A lot has been written about making written requests, such as for a meeting. Based on my inbox, a lot of good advice is being ignored. So, here's my two-cents on the subject:

Good work often starts with research. I recommend that you save the meeting requests and general sales letters you like in a dedicated folder and, before writing your next request letter, review them for tips and inspiration. Pay particular attention to what you like about the wording, layout, flow and tone of your favorite letters.

Staying with research, investigate the companies and people your soliciting. There's an amazing amount of information available today. Google and LinkedIn are two of my primary sources of client research. In 15 minutes you can typically learn a person's professional history, job title, interests, status in their industry  and many even identify some mutual friends. This will help with the style, tone and personalization of your letter.

Create an outline for your letter as follows:

1. Grab your reader's attention. Begin with an interesting fact, important question, comment on a current event or something personal, such as congratulations for being named Person of the Year.
2. Then transition your reader into the purpose of your letter - introduce your company, request an appointment, or a free offer, for example. Be sure to connect your request with your grabber from (what will be) paragraph one. Your transition is key, it must be both smooth and brief, people are busy. See next bullet.
3. In today's hurry-up, get-to-the-point world, many people switch the first two bullets of their outline. they begin letters by coming right out and stating, "The purpose of this letter is to request a 30-minute appointment to..." and then write their grabber. I prefer a subtler approach but will use the direct approach if I know the reader well.
4. Insert numbers or testimonials that back up your claims next. A list of indented bullets works well for either. People like reading lists of tightly written facts - summaries.
5. Your fourth section/paragraph is your call-to-action. Tie your attention grabber or your reader's self-interest into the benefits of responding to your solicitation. I don't sell actual products so I often use mutual gain as my call-to-action: "I propose a 30-minute meeting to better understand your business objectives, review our capabilities and determine if we can help one another achieve our  goals..."
6. Your final outline point let's your reader know that your letter is one of a series of contacts, that there are more to come. Explain that you will be following up by voicemail, email or both. Basically, you're telling them "you're not going away, so let's have our conversation and see where it leads."

Now it's time to fill in the blanks and edit. Go back to each section of your outline and write 2-4 complete sentences. Often this is as easy as writing a topic sentence, inserting your outline copy and, then, writing a closing sentence that introduces your next point (paragraph) and compels the reader to keep reading.

With my writing completed I move onto the editing process. I complete three rounds of edits. My first edit is for grammar, my second is for flow and my third is for appeal. The final edit, for appeal, answers the question, "Would I respond to this letter?" If I would, then I'm done. If, however, there are awkward transitions, facts that don't seem to fit, or anything else that makes my letter weak, then I keep writing and editing until they are corrected.

The person receiving your letter is busy. They are looking for reasons to throw your letter away. It's your job to give them reasons to keep it and respond.

Mail your letter and begin following up within a week.

Final thought:
Some may argue that Bullet #6 above is aggressive. I'll concede that point. However, if you've done your homework and are only contacting people you honestly believe you can help, then why be shy? You're trying to earn a living and help others along the way; what's wrong with that? I'm not looking to waste my time or anyone else's on silly meetings nor am I looking to sell anyone something they don't need or want. I have pride in what I do and so should you.

In summary, this comes down to professionalism and character, use a strong doze of both in everything you do and trust that positive results will follow.

Steve

In my book, Communication Wins, I wrote about audience awareness and personality types. In this blog we’ll take a look at audiences by age group.

Succeeding in any business environment today requires getting the attention of one of the most entrepreneurial and text-friendly generations in history.  They are also the most stressed and distracted demographics ever to exist.  Understanding and developing new marketing strategies that appeal to customers and their personal lifestyle, both in learning and in information gathering, is the key to successfully marketing.  Finding a way to get through all the marketing noise that bombards the average person can be daunting and is more challenging than ever before.  

Who is your current market and why is understanding their information and learning style so important to the success?  They are divided into three groups: Generation X, Generation Y, and Global Tweens.  

Generation X is tech savvy and very skeptical.  They are between the ages of 30 and 50; they are the parents of children ages 8 to 18.  They are adults who want to understand their options.  Generation X is your number 1 target audience for most companies.  Marketing strategies aligned with the lifestyles and technological preferences of this age group are critical to success.

What do we know about Generation X?  We know they surf the web for information on every subject imaginable, including hobbies and specialized medical procedures.  Email, cell phones and text messaging are their primary, if not only, source of communication 24/7.  Digital organizers and recorders keep their busy lives on schedule.  They depend mostly on their friends and family for recommendations when making decisions, purchasing products and buying services.  Generation X women make the majority of buying decisions for the family.  Their purchasing decisions are based on emotion, trust, personal relationships and their own perceived value of return on investment.

