Sovereign #11. The Secret Weapon to Reach Decision Makers

Welcome to Issue #11 of The Sovereign Seller. A weekly email with practical tips on how to use inbound + outbound marketing to generate leads, and get the attention of, and appointments with … your most in-demand prospects.

Sunday, November 16th.

7:11 AM

Indianapolis, IN

What if the next big sales innovation isn’t a new AI tool - but a return to something simple, tangible, and rare?

“Shane, I got your letter in the mail. I like what you said, let’s meet - my assistant will reach out and schedule some time”.

This was an email from the busy owner of a large plumbing company in Indianapolis, IN.

Prior to sending him a few letters in the mail, I emailed and called him over 20 times.

Zero response.

This was the fall of 2017. I was selling TV advertising for the #1 station in the market, with a million + viewers each week and a solid-gold brand everyone knew and trusted.

But I was having a hell-of-a-time getting appointments with prospects. Not just prospects, IDEAL PROSPECTS - people spending money on exactly the kind of thing I was selling.

When I did land a meeting, I encountered people with more skepticism than ever … because they had more choices ... than ever, and more access to information ... than ever.

We were suddenly out of style. My best prospects were all moving money once spent on TV to the latest social and digital media.

Compared to 15 years earlier, when I was selling for another big-brand TV station.

• It was not as hard to get new business then
• It was not as hard to get people to talk on the phone, respond to my email, and set up meetings
• I didn’t have to do so much convincing because there were fewer choices … and less access to information.
• We (top-rated TV stations) felt entitled to large shares of advertising budgets, and often would capture 25% or more of their yearly spend.

My failure to land new business in this new selling era … with old-school tactics … led me to explore new ways of prospecting.

I also refused to believe TV was no longer a good investment.

I just needed a different way to make my point.

I decided to write my pitch down in a letter, and send it to my top prospects.

My pitch was about value investing.

I reasoned, if someone like Warren Buffet were buying advertising today, he would pounce on broadcast TV.

Why? Because I thought broadcast TV was undervalued for the audience quality, audience size, and credibility they deliver to a local business.

And while everyone else is chasing the latest social or digital "thing" (like when investors chased tech stocks during the Dot-Com Boom) here’s your chance to be a savvy value investor (like Mr. Buffet).

This resonated. Because prospects (like the plumbing guy) responded.

Not just because of what I said - that’s part of it - but the delivery method of the message.

Rather than easy to ignore phone calls and emails …

My letter entered his private domain - his office.

He was able to save it, and read it later - and share it with others for their opinion.

In short, this letter acted like another more trusted salesperson.

And that’s the power of using a 1-to-Many offline platform like direct mail.

Let me stress, direct mail works for any B2B sales organization. From software to services, it doesn't matter what you sell.

Because in B2B prospecting, there are only a few ways to get the attention of your prospects:

1. Email - it’s free, the most abused, and the most cluttered space.
2. Cold Calling - smart phones and remote work have made this less effective.
3. Canvassing - physically stopping into your prospects place of business. I actually like this if you are a territory sales rep. But it’s time consuming and laborious.
4. LinkedIn (Social) - you should connect with your prospects on LinkedIn, and share helpful content on your profile. Your employer should have a content strategy for sales (not just HR). But using LinkedIn like email, and cold-messaging people who don’t know you … then asking for an appointment … is not a good strategy, it rarely works, and annoys people … because it abuses the “intent’ of social media.
5. Direct Mail - when selling to other businesses, it’s rarely affordable nor targeted enough to advertise on TV (digital/broadcast), radio (audio/podcast), billboards, and most digital display advertising. But direct mail DOES make sense because you can control who you reach.

The other thing I love about direct mail - it’s hard.

It requires building a list, crafting a compelling pitch, then packaging that message so it gets delivered, opened, and read.

And because it’s hard, your competitors won't do it. Or ... they'll do it wrong.

It also costs a few dollars. This keeps small-minded sales organizations from investing in direct mail.

But not you, a savvy value investor like Warren Buffet.

Because you recognize the lifetime value of a customer. You know what your average client spends each year. What your average sale is. What it costs to land a new customer.

Knowing this, you realize the cost of direct mail is a tiny fraction of the potential return on investment.

I’ve read over a hundred books, attended several seminars, invested in coaching, and made gobs of mistakes learning how to do direct mail - right.

This week was more about the “why” it should be part of your outbound effort.

Next week, in Sovereign #12, we’ll dive into the specific “how”.

I'll teach you how to develop your list, write a compelling pitch, then get your piece delivered ... opened ... and read.

Thank you for reading Sovereign #11.

To your success,

Shane

P.S. I never met the "plumbing guy". Shortly after his reply I got an offer from Ball State Athletics to oversee their corporate sponsorship program. It took me a few years to implement direct mail there, and it worked beyond my expectations. I share that story next week.