How I navigate conversations to book a meeting

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to share my 5-step process to navigate conversations to book a meeting.

Human beings are constantly making decisions, and they use mental shortcuts to avoid wasting brainpower in doing so.

One of them is called the reciprocity bias. When you accept a gift or help from someone, you’re more likely to reciprocate. Think about the last time someone offered help, and how you’d answer if they’d ask for a service in return.

Here’s how I use this psychological bias to book meetings:

Step 1: Use a problem question

Before reaching out to a prospect, you should always ask yourself what kind of problem they are trying to solve. For example, I’m selling to VPs of Sales or Heads of Sales Development, and they are typically trying to solve problems like:

• gaps between forecasting and actual revenues

• SDRs turning prospects off with pushy cold outreach

I can use these problems in my outreach to get their attention, and show my understanding of their business reality.

You can use the formula: “How do you avoid/prevent {problem}?”.

Example: “How do you prevent your team from turning off prospects with pushy cold outreach?”

Step 2: Tease a reciprocity resource

If your prospects are currently facing the problem you mentioned, they may be interested in a resource to solve it.

You can use a reciprocity resource to help them. It can be any marketing material from your company, partners, or even competitors.

For example:

• Whitepapers

• eBooks

• Podcasts

• Webinar recordings

I recommend downloading the resource, hosting it in Google Drive, and recording a short video on why it is valuable.

You can tease this resource in your initial outreach message, just like this: “If you’re interested, I made a 5-step sequence that typically gets a 38% reply rate.”

Step 3: Ask for feedback

If your prospect replies, share the resource (either directly, or with a short video), and give them a few days.

You can then ask for feedback on the resource, to find out if it was useful. For example: “What do you think of the resource? Was it useful for your team?”

In most cases, your prospects will feel obliged to reply (because of the reciprocity bias), and you’ll be able to see if the problem you’re solving is important enough for them.

Step 4: Use a negative-reversing question

If the problem is important enough, you should be able to ask a few other questions, and even get some from your prospects.

A good way to ask for the meeting is to use a negative formulation. Instead of writing: “Should we book a meeting?”, you can use the following formula “Would it be a bad idea to…”

Example: “Would it be a bad idea to hop on a quick call so I can give you a few tips on how your team can use this sequence?”

Step 5: Drop a meeting link

If your prospect agree to the meeting, immediately drop a meeting link or ask them to share some availabilities.

Example: “Good, here’s a link to book a quick chat. You can also share your availabilities if you prefer.”

A meeting link is a productivity tool. It helps your prospects align with your schedule. However, some people may not like using meetings link. They would rather share their availability, and have you send an invitation.

And this is how I get around 27% of people who reply to my outreach to book a meeting with me.

And if you’re interested in grabbing the system I use to get a 38% reply rate, and between 11% and 27% of people who reply to book a meeting with me, then check The New Outreach System.

TL;DR:

• Step 1: Use a problem question

• Step 2: Tease a reciprocity resource

• Step 3: Ask for feedback

• Step 4: Use a negative-reversing question

• Step 5: Drop a meeting link

Hope this helps!

Thibaut