21 CREATIVE WAYS TO GET YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR by Jeff Shavitz
Sales is a calculated game; how can I convince my prospect to buy my product or service and become a valued customer.
Many of us have attended sales seminars, read sales book, googled best online sales technique, hired sales coaches, learned techniques from our sales manager and management teams and tried many strategies all to win that coveted new customer.
We have been trained to sell the “benefits vs. features,” write thank you notes, be prompt for meetings, firm handshake, stare into the prospect’s eyes and many other important sales practices. But these are all givens.
This report is going to offer you 21 creative ways to meet a prospect. Several of these techniques will and should help — it’s then up to you to close the deal.
This report will NOT focus on the trite and commonplace strategies like it takes 7-9 touches for a prospect to remember you or you must genuinely believe in your product/service or your product/service must be of great quality. That’s obvious. Rather, I want to provide you creative ways to meet prospects. I hope you will try one or several of these strategies this week.
1. Frisbee – The Frisbee was invited in 1957 by Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr (I guess you didn’t know this fact). Try this out. Send one of your valued customers who really appreciates your company’s product/service a logoed Frisbee (with your company name, your personal name, your phone # and email address). In this accompanying letter, ask your contact “to throw you some business with referrals.” You would be amazed how many prospects you will start receiving. Based on my research through the years, contacts will refer you to 5-7 prospects. Let’s assume you have 50 clients – (of course, you may have less or more) x 6 = 300 new prospects. Not bad for a simple creative dimensional mailing. Try it!
2. Call one number off – It’s so hard to get your prospect on the telephone. You try calling at 8AM, 6PM and he/she never picks up. Have you ever tried calling by 1-digit “off”. Instead of calling 888-505-1234, try 888-505-1233 or 1235. I can’t promise that it will work but some times, the prospect has a private or 2nd line that may be answered directly. Or by calling the wrong extension, you may get another person on the phone who can transfer you — transferred calls look different on the caller ID than typical calls and you might just get through.
3. Show up in lobby at 8AM – So maybe this isn’t so creative but worth putting it in writing. It’s hard to make contact with prospects so nothing wrong with “hanging out” in the lobby.
4. Pizza box / cereal box – This was one of my most successful dimensional mail strategies I used to meet “difficult prospects”. Whether you choose pizza, cereal or another food group, try sending the box in the mail (FedEx is worth it for the few extra dollars) with a well-crafted inside letter saying “I would love to spend just a few minutes with you having pizza for lunch” or “Could I stop by next week in the morning for breakfast.” Prospects are so amused with your creativity that the majority of times, you will get that meeting.
5. Time Clock – similar to the pizza/cereal box dimensional mailing, try sending a Countdown Clock set to 15 minutes with an accompanying letter saying “I just need 15 minutes of your time.” I have used this technique many times and when the clock hits 0, I say to the prospect “times up as promised” and if you want to get together again, let’s set up another time. I literally have walked out of initial meetings saying that I have another meeting starting shortly and can’t be late. I promise that you will have a follow-up meeting with this prospect within the next few days if he’s interested in learning more about your company’s service.
6. Postcards every week for 7 weeks – this campaign takes a bit more work but let me explain. As mentioned earlier, it takes 7-9 touches for a prospect to know “who you are” and remember your company’s name. Many salespeople will send one, maybe two letters to introduce themselves and their company. They make the follow-up phone call. Get nowhere and they say “they tried” and then move on. But you have only made 2 touches. Why not create a 7 week campaign with different copy but always picking up on the same branding theme. Work with a direct mail house and these postcards/letters will go out weekly. Make them creative, fun, humorous and then make your follow-up call in the 7th week and watch your meetings start to get confirmed with these prospects.
7. The Prospect’s Hobbies – With the internet and social media, it’s very easily with just a little work and research to understand your prospect’s interest. As Dale Carnegie, the famous developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills states, “learn about others” as it creates an immediate connection.
