Cold Calling: What to use when you don't know the business owners name?

[rasel123]

I think in this case there is two way to go.

You can buy a list from a company who sell good quality lists in this case you'll have the business owners name in advance.

On the other hand you just start calling without the names and ask to speak to the person who offers with what you are selling.

If you're selling offline marketing services, introduce yourself as a offline marketer and ask to the person who deals with that sort of thing of their company.

You should not spend your time trying to find names of the business owners because it doesn't give you enough of an advantage to justify the time you'll spend mucking around. Also sometime the person you want to speak to won't be available anyway. In this case I think its a good prospect to grab a name at that stage ready to call back at a more appropriate time.

I hope these tips will help you during cold calling.

 

[Jason Kanigan]

It's not necessary, and is often a time-waster ("Oh look, I spent all day compiling my list, and now it's 5:00; guess I can't make any calls today!") to generate the names of your exact prospects.

Use the "Little Unsure" technique. Be a little unsure when you call. Not stupid, just unsure. This works psychologically: the gatekeeper will want to help you since you seem to be a bit less well off than he or she is.

Click here for actual examples of me using the Little Unsure technique.

password: arctic1

Note how I do not sound hopeless or pathetic. Just a little unsure. Now these are subcontracted calls I did for a client in the energy tracking field, who wanted demos set up with the right person at municipalities. Calling for myself, I would not do that. So these will give you the flavor, but do not use this exact wording. When you call, it will be slightly different. Don't say your company name, and don't pitch the gatekeeper. Repeat: DO NOT pitch the gatekeeper!

If they ask "What's this about?" repeat what you said. Eg.

"Hi, my name's Jason...maybe you can help me. I'm not too sure who I should speak with...I usually talk to the person in charge of marketing / the owner / etc. ... but again, I don't know who there would have that under their umbrella..." and trail off.

"What's this regarding?"

"Well, as I said, I usually talk to the marketing manager/owner/whoever...but I don't know who that is there. Maybe you can help me..."

Your goal on this call is to get the name of the person. You may get transferred to someone so quickly, you don't even know who it is (The GK says nothing but, "One moment" and suddenly transferrs you). And then you are either a) talking to somebody, or b) hearing a voicemail greeting.

For VM, you can leave this message:

"Hi, it's (your name)...I'm not sure we should be speaking. Reception transferred me to you, because I'm looking for the person who takes care of (whatever it is). But again, I'm not sure if that's you, or if there's someone else I should be speaking with. If you can call me back and let me know, that would be great. It's (time) here (on the west coast/east coast/wherever you are), and I'll be in my office until (whatever time). My number is (###)."

They will call back 2/3 of the time or more out of curiosity. Then you'd better have your 30-Second Commercial ready.

If it's a live answer, you want to say almost the same thing. Stop at the "I'm not sure if that's you..." sentence and trail off. They will tell you if they are the right person or not. If it's someone else, ask to be transferred to that person. Then, when they pick up, you can say with a ton of credibility, "I was just talking with John, and he said you'd be the right person to talk to about this."

This is a long-proven method with many confirmations from Offliners that it works.

 

[rasel123]

Hello Jason, Thanks a lot for your kind response. I have found your information so helpful. I have also checked your given call examples which are really so great. I will follow your instruction next time for Cold Calling. I just want to be sure that If the GK don't get me pass until hearing the exact name of the owner of the business then What should I do for getting pass the gatekeepers? Waiting for your kind response.