Getting to the top brass or the decision maker of a company can be a headache. Especially when the gatekeepers are not letting you through.
Trying the get the head of sales, or head of marketing is quite a task as they are never at their desk. When they are, hearing a cold call from you is sometimes the last thing they want.
Then there is the PA and the Secretaries, when they put you on hold……. (music)…… “Sorry he’s not available, do you want to leave a message”
you know ninety percent of time they are just not interested in your sales pitch.
There maybe other techniques but this is the one I use which works for me.
The Get around
All you need is a name. Call up company X and say you are calling from (your company) and ask for the name of the Marketing Manger, Director or whoever you which to speak to. Most of the time you will get it. If you are asked why you want the name, you need to think fast
After you have all the names you then prepare your mailshot using your favorite program, I use MS Word Mail merge, and import the contacts from MS Excel
Getting Pass the gatekeepers
It’s now time to print the labels. Here, you simple add the word ‘Private and Confidential’ above the contact name. This would ensure it’s not opened by the PA or office administrator and trashed before it reaches its intended target
Private and Confidential
John Blogs
14a Regents Street
London
W1
In this document is your killer sales letter or marketing material, do a follow up call in a few days.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Most large percentage of organisations will have have a ‘no names’ policy. Even with a well -thought excuse, going through a receptionist will be difficult.
You are better off buying the name from a list provider with no minimum order size (you can save hours by getting the names of the decision makers for 100 companies at once, for around £125).
Try marketingfile.com, lbm or corpdata.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Hi There,
This is an interesting article and a challenge I faced many times in earlier sales positions.
Try handwriting the addresses instead of labelling them, that usually bumps the open rate.
Cheers and thanks for the link.