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| | The Marketing, Channels/Partnership & Sales Execs Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | re: re: re: Cold Call Preparation | Views: 499 | | Aug 12, 2004 6:46 pm | | re: re: re: Cold Call Preparation | # | 
Jeff Goldberg | | I agree with Steve that top-down is the way to go. If you can get through to the President, CEO or Owner of a business and can quickly get the point across about how you can add value (increase profitability/reduce costs/etc.) you should either be able to get an appointment or a recommendation to the right person.
Once the top dog has given you someone elses name, here's the voice mail message to leave in case you don't reach them: (we'll assume for this example that I just spoke with Bill Gates and he suggested I speak with Kathy Tobin, the head of Logistics for Microsoft)(I made up her name)
Kathy Tobin, this is Jeff Goldberg from DEI. My number is
----------. Bill Gates told me to speak with you. Once again, my number is ----------.
If you can't get to Bill Gates because he's got one of those pesky gatekeepers to keep people like you and me away from him, enroll the gatekeeper's help. The administrative assistant to the top dog in almost any organziation knows almost as much about the company as the top dog does, sometimes more. If I *wasn't* trying to get past the gatekeeper it would sound something like this: (we'll assume for this example that Bill's gatekeeper's name is Fred)
Jeff: Fred, perhaps you can help me. I'm the DIrector of Sales & Training for DEI Management Group. Just to clarify, what is it that you do there at Microsoft?
Fred: I'm Mr. Gates personal assistant and right hand man.
Jeff: Great! Perhaps I could ask you for a little assistance if I may. As I said, I'm with DEI Management Group, a 25 year old sales training firm. We've worked with over 500,000 salespeople at 9,000 companies including major corporations just like yours. I wanted to speak with Mr. Gates regarding the possibility of us working with Microsoft but realize he's incredibly busy and thought that perhaps there are others in the organziation who it would be more appropriate to speak with. I typically speak with people whose titles are VP or Director of Sales.
Fred, who would you suggest I speak with next in your organization? And what's their direct line?
Once Fred gives me a name or names, and people like Fred are often very generous in helping as long as it doesn't take up their bosses time, I will *immediately* call the other person. Here's what that conversation wil sound like: (we'll assume that Fred referred me to Sarah)
Sarah, Hi this is Jeff Goldberg from DEI Management Group. Bill Gates' office told me I should speak with you. Did they contact you to let you know I'd be calling? (they couldn't have done so because I called the second I hung up with Bill's assitant - when Sarah says "No" I launch into my standard cold call script)
Here's one more way to get to the right person if you know their title but not their name. Call the main phone number and speak with the receptionist. If you're looking for the VP Sales it would sound like this:
Hi, This is Jeff Goldberg from DEI. I need to speak with your VP Sales. Does Steve Bookbinder still have that job? (Steve doesn't have that job, he's actually the President of the company I work for!)
When the receptionist says that Steve is not the VP Sales, I'll then say:
Oh, perhaps I have outdated information. Who's the VP Sales now?
Once I have the name I ask to be put through.
Jeff
> Steve Podielsky wrote:
> Course, if that manager ends up being the one who handles things after the supervisor agrees to your pitch - you've just made an enemy in the organization.
>
>My favorite way (if I do not know the exact person I need) is to start at the top and work my way down. This is stronger, since, as each level directs me to the proper person, I use their direction as a referral to warm the lead.
>
>
>> Kathy wrote:
>> Hi Gary,
>>
>>Im sure you can buy lists with contact info on them. To me though part of sales is the research that goes into knowing about what the new lead does and in that research you are likely to find your key decision maker.
>>
>>To me finding that key person is just part of the sales process. I mean lets face it, how many of us have done the dog and pony show to a manager only to hear a "NO"..do we walk away? Hopefully not, I myself am looking for that persons supervisor *wink*
>>
>>Cheers from Stormy Texas! ZAP! :o)
>>
>>Kathy
>>
>>> Gary Dale Cearley wrote:
>>> I am just wondering whether anyone out there uses a system, either one created by themselves or someone else, that helps them to identify the correct person to contact when making cold calls? I make attempts to identify this person before I call, which takes more time but to me makes my efforts about five times more productive. Noromally what I do is google them or try to ask people in related companies. The only issue is I want to know if there is a streamlined way to do this because the time it takes I believe could be shortened.
>>>
>>>Best regards,
>>>
>>>Gary Dale Private Reply to Jeff Goldberg | | |
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