How NOT to deploy Cold Marketing

I received this cold marketing message:

“Hi Stephanie, I’d love to get a meeting on the books. Do you have time this week?”

If you are on LinkedIn – you’ve probably received this from a connection you have who seemed to want to connect genuinely. You’ve also probably received other forms of this message in your inbox or email talking about how they can amplify your ROI or get 50 bookings scheduled.  This was not that kind of message.  This was not a scenario where a cold connection request and then immediate blast the message. So arguably this was a “warm” reach. This person sent me a message with me sharing who they were – and that they wanted to connect on a mutual focus. (Their intro message was more descript than this, but I am not looking to shame them.) It was after a few months of being connected and then, not necessarily engaging before this message. 

When they reached out with that first request to schedule a meeting, nothing about this interaction to this point seemed off to me. It was how I would have recommended that you DO connect through cold marketing – let people get to know you through a mutual interest and then after they’ve had time to see content and get to know more about what you’re doing then request a meeting. It’s a sound strategy and hopefully helps people align with their potential clients and business partners with more understanding before they approach them.

However, the cold message follow-up is where things went wrong.

I booked a meeting – using this person’s calendar app. The meeting was for 3 weeks out and the day of the meeting I was sitting in THEIR waiting room waiting on them to arrive. They didn’t. I sent a message letting them know (a gentle reminder) that I was waiting and would wait, but if the time didn’t work to let me know. Now… I have ADHD and am someone who has missed a calendar invitation or two – (in just the last week) I’m someone who is THAT person (on occasion anyway.) So, this thing didn’t bother me at all. 

After 15 minutes, I sent an additional message letting them know that I’d waited and that they could reschedule on my calendar if that was more convenient. They never responded. 2 days later I got a message from them inviting me to an event they were hosting – with no acknowledgment of the fact that they’d not called, nor showed to the meeting they’d requested. This also happened on a day when I was feeling particularly feisty and bluntly spoke my mind.

The cold marketing had failed, and I found out why.

I shared the feedback that I wasn’t interested in attending an event that would not be an even exchange of energy. Explained that they had reached out to connect, didn’t show, didn’t respond, and then sent another event without acknowledgment. I shared that I appreciate people who can acknowledge things and that I’d be happy to help her with support of her business through the Perspective Shifters hub (You can find more information about that here: )

I received a response from that message saying that someone else was using her account (posing as her) and that they’d assumed she followed up. 2 weeks later I received a final message from this woman – She’d booked a meeting on my calendar so that we could “restart” I was satisfied with this – things happen! Honestly people, life happens, I get it – and as business owners, especially when we’re knee-deep in a marketing strategy – things can get overwhelming. 

I was absolutely willing to let it go but, 3 weeks after that rebooking – I sat in a Zoom room waiting for her to arrive… She didn’t – Again. Later that day I disconnected with her on LinkedIn – I didn’t respond – no message no follow-up – it wasn’t worth the time for me if she wasn’t going to make the effort to start with.

2 weeks after THAT meeting – where I was ghosted a final time… Her business partner reached out saying that she knew I’d already spoken with my original contact and that she wanted to give me a “second connection” to their organization. But I hadn’t already spoken with her contact, so what the hell? 

Whatever the issue, it was a bad look.

The System was failing OR it was working so well that they couldn’t keep up. This organization seemed to have a very developed funnel system. A step-by-step process for bringing people through the funnel and ensuring that there are multiple contacts. However the business owner can’t ensure follow-up, and she appears to be the one reaching out. Most people (including myself) believe that this system of introduction, warm introduction, 1:1 meetings, and follow-up from others with multiple contacts to increase buy-in is Critical to the success of a business.

I get several messages a day on LinkedIn from business development teams wanting to pitch me on hiring business development teams to grow my business. There is zero interest in having a conversation with them, mostly because of the conversations and trials I’ve received those companies develop funnels by acting on others’ behalf.  I also think that “12 meetings a day” or “250 qualified leads a week” sounds HORRIBLE. I don’t have a backup for me in my business yet and I can’t take on 50 clients and I don’t WANT to. No matter how much I want to help everyone, the truth is that my bandwidth and capabilities are personally limited.

So with all of that said, let’s discuss what broke down and what to do to ensure that it doesn’t happen to you. When you’re cold marketing – have a plan or else don’t let other people manage your personal profiles

Don’t let people do cold marketing on your personal profile.

