As you try to grow your business by proactively reaching out to potential customers, do you think you’ll have more success by calling someone you don’t know, and who doesn’t know you, and trying to persuade them to buy your product or service? Or, do you think you’ll get superior results by first learning something about a company, industry, or person that may make them a good prospect for what you have to offer because of a problem, need, or desire on their part?
Well, if you agree that the latter approach will give you more positive responses, then talking to people other than your main prospect can actually help you gather information that’ll ultimately help you help your potential customer.
The process involves four steps, and once you’ve reached a live voice, here’s how it works:
1) Identify Yourself and Your Company
An easy way to do this is to simply say, “Hi, I’m Kyle Adams with ABC Technologies.” This immediately shows that you’re not trying to hide anything.
2) Ask for Help
For instance, you can say, “I’m wondering if you can help me out,” or, “I need some assistance.” You see, since most people have a natural desire to be helpful, requests such as these can go a long way.
3) Provide a Reason for Your Request
This is the secret to getting the most helpful information. Now, a few examples include:
“So that I’m better prepared when I meet with your CTO, I have a few questions which you could probably answer.”
“I want to make sure that I’m talking to the right person there.”
“I’m going to be speaking with your Senior VP of Finance, and I’d like to be sure that I have accurate information.”
4) Ask Questions
Sure, you can ask about basic factual data that you might not have been able to find on your own using all of the various online resources that are available. But it’s even more profitable to ask questions that reveal information about their situation. Again, this is anything about a company, industry, or person that may make them a good prospect for what you have to offer because of a problem, need, or desire on their part.
An Example of Gathering Useful Information
Let’s say that you provide media planning services, and that you ultimately want to speak with a company’s VP of Marketing.
“Carrie Palmer’s office, this is Katie. May I help you?”
You: “Hi Katie, I’m Lisa Anderson with Scale Media Group. And yes, I’m wondering if you can help me.”
“Well, what do you need?”
You: “I’m going to ask to speak with your VP of Marketing, Nick Morey, and I want to make sure that I have accurate information.”
“This is Mrs. Palmer’s office, and she works for him. I can transfer you to his assistant.”
You: “That’d be great, but there’s actually some information that you could probably help me with. You work closely with Carrie, right?”
“Yes, I’m the admin for her and a few others. Make it quick.”
You: “I understand from looking at your website that Carrie is responsible for some of the media buying there.”
“Yes, she is.”
You: “Can you tell me about some of the markets where you’ll be focusing your buying for the next quarter?”
“Wait a second. Who are you with again?”
You: “Scale Media Group. We help advertisers get more coverage and run more spots at better rates than they usually can get by themselves.”
“Oh. We’re planning on going into a brand new market for us, the Northeast, including Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.”
You: “Wow, that’s great. So you’ve never done anything there before?”
“No, it’ll be a totally new campaign for us. I really need to go now. Do you want me to transfer you?”
You: “That’s okay. I’ll call back. And I actually would like to talk to Carrie first. Is she in?”
“No, she’ll be back tomorrow.”
You: “Thanks Katie, you’ve been very helpful. I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Now, in this brief conversation, Lisa accomplished several things:
- Built some rapport with Carrie’s admin, Katie, and provided a hint of value.
- Learned that Carrie will be back tomorrow and let Katie know that she’ll call back. And of course, Lisa will no longer be a stranger.
- Lisa will call back to speak with Carrie, with the goals of learning about Carrie’s needs, getting her buy-in on Lisa’s services, and getting Carrie’s help in speaking with and selling Nick.
So, the bottom line is that if you put in the effort to get to this level with your questions, you’ll gain many more opportunities to offer your products and services than those who aren’t willing to seek this information.