Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

I am not sure you need a marketing piece. Seems to me you have done the marketing part, getting a qualified lead. Now it's time for selling.

Have you met the prospect in person? If not you have little chance of every getting anything. In the 35 years I have been in the marketing communications business I can count on one hand how many projects I received without a personal meeting, and they were referrals.

Set up a lunch and start developing a relationship. If there is any special industry events you think he or she would be interested in invite them to it. If you know they love football or somthing esle get a coupel of tickets and invite them to the game.Send emails with important information you are sure they will want to see.

My guess is that after you develop that relationship you will have some work pretty soon. That is if they actually do the work you are seeking. I assume you know they do.

Harry Hallman

I'll agree with some comments above -- you don't need to get his attention at this point, you need him to act.

Go see him in his office, show him something relevant that you've just completed that you think might be of interest to him, and then -- on the spot -- ask him what engagements he's working on right now or prospecting at the point of closure that you can help him with. Do this in his office, look him right in the eye, and ask for the close. Ask him for the test.

Good luck. But don't go backwards with direct mail -- it will put him back in his previous mindset. You're already on the inside.

I agree that the marketing you've done sounds successful, which is great, but have you actually asked what's keeping him from closing the deal? I've read that advice in a number of articles and responses to questions here in the forum. If you're guessing why you haven't closed the deal, you're not really communicating with this prospect and no amount of additional marketing is going to help. Hopefully it'll just be a simple issue that you can address quickly; if it's a larger concern, at least you can work to address it before you get close to landing the next big prospect.

I'm actually going to recommend something that goes against what most have said.

I had a situation like this about 2 months back with a prospective client. He was thrilled with everything we had talked about and already saw the value I'd bring to his company. Yet, he wouldn't move forward. Since this wasn't a large project, I wasn't too attached. I simply said, "if things change, give me a call and we'll go from there."

Over the next month, he received 4 pieces of communication from me.
- An email asking about the results of some medical tests he was waiting on.
- Mass email announcing that I was being featured in Prosper Magazine (fast growing business mag in Sacramento) as a Whiz Kid along with 5 other up-and-coming people.
- Phone call in which I said I wanted to give him a gift... where I walked him through downloading a thought-of-the-day software called Ponder Pearls.
- Photos from a raft-building trip I went over a weekend.

It was in that order. When I sent out the photos, he emailed back with comments. We exchanged a few non-commercial emails and then I asked him "what's our next step on the web marketing project?" He asked for a contract.

I got signed a contract via fax the next business day which was Monday.

So the take away is: Build an intimate relationship.

If you want to learn more about building a solid relationship, read "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi. You can find links to a video of Keith, an article by Keith and a review of his book at: https://www.volcanicmarketing.com/blog/2006/04/22/never-eat-alone/

PS: Go to www.ponderpearls.com , enter "melvin" as the gift code and download a free copy of Ponder Pearls. It's the world's first thought-of-the-day software. It'll be my Christmas gift to you.

~ mel

Melvin Ram
Volcanic Marketing