Marketing studies show that traditional marketing strategies are relatively ineffective on the Gen X audience.  They retain less than 1% of the marketing messages they encounter on a daily basis and they are very skeptical of information they do retain.  Bottom line: Gen X consumers want verifiable proof of expertise, quality and good customer service with minimum sales hype.

Generation Y is Generation X on steroids.  They’re young, smart, and assuming, often to the point of arrogance.  They want to wear flip flops to work, they listen to iPods at their desk and text message to their friends every waking hour.  They want to work but they don’t want work to be their life.  They feel they are entitled to their parents’ lifestyle but without the hard work and effort it took to get there.  They are a force of as many as 70 million.  Tighten your chinstraps because this generation, ages 16 to 30, is different than any group that has come before, including their parents.

The impact of their personal attitudes and lifestyle will have a huge impact on how products and services are marketed.  Maintaining long term relationships will be very difficult with this ever questioning and fickle generation who has no tolerance for outdated thinking and lack of computer skills.  If you don’t have a good website and an effective online strategy, you are invisible to this group.  

Since childhood they were both pampered and programmed with nonstop activities, meaning they are now both high performance and high maintenance.  Gen Y do the majority of their window shopping online before buying and they are very discriminating.  Don’t be fooled by their casual dress, piercings and tattoos.  This generation appreciates quality.  They are tech savvy and a generation of multi-taskers; they can juggle emails, phone calls and Google searches on their iPhone’s simultaneously.  They would prefer to send a text message than make a cell phone call.  They are more comfortable working virtually (online) than face-to-face, through personal relationships or even on a phone like previous generations.  

For many their favorite pastime is going online to social networks such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.  Most spend more time surfing the web and communicating in social networks than they do watching television.  They put a high value on self fulfillment and think nothing of making constant changes in their life to get it.  Building relationships that contain loyalty will be very challenging with Generation Y.
    
The last group is Global Tweens.  They heavily influence the buying decisions of their parents.  Today’s children are increasingly aware and very well informed.  Global Tweens between the ages of 5 and 15 are much more tech savvy than prior generations.  They are the first generation to be totally raised in the digital age of computers, iPods, cell phones, text messaging, gaming, DVDs, and the ever expanding internet.  Most of these kids learn to read on a computer.  Digital technology is second nature to them.

It is easy to underestimate their highly developed preferences and the effect they have on global marketing, and the buying decisions of their parents.  They do not like being treated like the children they are.  These kids are 8 going on 18.  They learn more from interactive educational software than the written text, and they respond to trendy marketing that immediately grabs their attention and gives them something to talk about, photograph or text to their friends since the vast majority have their own cell phones.  

Tech savvy audiences of all ages have shifted their information gathering to the internet and are always on the go, and they look to the internet to quickly research their buying decisions.  They all respond to visual kinesthetic marketing mediums, like video, as one of their favorite forms of communication.  Your website, especially with video, is the first step in emotionally engaging these groups with your personal message.  Your first contact with new customers and clients is no longer a phone call; it is the Internet.  Does your website project your image the way you want it to?  Is your website keyword optimized so prospects can easily find you on Google in your demographic and geographic footprint?  Are you listed on Google Maps in all your surrounding areas?

Digital technology is changing and advancing at lightning speed.  It is difficult to keep up with it all.  Discovering how to synergistically meld your current internal and external marketing strategies under the umbrella of an internet marketing program will save you time, money, and level the playing field among competition if you know how to do it correctly.  No matter how big or small the practice or what your experience level, most websites look the same and deliver the same written message.  In order to stand out you must do or say something different to engage your audience today.  

Without the PR component advertising alone lacks credibility, third party endorsement and the ability to generate that elusive buzz to increase referrals.  Now Web 2.0, the latest in internet technologies, provides the missing link to complete the PR component with many different options available.  With the latest downturn in the country’s economy you can’t afford to lose existing or future customers.  Now is the time to reevaluate and update your current marketing plan to include Web 2.0 internet marketing tactics if you want to set your website apart.  

Don’t be left in the dust wondering what happened when you weren’t paying attention to your online competition.  The most valuable real estate you can own in any business is in your market’s mind.  Communicate with them on their terms in a format they are comfortable using.  It’s all up to you.  Are you going to be a leader on the digital road to success?  Or are you going to join the growing list of companies known as digital road-kill?