Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hi Deng,

Email marketing should work very well for you if it follows these guidelines:

1) It won't work for establishing initial contact

2) Once you've established initial contact through some other method, get their permission to communicate through e-mail marketing.

3) Make it clear to them what you are sending, when you are sending it (frequency) what the content will be and who it will be coming "from".

4) The content must solve a problem or take away a pain. It must add clear value. If must save them time and money on their operations, allow them to reduce their reading time with other periodicals, newspapers, and other e-newsletters by providing them even more helpful information - you get the idea.

5) Since their time is so limited, ask yourself the question: What content can I provide that would make them replace 1-3 other e-newsletters with mine?

Ask them the question if you don't know the answer.

If you can adhere to these basic guidelines, e-mail marketing will allow you the perfect medium to communicate constantly and frequently over that 12 month buy cycle.

Deng, I learned this approach at a seminar, and it sounded like a good idea:

1. Contact the executive's assistant and say "I misplaced Mr. Smith's fax number, can you help? I promised I'd send him this article."

2. Fax some info, written as an article or brief whitepaper with "headline" that's relevant to the exec's most pressing problem right now (assuming you've investigated his biz circumstances) and that has some tie-in to your own product/service. Example: Wireless Technology Is Transforming Energy Companies. Even better if the content cites something his competitor is doing that kicks butt.

3. Hand-write a note on the article, with a promise to follow up. You might contact the assistant to verify that the fax came through and say that you'll be calling the next day, etc.

4. If he "delegates" his response, you can truthfully say to his direct report, "Mr. Smith asked me to follow up with you."

One rationale for this approach: The executive's fax rarely receives anything except urgent and important documents these days. Your message might stand out from the stack of snail mail and email.

Another piece of advice, unrelated to the fax: focus your message on strategic advantages of your product/service, not on tactical. "Saving time" (man hours) isn't as attractive to c-levels as "increasing profit margins," for example. Tactical advantages are more important to line managers.

Shelley

These folks are tough to reach. I agree with the consensus above that you can position yourself as an industry expert by providing easy access to helpful and timely information.

If I were cold calling this group on your behalf, with an objective to build trust and rapport over time, to achieve maximum market penetration, and generate leads for your sales team, I would:

1) Develop (or find on the internet, or buy) some timely educational material on current topics of interest to them.

2) Build a target list of all companies in your target market.

3) Research each company using publically available sources (their web site, Hoovers, Dun & Bradstreet, etc.) to build a list of C level executives.

4) Place a call to each person, hoping they will not initially come on the phone. Ideally, reach the person's secretary, or leave a message thru voice mail that you are sending info.

5) Send genuinely helpful industry information - a compilation of recent news, analysis, something related to recent or breaking trends.

6) Wait three weeks. Call again - keep your message short - send more info. If the person comes to the phone, introduce yourself, ask if it would be OK to send information introducing your company.

7) Keep going. After three to four months, you will start to be noticed. After six months, you will be generating real opportunities. If you are successful in positioning yourself as an industry expert, these folks will begin to call you when they have questions, "Say, do you have any information on ..."

8) Let them direct the conversation. DO NOT USE A SCRIPT - LET THEM LEAD. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BE PERSUASIVE BY PHONE. Get your message across using polished and professionally prepared brochures. (no, you can't email a PDF to these folks - unless they request it).

9) In short, ask yourself, "What type of person would I want to call on me?" And then, be that person. By clearly focusing on the needs and wants of your target market, you will differentiate yourself and your company from 99% of the people they deal with.

10) Have a top quality person make those calls. What does a CXO have in common with a kid in college, or someone between jobs who is working at a telemarketing agency? How can that person possibly give advice or information to the leading folk at leading institutions? What can that person possibly tell How can that person establish rapport with these movers and shakers?

For more info, check out my profile, and give me a call.