This post is based off a podcast with Stu Heinecke. If you’d like to read the summary, you’re on the right page. If you’d like to listen to the full episode, you can check it out here and below!
Stu Heinecke, author of How to Get a Meeting with Anyone has a great deal of experience landing sit down meetings with difficult-to-reach people.
He came on the show to share with us some of his top tips to help land that big, seemingly unattainable, meeting.
And they are more simple than you might believe.
So how do we get that face-to-face with the big executive? How do we take our business partnerships to the next level?
According to Stu, there are three, simple ways: persistence, timing, and humor.
Persistence
Persistence in business is the key to success. Being persistent while remaining respectful will grant you opportunities you’ve only dreamt of.
We don’t have to take no for an answer – as long as we remain within respectful boundaries, we should not give up on contact that may change the trajectory of our businesses and, in turn, lives.
Stu advises to not only be persistent in your contact but to “persistently provide value.”
When we desire to connect with someone, whether to mentor us or to form partnerships within a business, providing them value will remind them of their worth and lead to opportunities and connections that can have an incredible impact on our lives.
Value is provided by continually showing someone that they are important to you and have a great deal to offer you and your company. – Stu Heinecke
This is not just flattery, but true admiration that will extend into great partnerships and mentorships in business and life.
Don’t flatter to flatter. Be genuine in your outreach.
Timing
The second unlikely but successful aspect of landing a big meeting is that of timing.
The timing of contact can be the determining factor if you will get a reply or be overlooked. Phone calls and emails are two of the most common ways we reach out to those we desire to connect with in our technology-driven society.
Stu suggests calling hard-to-reach executives or other important people you desire to connect with a minute or two before 10 AM or 2 PM. The reason for this is because these are the most popular times for conference calls. (Sneaky sneaky, we know.)
This little trick may be the reason you get on the line with someone you really want to talk to.
If you’ve reached them a minute before, they’re picking up the phone directly because they’re thinking you’re the call. – Stu Heinecke
The other timing trick that Stu suggests is to send emails to over the weekend. Specifically, sending an email early in the morning on Saturday or later in the evening on Sunday may grant you a read and reply that you otherwise wouldn’t get during a busy work week.
Keeping emails concise and leaving out drawn-out pitches is important. Timing may affect if your email is read – but no one wants to feel solely like they are being pitched to.
Give real value to whoever you desire to connect with.
And be sure to do it at the right time.
Humor
For a long time, it’s been thought that humor doesn’t work in marketing. But in the case of Stu, that simply isn’t true.
“I always thought, ‘well that’s crazy,’” Stu says of the thought that humor doesn’t work. “I know that cartoons are the best read and remembered parts of magazines and newspapers.”
The thing about marketing is that it’s directed at people. REAL people. And people love humor. If something makes you laugh, it captures your attention, and if it captures your attention, you’ll want to know more.
Stu uses comics in his line of work to get meetings with those he may have otherwise never connected with. He has seen incredible response rates with this type of marketing and encourages those who desire to get a meeting with someone important to embrace the use of humor, too.
So remember that whoever you want to get a meeting with is just a person, too. They probably love a good laugh.
Be sure that all humor is good natured and respectful, and be sure to keep the focus on the receiver of any of the humor, not the sender.
Go and Get That Meeting
These three simple tips may be the difference between a yes and a no to a big meeting request.
And that meeting might just change your business and your life.
