How to Get a Meeting with Anyone: The Untapped Selling Power of Contact Marketing by Stu Heinecke
Stu Heinecke is a Wall Street Journal cartoonist and Hall of Fame-nominated marketer who discovered the magic of “Contact Marketing” early in his career, when he launched a contact campaign to just two dozen Vice Presidents and Directors of Circulation at big Manhattan-based magazine publishers.
That $100 investment resulted in a 100% response rate, launched his career and brought in millions of dollars worth of business to the publications.
Stu is the host of Contact Marketing Radio, and founder and president of Contact, a contact marketing agency, and cofounder of Cartoonists.org, a coalition of famed cartoonists dedicated to raising funds for charity, while raising the profile of the cartooning art form.
The Host’s Perspective:
The term “contact marketing,” as explained in the book is “micro-focused campaigns to break through to specific people of strategic importance, often against impossible odds, to produce a critical sale, partnership, or connection.”
In contrast to marketing to a group of people, contact marketing is for making contact with one specific person. Think of a CEO, a VIP, an elected official or some other influencer. Do you have a short list of people, by name, who if you could just get a meeting with them it could dramatically improve the trajectory of your career or your business?
Then this is your book.
“How To Get A Meeting With Anyone” walks you through real-life success stories of individuals, including the author, who have used personalized approaches to get through to elusive people like presidents, a prime minister, celebrities, and countless CEOs.
He also packs in plenty of tips on how to determine whom to target, develop pitches, and gain allies in your contact’s circle of influence, particularly executive assistants (who should be view as an ally, not a gatekeeper). It includes 20 categories of contact campaigns that anyone can research and execute, including unorthodox uses of the phone, social media, email, and snail mail.
These are not sales stunts and the author goes to great lengths to explain the difference between sales stunts and contact marketing. And so that you won’t be like the proverbial dog that catches the car it’s been chasing and doesn’t know what to do once it’s caught it, the book then takes you through what to do (and what not to do) once you have scored that all-important meeting.
It’s a very creative book and does not include any approaches that have not already been proven effective for getting a meeting.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes:
“How to Get a Meeting with Anyone: The Untapped Selling Power of Contact Marketing” by Stu Heinecke
“Guerilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson
“Winning Through Intimidation” by Robert J. Ringer
Stu’s Website (StuHeinecke.com)
The Power Of Contact Marketing (SNSP.com)
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