1. They Recognize The Name You Dropped

Sales emails with subject lines that included the name of a family member, a friend or a colleague close almost 10x more than cold emails. Warming up a lead with a name drop is a huge reason why busy execs who are flooded with pitchy spam won’t ignore yours. Once they open your email, they will most likely take your call because someone they know is now involved.

2. You Meet Them Face to Face at an Association Meeting

When my clients and I target an industry, we get into their association meetings right away. This way, we have an opportunity to connect in-person with a high concentration of target decision makers. Frequent presence at these targeted events often either end up with meeting the target Executive themselves or meeting someone who can refer you to them. Face to face creates trust even if you’re a perfect stranger.

3. They Met You When You Stalked Them To An Event Where They Speak

So you stalked your prey (prospect) and found where they would be public speaking or honoured with an award. Calling them before to let them know that you look forward to seeing them and then following up with going up to them in person to say ‘hi’ are all really great ways of getting them to take your calls. Executives are time-starved but people who have made a good impression with them take priority over cold calls.

4. You Got an Intro From Someone They Know

The best way to get an Executive to take your call is to have an in-person or an e-mail introduction from someone they know, like or trust. This is where you’ll have to mine your networks or create targeted new ones to get that coveted intro. Execs take calls as favours to their network all the time.

5. You Walked a Trade Show the Exec/Their Company Were At

Once when I had a client move into a city she had zero networks in, we had her walk a trade show in the nearest city that featured her target industry. The results were incredible. She not only got tons of insights into the industry pain from talking to the booth staff but she also got names and introductions from those that were at the booth to the real Execs because they believed she could help them with her services.  When their own employees refer a vendor, the Executive takes the call.

6. You Researched Their Passion And Gave Them Something Related To It

Another great client story around getting the Exec to take the call was the research we did around a very big tech companys’ CMO. We found that she had a pet’s charity as a hobby. We then created a unique pet onesy outfit for her pet and delivered it to her office. My client got her phone call and a meeting.

So if you’re looking to get that target Executive decision maker to take your call, get creative, get crafty and get sneaky. You have nothing to lose by going the extra mile.

Want to reposition your messaging to grow your leads? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch my Podcast on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk.