

Ask: Enterprise Heirarchy/Phone Navigation HOWTO? - mahmud

Whoever is good at this will most likely keep their cards close to their chest, but let's change that, shall we? What are your tips, tricks and techniques for navigating the bureaucracy and getting through to the specific decision makers?<p>I know about hotel chains; they're easier to get through outside big countries. For example, if you want to break into the Hilton or Marriott hierarchy, I recommend you call their offices in a country where they have just one hotel, and milk their representative there for information, instead of hitting the U.S. head quarters or a major European country. And from there you move to the regional representative; it costs dimes to call the Caribbean on Skype, and I found it a very interesting experience, learning everything I needed to know about their corporate business practices.<p>What are people's take on universities, hospitals, governments, airlines, banks and the like? How long does it take you to get to someone who has the authority to sign a check?
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lowkey
Cold-calling into an enterprise really isn't as hard as it seems. There are
some simple techniques to help. First, remember you have something of value to
offer to someone within the organization and you just need a little help to
find the right person to speak with. The gatekeeper (the receptionist or
executive assistant) is your friend. Her/his job is to screen out unimportant
calls to make time for more important calls such as yours. As the founder and
domain expert in your space (that's you), you have a significant advantage
over a generic salesperson. You can gain credibility by highlighting this fact
coupled with your years of experience and passion for addressing this specific
problem.

Here is an example intro: "Hi <receptionist name>, my name is Bob from SmartCo
Software, inc. SmartCo is a software company that my partner and I co-founded
to help companies in the <widget industry> who are facing challenges managing
their <grommet inventory>. I am trying to find the appropriate person to speak
with in your organization. Who would be the best person to contact about this?
<wait for response>

More tips:

1\. Your tone should be friendly, confident, and business-like. If it sounds
like you are nervous they will hear this and it and may perceive this as a
sign that you would be wasting their management's valuable time. Smile wide on
the phone (literally, it shines through on the call.)

2\. Keep it short and clear using plain simple words. You are not trying to
sell the gatekeeper on your technology, product or service. You only need to
convince them that the person you are looking for may be interested and that
you sound professional enough that passing along your call won't come back and
bite them.

3\. With both gatekeepers and prospects, use your passion and founder status
to your advantage. Be a person and talk with the prospect as an equal.

4\. Old Sales Adage: "Telling isn't Selling" (i.e. Asking questions) Once you
have identified a target buyer your goal is to give them just enough context
about your company and the problem you are solving to get them thinking about
the space, your goal then is to get your prospect talking. Ask open ended
questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. (e.g. I have been
speaking with <CEO/CFO/COO/CMO>s in <prospect's industry> and many of them
tell me that they are facing increasing difficulty <managing the cost of
grommet maintenance>. Can you tell me how <prospect Co> has addressed these
issues and what sort of initiatives you have considered? - take notes)

5\. There is a lot more but I've typed enough for now.

The keys to shortening the sales cycle are:

* good upfront qualification (and dis-qualification) of prospects,

* a very clear process and next steps defined by the seller (uncertainty as to what the product/service does, what it costs, and how well it will work will all work against you)

* Pro-active follow through on the part of the sellor

* Not all calls will go well, but remember the ocean of prospects is large. The rule of prospecting is: SWSWSWN (some will, some won't, so what?, next!)

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callmeed
I can give you some tips for colleges and universities. Some of it varies
based on what you're trying to sell.

1\. Go to the dean or department head. If it's administrative software, go to
the dean of admissions or matriculation.

2\. Often times, approval hoops will vary based on the price of what you're
selling. Smaller accounts can be approved at the college/department level.
Larger stuff may have to be approved by the board. Even larger items may have
to go all the way to the district (even if its a 1-school district).

3\. Get ready for a painfully slow sales cycle. You're essentially working
with a government entity. The person who actually wants your goods has to
submit a purchase request to their higher ups. If approved, that gets turned
into a purchase order (PO) by accounting. You often have to treat the PO like
cash as many colleges aren't going to even look at your invoice until your
product is delivered and installed. There's probably a 20% chance that someone
along the way will be on vacation or off for the quarter ... a document always
sits on someone's desk for a week waiting for a signature.

Here's some bonus, inside baseball tips ... free to you!

4\. Go after community colleges. There are over 100 of them in California
alone. Granted, CA's economy sucks right now, but they still buy stuff.

5\. If you do your research, you can find the schools that received various
state and federal grants. Some of these grants are HUGE ... as in "how do we
spend all this money?" huge. If you've got something that could remotely help
them meet their grant goals, go after them. Usually the college will setup
small departments just for the grant and you can call and ask for them.

6\. Hit up people (especially the grant people) in early June. Most schools
end their fiscal year on June 30. You have to understand, if they have surplus
cash in a budget somewhere, _they want to spend it_. When we did edu software,
we literally had schools call us on June 20 and say "We want your $8K product
be we need it approved and delivered by the end of the month. Can you do it?"

Hope that helps

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mahmud
FWIW, for hotels, if you want a residency music gig and want to book a band
for a hotel, you need to ask for "Food and Beverage", get the person's name,
stalk them on facebook or myspace and befriend them slowly then show them your
band's repertoire.

Booking bands is an entry level sales project for hotels. But if you can get a
band through, you can get more things later.

~~~
mahmud
It's also customary to get such deals through the local entertainment
publications. Most big cities have a free newspapers about nightlife; the
editors of those papers are bored 40-somethings, from my experience, and if
you have a band, you can offer them a commission; if their band is booked
within a month from a referral they make X amounts of dollars, to them
personally, not the paper. The editors will plug your band and will mention
you and your musicians to hotel chain managers. Nightlife papers are not
exactly official newspapers, and their journalists are easy to play ball with.
However, they guy as much access to local happenings as regular newspapers, if
not more.

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edw519
One thing that has worked well for me: ask the gatekeeper (usually the
decision maker's AA) for the decision maker's email address. Tell her (or him)
who you are, why you want the email, and what you plan to email. Make it clear
that you do not want to get caught in a spam filter and politely ask that the
decision maker be made aware that an email is coming. You haven't wasted
anyone's time and you've made it easy for them to communicate with you.

I almost always get some kind of reply.

The key is to be yourself, be sincere, lay out all the facts, and make it
quick and easy for the other people.

Another thing that has always worked very well is a hand written snail mailed
note. But only _after_ you've already met. Otherwise, it's just junk mail.

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tc
You might be amazed how many corporations have a dial by name directory
accessible from their auto attendant.

