How to Schedule a B2B Meeting
The dirty secret of selling #sportsbiz B2B is that navigating the meeting isn't hard. Sitting down with a business produces the second highest close rate of anything we can do as salespeople (only behind referrals!). The biggest challenge is getting the meeting.
I've got a cool perspective on this. When I started my career at CEB, I was making over 200 touchpoints per day to CMO's and Chief Advertising Officers are Fortune 500 and Global 3000 companies trying to schedule a meeting. Now, touchpoints back then were mostly phone calls with a few emails. And it's easy to make 200 phone calls a day when no one picks up. And I got REALLY good at scheduling those meetings.
How? Here's a quick guide to scheduling meetings:
15-minute mindset: 'All I need is 15 minutes...' is one of the most powerful things you can say on the phone call. 15 minutes is an incredibly reasonable amount of time for both the buyer to give to the seller, and for the seller to ask of the buyer. If you go into the phone call aiming for 15 minutes, not to pass off information, you'll find yourself to be more vague and mysterious...which is what gets the meeting. The more information you give the buyer, the more likely they are to think, 'We don't do that,' the less likely they are to take the meeting.
When: 'When we meet...,' 'When we talk...,' 'When I'm able to show you...' When is a power word. It is almost impossible to undercut what you say when you use a power word like 'when'. It is presumptive. It is forceful without being an asshole. And it is declarative. This is not a choice, this will happen.
FOMO: If you don't know what FOMO is, you live under a rock. Fear Of Missing Out is the backbone of all social media and the backbone of how everyone tries to sell everything today. The power of FOMO is no different for businesses. 'I'll show you how other businesses are finding value with us...,' 'I'll teach you what other businesses are doing with us...' Both of those phrases provide incredible pieces of information. They are missing both missing out by not having it AND you are going to teach/give them something in the meeting. That's a LOT of value in one short phrase.
'Can you put that in an email?': My answer to that is, 'HELL NO!' The minute you send that email is that minute you've handed over your expert status to the businessperson. Your job here is to stand your ground and tell them that you're the one that will help navigate the conversation. Your job is to tie your inventory to the real challenges they are having. This is your chance to demonstrate your value to this process. Game respects game, so if you clearly state YOUR value in the process, you are more likely to get the meeting.
'I'll be right down the street next Tuesday...': This is the cheat code. If you get this out, you've won. First, this creates the FOMO that you have other meetings. Second, it sets you up perfectly. Sometimes they say, 'Sure, why not?' And, if they say they can't meet next Tuesday, you get to ask, 'Well when can you meet?' They almost never say 'never'...and usually give you a day/time.
As an industry, we need to spend WAY more time focused on getting meetings than executing meetings. It is absolutely the toughest part, and no matter how good you crush the above, it is still a numbers game. The more companies you reach out to, the more you get the meeting with. Being consistent in engaging companies is the GREATEST separator of great B2B sllers. Now, if you combine that with the tactics above? You'll be unstoppable...