Ask: Enterprise Heirarchy/Phone Navigation HOWTO? | Hacker News Reader

Ask: Enterprise Heirarchy/Phone Navigation HOWTO?

20 pointsmahmud6 comments

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?

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.

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?

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!)

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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