One of the challenges for speakers seeking speaking engagements is how to keep your name in front of decision makers even when they are not making decisions!
I advocate calling a prospect only when you have business to transact. I’m talking about what you can do between the time of initial contact and the time they are in a decision making mode. Key to getting the attention you want at decision time is by staying “front of mind”. How to do it?
There are several things you can do. The first thing to send is a great one sheet after the initial contact. It gives your prospect an overall sense of your business and what you can do for them as well as whom you have worked with. I think sending an article you have written that will be meaningful to the prospect is a great way to stay in touch. I consider any writing “intellectual property on parade”! Those of you who follow me on twitter (@loiscreamer) know I send out this tweet often:
Thought leaders are writers. What have you written today?
You make a positive impact by writing. Blog posts are also meaningful. I hope by now most of you are writing blogs. The posts you write can be great selling points to your prospects, and great resources for your clients. Not to mention it can provide great discipline to keep on writing!
I also think it’s great to send an article you may find in a periodical. I send (and tweet) articles and posts from the Wall Street Journal, my city Business Journal and, my favorite, the Harvard Business Report. You can find great stuff that will impress the heck out of your clients and prospects! Check out their website and see what I mean. All kinds of information you can post on social media as well! (It’ll make you look really smart!)
One of my favorite ways to keep in touch is by faxing (yes, faxing) testimonial letters. One day after collecting a great testimonial in my mail I wanted to share it with others. I sought out ten people who I had recently contacted and decided to share my letter with them. I faxed it because no one, repeat no one is faxing anymore! I copied the original and wrote on the top, “I’d love to do a great job like this for you!” No cover letter. Keep it simple. If sending to a large company write the name of the person to whom you are sending on top, but NO cover letter. If someone doesn’t recognize your name they probably won’t open an attachment in email. That’s another reason the fax works. Note: I do not fax someone with whom I have no relationship.
This turned out to be one, GREAT idea! I got two pieces of business from sending ten faxes! I share this story at conventions and chapters all of the time. I get emails constantly from those of you who have implemented this as part of your marketing telling me it has worked well for you too.
I’m sure you can think of other ways to keep your name in front of decision makers. I hope you will share them with me!
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Copyright 2012, Lois Creamer. Lois Creamer works with professional speakers who want to book more business, make more money and avoid costly mistakes! She can be reached in the following ways:
Lois@BookMoreBusiness.com
Twitter: @loiscreamer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/loiscreamer
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/loiscreamer
For more information on Lois’ business check out http://www.bookmorebusiness.com as well as http://www.bookmorebusiness.tv!