8. Charity & Philanthropy. This is not creative; this is just the right thing to do. Get involved in a charity or philanthropic cause that you believe in. An outgrowth of this involvement is that you will meet many people within the community that are like-minded with you, respect that cause and want to help whether through raising funds or awareness. I was raised in a very charitable home; I am involved in several causes and the friendships and relationships that I have developed have earned me significant business opportunities by meeting people that I would have never met if not for joining these organizations.
9. Bathroom trick – Please don’t think me strange but this one has worked wonders for me over the years. You attend a business function or trade-show/conference and you want to meet that one person so badly. You see him/her walking the show or see him/her at the neighboring table at the dinner, but you don’t know how to meet. Yes, you got it. Follow him/her to the bathroom. Just be respectful and let them finish their business before saying hello. You can laugh, but this creative strategy does work!
10. Scissors – Back to creative dimensional mailings. Let’s assume you sell a commodized product/service (telephone service, credit card processing, shipping, etc), why not send a logoed company scissor with a well-crafted letter saying “we will cut your expenses in half!”
11. $50 bill in a Fedex letter – this one is a bit sensitive so your call whether you feel comfortable employing this strategy. I have tried this tactic and it worked approximately 75% of the time. My rationale was that everyone’s time is precious and I am asking for 15 minutes of your time for $50.00 (or you can use $100 dollar bill or whatever denomination of money you think fit). Here’s what can and will happen? The recipient will you back the money; the recipient will send you back the money with a note/call saying happy to set up a meeting or the tactic could backfire with the prospect being insulted by this unusual way of “buying the meeting.”
12. Begging – Try it. Not much more to write about this verb than just try it. What’s the worst that can happen – just no!
13. Postcard with person’s face on it – different than the postcard strategy mentioned earlier, everybody loves (or at least likes themselves); using the internet, find a picture of your prospect and create a personalized card; prospects will consciously or sub-consciously understand that if you took this much care and attention to meet that you will do the same if you were awarding a purchase order. time to connect with
14. Price – should you charge $0.00 or the highest price for that given product. What do you think? A commodity is the lowest priced item and a race to zero but products with high perceived values can be priced at whatever the market will bear. Think about charging a high price. Companies and people will pay for the best! Your product is worth what your customer will pay for it.
15. Free samples – This may not be very creative but when was the last time you offered free samples for your product and/or service. If it’s a car, maybe you can’t offer a free product but you can offer a free test drive. Get your prospects to touch and feel your product and/or service.
16. Surveys – Requesting information is critical. The terms “big data”, “little data”, metrics and analytics is taking over business. Understanding your market and your consumer is critical and why not sure these benchmarks and information with your prospective client. “It’s better to give than receive” and this data will be your inroads to developing a relationship with your new customer.
17. Lunch Meetings – organize a breakfast, lunch or dinner meeting and invite a prestigious speaker as your keynote. Invite your prospects to the event, hear the speaker, meet other colleagues and industry leaders.
18. Prepaid Cellphone –buy one of those phones that very affordable; Send it to your prospect and tell them a time you will be calling on a specific time/day and that I hope you will pick up so I can share information about our company with you.
19. The lost art of the handwritten thank you note. With email, texting, facebook messaging and other electronic forms of communication, the handwritten thank you note (sent with a USA stamp) is basically extinct. Next time you are rejected on the phone, but you at least had a friendly conversation, send a handwritten thank you. You may just stand-out amongst the crowd to earn yourself another chance at developing a relationship with this customer.
20. Holiday Cards – Again, not creative but important. Instead of just sending Holiday Cards / New Year’s Cards during Christmas, why not send cards for July 4th, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving to continue to nurture and develop a relationship with your prospect.
21. Use your handy smartphone camera and shoot a quick intro of who you are, and a great 15 second speech that quickly explains your business. Use technology to grow your business. You are selling you. When that prospect sees/hears your pitch, you are on your way to getting your meeting. |
