How do you get meetings with poeple who are hard to reach?
Securing meeting appointments
Usually, the best way to get a meeting with someone who is difficult to reach is through email or Linkedin. I recommend being very straightforward about what the value proposition is in plain language and include a link to the website. If your offering is a fit for an initiative or priority that the person has at the time, they’ll respond or forward the information to the right person on the team to check out the offering.
Once you get your message in front of the decision maker, they can generally figure out if it’s on their list of priorities pretty quickly. It can be difficult to catch them on the phone even if what you are selling is a great fit for them, because the folks who answer the phone will never put you through. You can ask those people for an email you can send information to, and they will give it to you most of the time.
I’m always surprised how few people send an email with a brief outline about the offering when the folks who answer the phone offer that as an alternative to putting them through to my direct line which never happens.
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Did you find that there is a certain day or time in the day when those people are most responsive and likely to get back to you?
There is no general time that works for everyone as each person works differently and schedules their day in different ways. Some answer their emails early morning, some in the evening. In some cases you might be able to find out what the best time is to reach them by calling in their office. I would recommend reaching out a reasonable time, between around 8 am and 5 pm their local time, and keep following up if you don’t hear back from them within a couple days. A lot of times things just get lost in the inbox and you have to keep bringing it back on top of their mind. But don’t forget to provide value in each single follow up email, whether that is sending an article they might like or a short video. Don’t just use the standard phrase ‘I just wanted to follow up, please let me know if you’re interested.’
I fully agree with Steve and would also add that in my experience following up really does help. People are usually hard to reach for a reason and chances are a lot of others are trying to get to them as well. Follow up a few days after the first contact if you do not get a response, then follow up again without conveying a sense of guilt to them for not responding immediately. Make sure you always add some kind of value or additional information to your follow up emails.
I work in the building materials industry and I have recently been having a hard time gaining meetings with decision makers due to the holidays. Is anyone else experiencing this too? If so, what are your tactics to going about this?
This always happens around this time of year! Your best bet would be to start looking for new prospects and always have a back up plan in case meetings do get cancelled. You never want to be waiting on a prospect it will create an obstacle for you when meeting your sales quota.