Any advice and perspective would be greatly appreciated. I'm in the New York area and would happily buy somebody coffee to walk me through the basics.
The first, most obvious, and probably cheapest, way to get contact info is to use LinkedIn. Find people that work for those companies. If you have shared connections, ask your connection for an introduction. If not, send them an InMail (note: I think you'll have to have a paid LI account for this, at least if you need to send more than a handful of messages). Beyond that, you can also try to find those people on Twitter, etc., so you can send messages their way.
You can also buy contact information from Hoovers and similar services.
And while it's low percentage, you can still do the old thing of cold-calling the main office number for the firm and ask for them by name. Get ready to read up on how to deal with "gate keepers" and the like. And expect a low rate of actually getting through, especially as you target people higher up the organizational hierarchy.
Once you get to that point, contact people and just be straightforward with them. Say "Hey, I'm looking at (building a product | delivering a service | whatever) that I think would pertain to a firm like yours. If you'd be so kind, I'd love to have a short meeting or phone call with you to get your feedback on my idea(s) and see if there might be a way we could help you". Or something roughly like that. Don't necessarily use that exact language (I'm not really a sales-person!) but that general approach seems to work reasonably well. The percentages will still be pretty low, but it's likely that some people will be willing to talk to you.
A couple of books that contain some additional details on all this, that you might find useful, would be The Four Steps To The Epiphany by Steve Blank, Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, and/or Predictable Prospecting by Marylou Tyler.
In terms of understanding what to do once you get conversations started, I recommend the series of books by Jeff Thull that includes Mastering The Complex Sale, Exceptional Selling and The Prime Solution. There's also some really good stuff in The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes and The Challenger Sale by by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson.
- Set appropriate expectations. In my experience, getting a positive response to more than 10% of the businesses reached is very very good. Even if everyone on the list seems absolutely perfect.
- Businesses will refuse to speak to you for various reasons, and annoyingly most won't tell you why! But if it feels like you're unlikely to proceed, the most value you can get is to take your chances and ask. I wouldn't lead with politely trying to understand how their business works. In their eyes, you should know that already!
- Get an understanding of who is the best person to speak to in a business in the first place. If it's a small business, go as high up as you can.. directors... Cxx's... (as it's likely they're quite hands on). As opposed to bigger businesses where that's not always appropriate - they may have a 'procurement department' or this sort of thing is handled by department heads.
- Get an understanding of the best method of the first contact. I don't use social media very much, and I'd hope that was clear by my lack of activity. I brush off most first points of contact via SM because it doesn't feel natural. But I use my phone a lot, so happily speak to someone for a minute or two if they cold call me as it feels natural. I know people who hate technology and have responded well to physically arriving at the front desk around lunch time, offering biscuits for a 10-minute meeting.
- Personally, I avoid probing questions in the first place. Some call them 'open questions' (those that can't naturally have a yes/no answer). Firstly, by asking questions like this you might come across as naive to their industry and secondly, it can make the listener feel uncomfortable. If they naturally want to say no, let them. You have a big list of leads to get through!
- That doesn't necessarily mean you should ask closed ended questions such as "Do you have 5 minutes to speak about x?" or "Do you know about regulation x?"...
- ...I prefer the approach of pretending the customer is repeating "What's in it for me?" whenever I say something. This more a natural attitude than a scripted approach (like emphasising on whether a question is open or closed).
But to answer your questions specifically..
How would you go about getting contact information - depends on the method of contact. Phone number - look in company publications, call up reception and ask outright for it. Email - guess (format.. first.last@... first_initial.last@...).
introductions Travel back in time and meet someone who can introduce you. :) If the target attends social gatherings, go there.
meetings Remember they're asking "what's in it for me?". Offer something to incentivise them. Aside from biscuits, you want 10 minutes of their time to talk about how you can benefit them.
...and eventually sales? Let us all know when you find out ;)
Hope this helps in some way!