Contacting those elusive prospects
Are they elusive or have you not found the way or given them enough of a reason to want to be contacted?
One frustration I often hear, either as a mentor or with networking, is the difficulty in speaking with the senior decision maker responsible for buying your product or service?
This has never been an easy task and I won’t pretend that it is. Decision makers do not make themselves easy to access, as they know they will be the target of constant cold callers. However, believe me that they are still open to contact from the right people, in the right way, with a solution to their pain, problem or fear.
Many will have gate keepers who will field so many of these contact attempts and are aware of techniques such as being friendly or commanding or even contacting outside expected hours.
It would be easy to say, “I can’t contact them so let’s go for another”, but we can’t do that every time unless we have a vast pool of target prospects. Additionally, you may have already spent considerable time mining that contact, so why give up at the first hurdle?
So how do we find the contact details of those prospects that we just can’t crack by telephone?
Have you used technology to establish the availability of such information?
For example, try a Google search and see what you find! With social networking, industry forums, directories and sites like LinkedIn, the prospects contact information may simply appear if you dig beyond the obvious first response?
Perhaps they have been a speaker or acted as part of a committee where they have provided their contact details as they are then only too willing to receive contact? or perhaps the marketing team of the target business have put out a PR story providing the information you desire?
Have you researched the web site of the prospect business. Do they offer a search box or are the details you seek in the ‘about us’ section? Again, areas where the mindset changes and they want to share their details. Is there a directory set up in the site map of the web site?
Do you need to mine a little deeper to get to the person you want? For example, on LinkedIn, who are they connected with? At networking events, who do they link with or are seen speaking with? Who may they know, who could introduce you?
How about a search utilising information recorded at companies house? It is unlikely to give you direct contact information, but you may establish their professional relationships such as the bank or accountants who you may also know and able to approach for an introduction.
There are just some ideas to help you find those desired contact details. Be creative with your thoughts and consider the information that you have available that may link to what you are seeking.
Often finding the contact details can be the easy part, but when you then make contact how do you increase your chances of them wanting to speak with you?
This may be a topic for another blog, but I suspect you are targeting that business because of the fit to your ideal client profile or buyer persona profile. This should then be easier for you to share the benefits and solutions offered with your product or service to meet their Pain, Problem, Fear, Want, Need, Desire.
If you can correctly identify this and communicate in a timely manner, then there is little reason why they would not be interested in speaking to you.