Often sales to small to midsize companies require that you make contact with the President or CEO, who is the final decision maker. The first barrier to speaking with the decision maker is getting past the receptionist or secretary. When calling on a new potential customer it is always good to know who you want to talk to.
Asking to speak to the “President” or “CEO” means you have not done your research on the prospect, and will nearly always get you to his/her voice-mail as a polite brush off. Using the decision maker’s name when speaking to the gatekeeper gives you slightly better odds of getting to speak to a real person.
Previously, we looked at research tools to warm up cold calls, but absent any real data to work with, I find it is best to ask to speak to someone in sales. Access to a salesperson is often an open gate, and it is my experience that salespeople are often the most chatty employees of the company. They will often tell you who the decision makers are.
If you begin to get the runaround and it is still unclear who will be making the decision, ask “How will the decision to buy my (product or service) be made?” If they don’t provide the name of the decision maker, follow up with the question “Then what?” until you get the name of the final decision maker. When you finally get to the decision maker and s/he makes a pricing objection, I find the following statement to help: “Price or profit, which would you rather have? Price lasts for a moment, profit lasts a lifetime.”
What processes are you using to get to the decision maker?
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