The Perfect Bait

In the blog post, Be One With The Fish, I talked about how to research and learn about your big fish and prepare for the first contact you’ll make with them. This first contact is essential to your success. You need to instill confidence in them. They need to know you can fulfill exactly what you are offering on time, at a good price and at the quality you promise. 

So In today’s blog, we’ll actually go through the big approach and how to make that perfect first impression, so read on and enjoy! 

Now before you put together your approach plan, you need to choose with big fish you’re going after. Take a look at your notes and the research you’ve done about prospective fish. Then decide which one will be the easiest approach to start out with.

There are a series of things to go through in choosing which fish to start with. They are:

• Position Your Business
• Compile Your Hit List
• Select the Best Target

Position Your Business 

You need to position your business to make the first move by listing your business services and propose what you offer that would benefit the client, things that would improve performance or make the company more effective in your area of expertise, where your fish is initially positioned, using your big-customer research to put it all together.

Compile Your HIT List

Start with making a list of all the companies you’ve been considering. Then narrow it down to the ones who know could have an immediate use your products or services based on the similarities of what their company does for their end users. Don’t overlook obvious choices, whether they are big or small. Even small companies could be big fish in the future.

Select the Best Target 

Once you’ve got your list narrowed down, you need to decide which one is the best fish to start with. You need to consider a couple of things:

1. Which have the most purchasing resources to spend?
2. Does their company vision compliment yours?
3. What are their programs and services as they relate to your products/services?
4. What’s the company’s real need for you?
5. Will the partnership lead you off-course?

Now you should have some targets in mind to start with. It’s time to plan your approach and execute that plan.

Here’s the step-by-step plan to help you make a good first impression:

1. Build and analyze your database. Divide your leads into three different categories: hot leads, great fits and secondary leads.
2. Network and send out introductory emails or mailings to your target to introduce yourself, your availability, your company, services, products, and vision. They need to be short, clean and concise. 
3. Follow up with a fax or a phone call 2-3 days after they would have received the email and you have to build a relationship. During the initial phone call find out whom you need to be speaking with in the future and try to set up a meet with the right person.
4. Follow up your phone call with another email thanking them for taking the time to speak with you and offer little details about your products/services. Use this email is an opportunity to set up a meeting by listing your meeting objectives, time, and subject of discussion to do a brief presentation.
5. Follow up the email with another phone call a couple of days after they would have received the email. This phone call is to help you further develop your relationship with the prospective client. You should also be able to set up a presentation meeting the person our people responsible for making a decision. 
6. Call again or email them a week later if they haven’t agreed to a meeting or presentation. Ask if they received your email (the second one) and if they have a brief moment when you can stop by and introduce yourself in person or meet for lunch. In the email, ensure that they understand:

• That this is just to see if everything makes good sense or, if there is a good fit, and we’ll need to schedule another call to dive in further.
• And obviously, since you haven’t work with them before, let them know that they’ll probably have some questions for you about how you might be able to help them address some of these issues. Make sure you state this because it makes them aware that you may have questions as well and takes the elephant out of the room. The elephant being, what CAN you do for me? 
• Provide an OUT in the email for example; So, can we agree that at the end of this call or meeting we’re going to make a decision that either “Yes,” we’re a good fit and we’ll schedule another call, or “No,” that we’ll end it there and part as friends? 

Our goal here is to avoid a “maybe” and decide “yes” or “no” on the next steps. Sound good?

If they ask for more information, remember that the goal with this isn’t to pressure someone into making a sale, but to save us (and them) time from the back and forth if there just isn’t enough interest or pain to move forward.

Now, don’t be upset if you don’t seal the deal right away. Some people simply take a little longer build a relationship. This can all be a little intimidating at first, but when you know you are offering a quality product/service, you can’t go wrong.

Once you’ve gone through this process and made the first contact (and hopefully a good first impression) it’s time to put your best face forward, which means sending the right message or free valuable information from your company to either educate them to build for the presentation, or, if you show enough value that the potential client sees you as a fit, seal the deal.

If you need help putting together your approach and make a good first impression, try our complimentary Business Breakthrough Assessment and let's talk about your sales cycle and gain knowledge from STRETCHYOURSELF's wealth of great resources and tools.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to connecting with you soon.