time.

They you can say "I know you're busy - do you have any idea when Susan might have a chance to look at it?"

Assuming they give you a date you can say "OK, I'll give you a call a couple of days after that to schedule the meeting". Or words to that effect.

You often also get useful information you can use. Such as "Susan is at a conference until Friday." Then when you call back you can use it "Hi, It's Steve. I know Susan was at that conference last week, have you had a chance to speak to her to schedule that call?"

It builds familiarity - the EA may even think "Oh, they know Susan was at that conference".

Simple, but effective.

Push-Up Update

I mentioned last week I'm doing a Push-Up challenge from 1st to 24th June - thanks a lot to those who have helped me raise $1,140 so far in aid of mental health.

Up to yesterday my official total as per the website was 1,455 push-ups BUT I set myself the stretch challenge to do 10,000 in 24 days.

Yesterday was June 13th and by the time I went to bed I'd done 7,630 push-ups, an average of 587 a day. Which means I only need to average 215 a day for the next 11 days to reach my 10,000 goal. It's always good to be ahead of quota at the half way point.

If you'd like to sponsor me the link is here

https://www.thepushupchallenge.com.au/fundraisers/stephenhall/the-push-up-challenge

AND FINALLY

As I've already said I am very happy to answer questions or discuss anything in this newsletter. So please, ask away. You'll need to go to this article in LinkedIn to do it but then we can have a one on one conversation.

I may even crack a joke or two.

And if we aren't connected send me a connection request (but let me you you read this - I get a lot of spam requests)