I won’t hire business developers who need access to my personal social media pages to do the work. They can work through the company business pages. I know it’s hard to manage all the messages, and posting – but I deeply value integrity, so even if I had implicit trust with someone on my profile to post thing I wouldn’t ask them to send messages from my personal profile. If you are sending messages to your contacts, then they will believe it’s your. When the truth comes out, it appears disingenuous.

Additionally,business developers that are sending me a cold message about their services and promise a positive ROI I immediately don’t trust. If you are having to cold message me to find clients, I don’t believe that you’re providing a positive ROI and if so, that’s now how I want an ROI.  

Take the help you need.

I am NOT saying, “Don’t ask for help.” You must do what you need to do to be successful. I am all for receiving help and growing my business, and I work with clients daily where I do work for them. However, as a small business owner my calendar, and to-do list are already FOREVER long. I liken it to the Progressive ad with the post-it monster that is chasing the business owner around putting post-its of to-do’s all around. The Progressive team really did capture the essence of owning a business.

My concern with hiring others for business development always comes to the idea that unless you have a product or service that doesn’t need YOUR direct involvement – hiring a business development team only increases the calendar load you have between team meetings, alignment, additional messaging and to-dos AND the appointments with prospective clients. 

What to do when you don’t have time for business development.

I am much more apt to connect with a business developer that says “I’m reaching out on behalf of.” I have had plenty of fantastic meetings with people who were working on behalf of others who were qualifying potential clients before booking the appointments for the next round. If you’re going to hire people I recommend hiring people who will connect as themselves, but on behalf of you… Hire people who have networks in a targeted industry/space who have connections to the people you want to get connected with. Pay them reasonably for their efforts! 

If you do hire someone to manage your social media, ensure you have a streamlined process for branding, messaging, and follow-up where things will not fall through the cracks.  Don’t spend time or money doing business development when you can’t handle the calendar you are already working from. As I said earlier, being a business owner comes with hefty to-do lists, stacks of business meetings, and incredible day-in and day-out chaos that I have yet to find a rival for. 

What to do when your calendar is already running your life and you need revenue

When you have a calendar that is running your life, you can’t possibly run more business. Take back your calendar and create space for automation. Doing that will allow more engagement from you, or make it easier to have a team do this work for you. Regardless, it is critical to ensure that you are ready for business development to be effective. Double booking yourself, or over booking yourself is going to create more work for you and lead to burnout in the worst way… A burnt-out business owner cannot maintain a business much less grow a business. Sustainability in business development has to be a priority.

So, take back your calendar! Less is more when it comes to business ownership (I’d argue it’s true for employees too, but that’s not what this blog post is about.) Prioritize your calendar – putting your self-care in the position of FIRST priority. Then prioritize your selfish why – this is the why you decided to start a business rather than just working within the businesses that are already there… Lastly prioritize the tasks and needs of your business, creating space for business development.
Ask questions and test, test, test again.

I have gotten really great at asking the right questions to assertain priorities and would be happy to chat with you about this. Additionally, Hub expert, Anna Addoms hosted a Take back your calendar session a few months ago and I highly recommend this. She speaks to the plan but also the systems you can put into place to ensure that YOU own your calendar rather than letting your calendar own you.

Your calendar and booking system should be an important step in your process.

Whatever systems you have should be working FOR you, not against you. Whether it’s your calendar, your follow-up, your SOPs, or your general and personal processes, getting those things locked down so that they are running smoothly is CRITICAL. If you have breaks in booking systems, communication systems, or calendar systems, it will inevitably lead to you struggling to keep up, missing appointments, and feeling like chaos is ruling your life. Breaks in these things occur, but testing is how you ensure that they’re repaired quickly and that they aren’t broken to start.
To get more info on taking back your calendar, join the perspective shifters hub and get access to “Take back your Calendar hosted by Anna Addoms of Wicked Marvelous. 

Lean into the mistakes.

Listen, we ALL make them – we all go through things – we all are going to fork up a meeting connection, booking, or discussion at some point in time… OWN IT. If you have a meeting booked with someone and you miss it, flake out, have something else pop up, or have simply double booked… a very simple message to say that you’ve run into a challenge makes a HUGE difference. You don’t even apologize when there’s nothing to apologize for, the ability to acknowledge the situation and work toward a solution goes a long way in earning a contact’s trust. 

One of the biggest complaints I hear from business owners is that they feel overwhelmed. If that’s you, book a call with me. I specialize in project management. Lets work together to figure out what’s next. If you don’t know where you need help I can help you identify that and then I can connect you with a network of other business owners who are trusted.