What is it?
It is a technique for easily and quickly booking a meeting (face to face or by phone) with your audience when you are not in front of them, not talking with them or not everyone has their calendar.
Why is this approach important?
Countless hours, days and weeks are lost waiting for our audience to get back to us as we play endless amounts of tag. This decreases your momentum and slows down the sale as you “wait”.
This technique will typically force or trigger a response from our audience far faster.
How does it work?
The table below features a few scenarios of everyday situations, followed by the typical approach for handling that situation and then what I recommend instead using the Assumptive Approach.
Requirements for Using the “Assumptive Approach”
- You must already have some relationship with the audience in question otherwise it will come across as too aggressive.
- Inform your customer ahead of time that you use this type of approach and why (which is of course to save both of you time, effort and endless phone/email tag).
- In the event that you are booking the meeting blindly (meaning that you emailed or left a message for the customer regarding a meeting request without knowing their schedule and without talking to them), choose a date that is far enough in advance (at least a week) that the customer is more likely to be available.
- Send a meeting invite via Outlook (or whatever calendaring tool you use).
- Send an email meeting reminder 1-2 days prior just to jog their memory.
NOTE: If the customer emails you saying that he/she cannot make that meeting date/time you chose, you must immediately just choose another date/time (even if they say “I will email you next week/later with another date/time”).
NOTE: Even if your customer does not show up to the meeting you booked “assumptively”, they will likely feel bad for missing it which may give you leverage going forward.
NOTE: If after several attempts to use this technique (along with all the tips above) your audience consistently is not there for your meeting (especially phone meetings), you can either revert back to the traditional “chasing” method or you can ascertain that your audience is either not really that interested.
