I was talking with Kimberly Ball, who’s with Documation, about her goal of getting new business. She is going after business that she has tried before with phone calls, emails and notes and gets no response. Now she is doing cold calls to these companies to find out who she needs to talk to. One of the roadblocks that she and almost everyone in her position come up against is the gatekeeper.
The age-old question is ‘How do you get past the gatekeeper?’ There are 2 theories or methods on this: The first is to make friends with them and they will let you in. It is a good one and does work but will take some time. The other is to bulldoze your way through. This does not work except in rare cases (but then it pisses people off).
A good way is to send a shock-and-awe package to the person you want to reach. I will explain further, but first you must determine the value of the customer, whether one-time, yearly or lifetime (best is lifetime), and you must know how much it costs your company to get a new customer.
If you do not know those numbers, stop reading right now and get them. (If you need to know how to figure out the lifetime value of a customer and the investment to acquire one, just call or email me.)
Now you know what they are worth and how much you can invest.
What you do is send them something that the gatekeeper will not throw away or keep for themselves. One vendor sent me a tower of boxes of different types of nuts. It stood almost 3 feet high. Do you really think that a gatekeeper would not pass this on to their boss, maybe hoping to get some? Of course the package would include your information. Most people will contact you to thank you or ask why – now you have made contact.
A well-thought-out and put-together shock-and-awe package will get you past the gatekeeper and to the decision maker every time.
Want to know more about shock-and-awe packages and how to use them? Call me at 817-282-0443 or email me at Phil@freedcom.com.
That’s all for now!
Till next week -Great Things Happen, But You Have To Take Action
Phil
The Freedman Co.
There are some really good qusteions and some really good answers here. You can tell that the interviewee really believes in direct mail as a form of communication. Our company knows that direct mail still has many advantages over social media although there is a point about risk that is important!