Asking for a manager/owner?

Talking to a person unqualified to decide on and buy your product or service is a waste of time, isn't it?

I'm agreeing with Jason, though I feel like, with prospects in general, people give qualifying the wrong kind of focus... In this case, (The case of cold calling) the manager is usually a "go between"...its almost a complete waste of breath to spend time on them.

Back when we could bill on peoples phone bills, they didnt need the company credit card like they do now (which most managers do not have access to) they could just agree verbally, which we recorded.

Many times, later on, we would find out the managers had told us that they had authority to make decisions (because it fulfilled their ego mostly) when in fact the owners had not given them authority to make such decisions. So, what I have found through that experience and others is that many managers will say "I'm the one you need to talk to, and Im a decision maker" , but they rarely are.

As often as possible , you want to be speaking to the person who controls the spending and holds the checkbook.

Always ask for the owner in your approach.

This is especially effective when calling on small businesses.

I know it's a waste of time..but how do you go about it?

Start off by saying "May I please speak to the owner?" Or do you do it differently.

You get a commercial list from info usa or some place similar, and create your list selecting the criteria option that you want owners names only.... then if the lead says "Bill Thompson", you answer the phone and say "Yeah, is Bill handy?", or "Is Bill around?", or if its a male voice that answers, you say "Hi, Bill?"

They will either say "This is him", or they will say "No, this is Tom, let me get him for ya, can I say who is calling?"

If you dont have a name , or a commercial list, you are stuck asking "Can I speak with the owner?" or something similar, and that works, but decreases your connections by around 50%.

To speak with more owners...:

Create a list based on business owners with 5-10 employees or less. This way you will focus on indy's and not corps who need 3 board meetings to make a decision, and , as I have always said there is a 100% greater chance that, if the owner doesnt answer the phone himself, he is within arms reach of whoever answers the phone, as opposed to being off in some other location across the country, protected by a big staff, and virtually inaccessible to people like yourself.

All these little things increase your chances of pitching a decision maker, and every pitch increases your chances of a sale.

If you call corps all day, you are going to be getting turned down by secretaries all day... It helps to focus on indy's, if you want to connect with alot more with decision makers. Wont rule out the secretaries entirely, but will definitely increase your odds of connecting with owners, tremendously, throughout your session, and you will get 100% more pitches in.

Hope this helps.

You might try manta dot com. They wont let you download the lists for free, but you can create the customized lists and read them off of your screen as you call down them... Just cant download them to your PC.

-John

I intend on starting off with local businesses in my town and surrounding communities.

I will definitely seek out lists for the future.

Thanks for that block of info!

If you don't have business owner names, just ask for whom would make decisions on website services, put the name in your database, and call back in a week or two.

You'll have to build your list to an extent.

Also consider cold walking businesses, too. Great way to build a clientele. Go for 30+ businesses daily.

I am just in the beginning of my prospecting journey as well, I have yet to close a deal over the phone but I have become quite deft at getting owners names from gate keepers when the owner is not at hand or getting past to the owner if they are on hand.

Look up Jason Kanigan's "little unsure technique" it works wonderfully...give it a shot and see how it feels.

Good luck
Adrian

No offense taken Buddy!

Door spamming, and just walking in without announcing yourself first, is much less intrusive.

In all seriousness, it is higher "conversion" I must admit.

Great information guys, I really appreciate it!

EDIT: I've been searching manta for some of the businesses I'll be contacting. Owners name in every one of them!