How to get a meeting!
I was at an event where a business broker was discussing how to prepare your business for sale to get the highest dollar when selling. At the event I met several people.
I received an email a few days later from one people who simple said: “I want to meet with you and learn more about your business to see if I can help. Are you available for a meeting?”
Naturally, I said yes and we had a great meeting. Ironically she bought from me.
Contrast that to the emails I receive (sometimes daily) where some internet company (typically web design) sends me an email that talked about how good they are: we are from India, we have these skills (and proceeds to list them), we have all these employees, we worked with all these great companies, and you should hire us.
They don’t tell me why (what’s in it for me), they don’t tell me why I should care and most importantly they don’t tell me why I they are the best (right and safe choice) for me. This is a problem because I have worked with some Internet marketing companies and they don’t response after they take your money. It is frustrating because it is impossible to stop these types of emails other than make them as junk.
If you want a meeting, tell me what’s in it for me. It could be as simple as I want to get to know you better. Someone recently did that and I spent 30 minutes on the phone with him and we agreed to have a follow-up meeting.
When requesting a meeting there are three things to keep in mind:
- Tell the person the purpose of the meeting – be clear.
- Tell them what you want to cover – have an agenda – they can’t read minds.
- Tell them why they should meet with you (answer that lifelong question of what’s in it for me?) Put yourself in my shoes and ask yourself is this a good reason. Be brief.
- Suggest a date/time so we can eliminate phone tags – in the event the other person accepts the request.
Have a great meeting.
