Cold contacting a lead

BnB

I have got the contact of the person I really want to talk to in a major multi national here in Ireland.

The work we do would be very relevent to this guy and we currently deal with 2 different sub-contractors who are on his site.

Ultimatly what I want, is to get to talk to him face to face for just 10 minutes and then leave him with brochures and that kind of craic.

How do you think I should go about that contact :

1) Phone him and try and talk to him - Tell him I am passing in the morning and could I drop in a brochure.

2) Send him an e-mail (I have his address) and look to call into him. I run the risk of p1ssing him off as some people don't like unsolicitted e-mails like this. But then again, sure what is the worst he can do..... tell me to sod off.

I am leaning towards sending him a short mail. No marketing blurb... Just..

Dear Bob

My name is Mr Bna. I am from a company called Bna Ltd and we specialise in xyz. I will be passing through Yourtown in the morning and I was hoping I could call into you to give you a bit of information on the work we do. I will only keep you 5 minutes in reception

Sincerely

Bna


What do ye think ?

ssbob

BnB wrote: »

What do ye think ?

Hey man,

Not sure what you do but would advise a written letter addressed to him followed by a phonecall a couple of days later.

bob

Peterdalkey

Your email has nothing in it "for him". You need to spark his interest from the outset by offering him some benefit, give him the basics of your proposition and refer to your existing relationship with his current sub-contractors (adds to your credibility)

If he does not respond, follow up with a phone call or two. If that does not work, see if you can get a direct introduction through your existing customers.

tarmon

Hi,
I worked in sales for a few years and we always followed whats called a PPP to structure our cold calls or appointments.
P-Purpose - what are you hoping to gain/what will your customer gain?
P-Process - how are you going to do it? Call, email, appointment, presentation, lunch appointment etc. In other words weigh up the pros and cons of each. What will suit your customer the best and what will be best for you?
P-Payoff - for you and your customer! What is the payoff? Initially it could be just getting a meeting or getting to speak to this person.

I always tried to do two things (1) put myself in the customers shoes and say to myself why would I want to meet me? and (2) try to act in a consultative way and not be focused on an immediate sale. This is I think especially important in multinationals- people are usually under a lot of pressure and they have to field a lot of approaches from sales reps. What makes you different from all the others knocking on the door?? Depending on what you are selling the sales process could be pretty long for a multinational especially if there is any validation process involved.

Hope that helps!

Zascar

Call him. Get him on the phone and have a conversation. Emails etc are way to easy to ignore these days. If you send one first, he knows who you are and can ignore you. The best way of getting the appointment is by having a chat with him

Ants Murray

Has he got a linked in account? Surely you can get a referral from one of the Sub Contractors. Nobody ignores Linkedin mail!

onedmc

ssbob wrote: »

Hey man,

Not sure what you do but would advise a written letter addressed to him followed by a phonecall a couple of days later.

bob

I'm with Bob old fashioned letter with a short brief, let him know that you will follow up with him on a certain day and then call.

ICE cold telephone calls are hard to get right but if he has an idea what you are on about then you should get a hearing. Polite and direct on the phone and good luck.

Voltex

As someone who gets emails and letters from prospective vendors all the time the key is to get his attention quickly. If your offering a possible solution or better prices for a current product or service, you need to focus on communicating your USP quickly and without waffle. Busy execs and mgrs. have heard all the marketing crap a thousand times before and what they appreciate is succinct offers.