Ask a Marketer: How do I get on my busy client’s calendar?

This is Ask a Marketer by Sean Sutherland, who can help you figure out how to make the most of your marketing budget and time. As the chief marketing officer for Kapowza, a Baltimore-based creative agency, he’s seen it all. Here, he’ll share his hard-won advice from over a decade in the industry.

Q: How do I get on my busy client’s calendar?

Our customer’s business has been booming during COVID. This is great! However, where meetings were easy to come by pre-pandemic, it’s now incredibly difficult to get on their calendars. Any advice?

Sincerely, Empty Dance Card

A: With the lifting of mask mandates in most jurisdictions and waning positivity rates, some folks are taking the opportunity to get back to in-person networking or meetings. Even further, most offices are asking in some cases, and requiring in others, that employees get back to work.

And while that’s ultimately great, what it can mean is that people are once again having to shift their work paradigm and getting used to being in or going back to an office. This is also an interesting time where folks could be taking the opportunity to travel again, safely, or see family and friends that they haven’t been able to since the pandemic began.

Offering to have a quick Zoom or phone call might not be the best way to make connections anymore. With that in mind, I’ll bring up the tried and true adage that’s brought me success in sales and marketing for the past 14 years: “Be prepared to meet them where they are.”

Regardless of your line of work or focus of your business/service, you’ll always be able to connect with someone if you understand how they’d like to meet. I’ve had just a few lunch meetings since mask mandates have lifted, and grabbed coffee a handful of times, but the more openness that I present a prospect to meet them where they are i.e. how they want, the more likely I’ve found someone will agree to connect.

I would also say this, harking back to that first comment I made about more travel occurring: Patience is a hard earned trait in times like these. And while the pandemic definitely lit a fire under quite a few industries to get work done quickly and efficiently, when we start easing restrictions, it’s just as possible that things and priorities begin to shift back to living life and not necessarily how quickly someone can return a phone call, sign a proposal, or get down to business.

Be kind to yourself in this time. The leads are still there. Work the system that worked previously, but now be sure to do it with an appreciation and understanding for what folks might be going through as we begin to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.

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