The “Assume Close” strategy when opening doors has proven exceptionally successful, especially when working on securing meetings with difficult to reach corporate decision makers. Most recently, one of our Door Openers® used it and booked a meeting with a high level prospect very quickly. Are you curious to know how she did this?
When her prospect initially expressed interest, but wouldn’t commit to a date and time, she left him a message then followed up immediately with an email. Combining voice mail and email is much more effective than using voice mail or email alone.
Here’s the structure of the email she used:
- She started with the subject line: Quick meeting to establish next steps.
- Her first two sentences included a greeting and the “ask.”
“Hi Tom! As a follow up to my message and understanding how busy you are, I’ll send you a calendar invite to secure a date for a meeting this Thursday at 10am. You can simply accept and it will be on your calendar.”
- Her third and fourth sentences included a specific reason why the meeting would be of incredible value to Tom, along with a very short, relevant success story.
- The last sentence was a simple close with a call to action.
She then sent the calendar invite directly to the decision maker. She expected one of three outcomes. He’d either accept (YAY, meeting booked!), decline and propose a new date/time (Yay, meeting booked!) or, just decline. If he declined, she was ready with a crafty response to take the relationship with the prospect to the next level. Want to know what happened? The prospect did respond. He declined and sent a new date. Success! Meeting booked!
For this strategy to work well, you must first have your “A” level prospect list ready to go, filled with qualified prospects. Knowing in advance whether the decision maker you’re contacting is the right decision maker for the meeting will save you time and ensure the meetings you book will be with the people you most want to engage. Research by using Google, Linked In, and other online resources to be sure there’s a strong fit. (Tip – You can then use what you learn from researching to customize your communication to the prospect. The more personalized your approach, the more successful you will be.)