According to folklore, knights were commissioned to rescue the fair maiden from the tower. And without fail, that tower was protected by a fierce dragon. The knights would either have to slay or distract the dragon. Some knights just decided it was easier to find a girl in the bar rather than to risk life and limb for some girl, as Shrek taught us might just be a monster.
Advance to modern day, there is probably no sword in the stone, and odds are there aren’t anymore dragons, or matter of fact there probably never was a dragon, but we all love fairy tails with happy endings. But back to the point I was making. The fair maiden, princess, treasure or what ever is protected. Not buy a fire breathing dragon, but by a receptionist, gate keeper, or other such animal. Who is told people like us, the knight in shining armor, is not to pass. This leads to one of the biggest challenges in all of sales, getting past the dragon… er gate keeper.
We are in an information world, which makes are jobs so much easier. Leads are available at our fingertips. All we have to do is log into “Sales Genie” and there are hundreds of thousands of leads downloaded into our databases. As with all leads, you have to weed out which are good and which are, well lack of a better term, outdated. In our database download, we have the names of the executives of the company, but not always the name of the person you need to talk to, and there is the hook. Go back to the Knight Analogy now. So there you are Sir/Lady Knight, you just got the map to the castle where your prize awaits, but it isn’t an easy trip. You have to get through the woods, the ogres, the trolls, the interns, the jaded guy, and then finally the dragon to get to your prize.
Preparation is not everything, it is the only thing. Now you may ask, “Why can’t I just call up and just ask for the head of blah, blah, blah department?” The reason that this rarely works, the first level is trained to pawn us off on someone else. Have you ever heard these:
“And this is regarding to?”
“What company are you with again?”
“Um… (s)he is out of the office…”
Or even worse… getting transferred to an intern that is in the mailroom (If you were looking for the mailroom, this would be a bonus).
Congrats, you just got lost in the woods, please watch out for the ogres, trolls, interns, and endless dial by department loops. BUMMER! As good as we are at cold calling and getting the decision maker on the phone, this still happens to us. We must find ways around it, other than waiting for the new guy to start and giving them the lead. You may ask, “How do I do it?” or you may not, but I am writing this, and you are reading this, and you have made it this far, so you must be kind of interested.
I have two methods that I use to get to the tower door.
First there is the get buddy/buddy with the gatekeeper. Find out what their name is, ask them how they doing, just be friendly on the phone. Some sales managers will cringe reading this, or hearing you do this, but it does work, it is not 100%, but sales in 90% confidence and the other half is luck. You become a familiar voice, but not familiar enough that you talk to the gate keeper daily. That is what we like to call overkill, and Colin Hay* wrote a song about it. This WILL help you with any gatekeeper, and sometimes the dragon doesn’t even think about it and you’re in the tower.
And now the lead in to the second method
My secret is research. I have a degree in History, which means few things…
1. I am a nerd.
2. I love to do research.
3. I know that MLA and APA are nowhere near the best formats for writing papers. (Try CMS for Grad School, professors love it!)
The internet is for more things than stalking your ex, Facebook, Twitter, fantasy sports, and whatever else you do. YOU CAN DO RESEARCH! There are thousands of websites with information on business. By trial and error begin to use these websites, and you will find that they provide tons of information for you. Trying to get in touch with the Director of IT? Try a website called Jigsaw (www.jigsaw.com). You can sign up for free, and you get two free searches which allow you to download of the contact information about a certain person within an organization. But for the kind of research you are doing you don’t even need to do that. In Jigsaw, you are able to look up the company of the lead. There is a section that has Company XYZ Contacts. These contacts are separated by department, and lucky for you, me, and anyone else, it lists out the names and titles of everyone in that department. It goes further to let you know when it was updated, and what location they are in. Now you don’t have to spend the money to get everything about the lead, but you do have the decision maker’s name. This might not get you passed the dragon, but you're closer.
My second method is bold. It requires your confidence and your schmoozing ability. If you went to Jigsaw, you have a list of all of the people involved in the department you are calling. Aim high and go for people like the CTO. I figure, “Why not?” Most of the time, people don’t bother to do the research to find out who is really in charge, and if you can get the big cheese, you can normally be handed the key to the tower door. It works a little something like this…
CTO: This is Bob Smith
You: Bob, this is So and So with XYZ, I was told to talk to you about product 123.
CTO: Oh okay, actually the person that would handle products like 123 would be Penny Lane. Hang on. (The CTO now transfers you directly to Penny Lane, now Penny being the good little employee that she is accepts the direct transfer from her boss and VIOLA! You are in.)
You don't have to aim this high, but if nothing else works, it is worth the shot. The most important thing is that you are now prepared. You are no longer Joe/Jane Salesperson trying to get your foot in the door. You have a map, and if you follow it, you may get what you are looking for.
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