Successful cold calls always begin
when you know the name of your sales prospect before you intend to contact
them. What do you do when you don't have
the correct contact name of your sales prospect? Your first response is to ask the
receptionist, no? Though, if you ask the
receptionist for a name then that instantly spells out "I'm a salesperson" to them and they will not give you the information. So in many cases, you will hear them say,
"If you have no name we cannot transfer your call." Has this ever happened to you?
What other options
might you have at your disposal? You
actually have several and these options include the following:
Access The Company Website
Of Your Sales Prospect
Many company's have a
section on their website that profiles their management team. This section may be located under the "About Us" button or under a
section called "Management Profiles." These sections
usually include a short biography of the sales prospect that you may be looking
to contact. If you are successful in
locating your sales prospect this way then try to find something in their biography
that you can bring to your sales call in an effort to warm up the call. If you are unable to locate the correct name
of your prospect from the management team profile or if they are not listed then at
least you have a few names that you can use when speaking with the
receptionist. Once
you have a contact name
of an executive you can now ask for that executive. You will most
likely be transferred to the receptionist of this executive and now you
can ask for the correct name of your sales prospect.
Locate The Technical Contact Of The Company’s Website
You can find the
technical contact of your prospect’s company website if you visit any domain
registration website such as www.godaddy.com. Once
you visit the domain registration website, you can type in the url of
your prospect's company to locate the technical contact, their email
address and phone number. All you need to do now
is contact this person and tell them that you are trying to locate who is in charge
of (Say the title of your desired prospect).
As a side note, you will also see the technical contact’s email address
and if you do get a contact name you now have a prototype of how the company email
addresses are structured. For example, if you see that the technical
contact's email is listed as the first letter of their first name followed by
their last name then you can apply this structure to your contact’s name and
then email them!
Use Google To Search For Your Sales Prospect
If you have the title of
your prospect and need to find their contact name then use Google. Try using quotes around your search
requests. For example, type in “Title of
your prospect” and “Name of your prospect’s company.” Also, besides hitting the search button on
Google there is also a News link just right above the search box that you can also
click on to see if there are any recent news stories that include information to
help you in your name search.
Search Press Releases
Many companies use news
distribution services such as www.prnewswire.com
to distribute company press releases. If
you visit these sites they allow you to do advanced searches for companies who
have used their services. You can use PR
Newswire to locate the name of your sales prospect by typing in the title of your prospect and their company.
Just Keep Dialing Different Phone Numbers
One option that you have
to locate the name of your sales prospect is to just keep dialing different
phone numbers and wait for someone to answer.
Once you have the company’s main phone number it’s easy to just change around
the last four digits till you reach someone and just tell them that you’ve
reached the wrong extension. Then you can politely ask them for the correct name of the
person in charge of (List department name).
If The Company Is Public Check Out Yahoo Finance
If you happen to be
contacting a public company then visit Yahoo Finance and type in the ticker
symbol of your prospect's company. Once you have
brought up the company’s stock quote you will see a text link on the left called
"Profile." In this screen, you will see a
description of the company and a listing of all the key executives at the
company. And finally, the other text link
that you can click on to locate this information is called "Insider Roster."
Copyright 2008 Mr. Cold Call Inc. - All rights reserved.
Behind The Scenes With Mr. Cold Call
Mr. Cold Call is the author of "How To Have Fun Cold Calling" and "115 Common Sales Objections, 156 Clever And Savvy Responses."
According to Mr. Cold Call, "Your cold call success is dependent on 11
winning personality traits (known as your Telephone Persona Of
Success!)." Collectively, these traits allow you to uniquely market
yourself over the telephone so that you can inspire your prospect’s
curiosity and reduce their resistance. Are you interested in finding
out more about Mr. Cold Call? Then
sign-up for his free weekly cold calling tips at www.mrcoldcall.com
