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How to get past the Receptionist when cold calling a business?

Winning your first call when calling a business is the best success you can have when marketing a territory.  A successful cold call begins when you know the name of your sales prospect before you contact them. What do you do when you don't have the correct contact name of your sales prospect? Your first response is to ask the receptionist, no? If you ask the receptionist or front desk person for a name then that instantly spells out "I'm a salesperson or telemarketer" to them and they will not give you the information. So in many cases, you will hear them say, "If you have no name we cannot transfer your call."   

What other options might you have at your disposal? You actually have several and these options include the following:

Access The Company Website of Your Sales Prospect:                            Most company’s have a section on their website that profiles their management team. This section may be located under the "About Us" button or under a section called "Management Profiles." These sections usually include a short biography of the prospect that you may be looking to contact. If you are successful in locating your prospect this way then try to find something in their biography that you can bring to your sales call in an effort to warm up the call. If you are unable to locate the correct name of your prospect from the management team profile or if they are not listed then at least you have a few names that you can use when speaking with the receptionist. Once you have a contact name of an executive you can now ask for that executive. You will most likely be transferred to the receptionist of this executive and now you can ask for the correct name of your sales prospect.

Locate The Technical Contact of the Company’s Website:
You can find the technical contact of your prospect’s company website if you visit any domain registration website you can type in the url of your prospect's company to locate the technical contact, their email address and phone number. All you need to do now is contact this person and tell them that you are trying to locate who is in charge of (Say the title of your desired prospect). For example, if you see that the technical contact's email is listed as the first letter of their first name followed by their last name then you can apply this structure to your contact’s name and then email them!

Use Google to search for your prospect:
If you have the title of your prospect and need to find their contact name then use Google. Try using quotes around your search requests. For example, type in “Title of your prospect” and “Name of your prospect’s company.” Also, besides hitting the search button on Google there is also a News link just right above the search box that you can also click on to see if there are any recent news stories that include information to help you in your name search.

The Company Is Public Check out Yahoo Finance or other similar sites:
If you happen to be contacting a public company then visit Yahoo Finance or other similar sites and type in the ticker symbol of your prospect's company. Once you have brought up the company’s stock quote you will see a text link on the left called "Profile." In this screen, you will see a description of the company and a listing of all the key executives at the company.

Checking your tone before getting on the phone:                                        Be sure to check how you sound before getting on the phone. Clear your mind, make sure you have some kind of data on the prospect and always treat the person answering the phone with respect. They could be the decision maker. 

Recommendations can be more effective:                                              When getting a decision maker or key person on the phone, before you set up your meeting or next contact, check your calendar and suggest a few times that work for them. Never give them the chance to call you back, suggest a time and place and then suggest you will follow-up with a confirmation the day before.  If you are in control, you lead the success.

Liz Morris - Morris Development Resources