Easy method for finding the decision makers name

Hunter.io is a great tool for finding names and email addresses. The only weakness I found with hunter.io is that the email must exist on a web page somewhere for their spider to crawl and index it.

If I want to be really sure that the email is the right one I use email checker https://email-checker.net/ and ping it once or twice.

Having the decision makers name (or any name for that matter) is the single most important piece of information before making a cold call. If you don't have the person's name you are begging for an objection, especially if you are calling a list of decision makers.

Another thing I found that works is to use a different name taken from hunter.io as part of an objection handling sequence. Say if the gatekeeper asks "what is this regarding?" and you have the name of a senior executive or employee, you can say "it's about John Doe" and then be put through to the actual decision maker.

Recently I've been having more success in cold calling using a 2-3 call cadence than trying for the appointment on the first call. In my case, I'm selling a managed cybersecurity service for a local IT business.

The first call I use it as an opportunity to qualify the lead and get decision makers name. I ask these qualifying questions to anyone who happens to pick up the phone at the time. I narrow the list down by how many seats the company has, and if they have a dedicated or outsourced IT department. For me, the business cannot be too large or too small, and I need to have access to the decision makers. I also confirm what their decision making process is before moving on.

I find that ny breaking down the sales process into multiple steps and calls, my sales cycles are faster and I'm more in control of the outcome. This is true for complex sales, but for something more simple then perhaps one call is all you need.

It still is in the USA but you need to use an American whois lookup like Godaddy.