Street Cred and The Buzz – Becoming A Welcome Interruption
How does the notoriety and reputation of your business affect the way prospects respond to a meeting request?
These days, I frequently think about how to become a welcome interruption. What do I mean? Put yourself in the position of being the prospect. Your phone rings and someone on the other end introduces themselves.
“Hi Mr. So&So, this is Dave Phillips with Acme Products Company. I’ll be in the area next week and would like to meet with you. Do you have about 30 minutes to meet with me?”
Assuming you have never met me before in your life and I haven’t sent you anything in advance to peak your curiosity, what is the only thing that might get your attention? Unless I happen to have the same name as your ex-wife’s boyfriend, you would probably focus on the name of the company and ask yourself what you know about it. What has the company done to create a buzz around what you do?
While this is primarily a marketing function, you might have to take matters into your own hands if the marketing department is missing the mark. While you might not be able to produce brilliant viral YouTube videos that propel your company into stardom, you can use email and social media to gain credibility and create some buzz within the companies that you are targeting.
What tools can you use to get people’s attention? For starters, if you can obtain a list of email addresses for your contacts, you could send an email containing articles that pertain to your value to their company. This demonstrates your consultative value. With a little research on the internet today, you can provide timely and insightful content in an email that isn’t a sales pitch. As always, hang a large sign in your workspace that says “DON’T SELL” or “THIS IS A NO SELLING ZONE!” Send things to a number of contacts within a company. If you send the right content, you will get them talking about your email and you.
Social media, like LinkedIn has a place here too. Research your prospects to find out if they belong to LinkedIn Groups. Become a member of the group and post informative content on the group page. Make sure that you are well identified, so that group members can easily access your profile. If you have the right content on your profile, you will be planting the seeds that will make your meeting request a welcome interruption.
By David Phillips
Connect to me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidlphillips
