I’m a huge advocate of using human relationships to get into accounts. I really believe it’s a small world. As I’ve shown before you can get referred into 1,000’s of accounts without needing to use a cold approach.
However, sometimes you may be faced with no choice. If you’ve exhausted all your connections, and all the connections of your connections, and nothing is leading you closer to getting into the account, then you may need to resort to a cold approach. But if you do have to go in without a referral, make your chances of success as good as they can be.
How much time and effort you put into this depends on how important this account is to you. What is the potential here? If an account is important to your goals, put in maximum effort to get in there. This effort includes significant research on the account and the people there, as well as a lot of persistence to get through. If the account is not that significant to you, don’t spend too much time on research, you don’t want to be involved in “analysis paralysis”.
Don’t give up on connections entirely
Consider connections broadly when thinking about approaching any company. You may not be able to get a referral to the buyer of your product, but you may be able to get referred to someone that can help you a lot.
Anyone that can help you understand the real issues in that account is a huge boost to your chances of success. There’s a big difference between approaching a CxO with no clue about what they are wrestling with versus going in briefed with the top three issues they are facing.
Keep in mind your “inside man” can actually be outside the target account. Sure, it’s great when someone in the company will coach you on the scoop there. If that’s not possible though, anyone in the information flow can be very helpful to your cause. Consider vendors to the company and their salespeople, accountants, lawyers, consultants that work with that firm, they may know quite a bit about what’s going on there.
Find a good reason to approach
Whether you find your “inside man” or not, if the account is important, make sure to check publicly available information for possible “trigger events”. Look at the company’s website, Linkedin page, press releases and quarterly reports. Try to find mention of the company’s top goals from these public sources. In the area you serve, see if any executive changes have occurred that could trigger a need for your kind of product. Linkedin can show you recent hires (go to the “Insights” tab on a company’s Linkedin page) and more senior hires may get a press release on the company’s website. If you are selling into growth companies, look for events like funding rounds that could indicate investment in the area you service. (Crunchbase is the #1 source for funding information if you need this information on a regular basis, but you can always Google a particular company and a funding round will show up if they’ve had one.)
Grandma in the elevator
Once you’ve researched your target account as thoroughly as makes sense, it’s time to approach.
Try to “multi-thread” your approach so you are not relying on one contact to get you in. Approach a few relevant people in the account, even let them know about approaching the others—this can create some “chatter” in the company about you, which can increase your odds. When I know my boss may have looked at your email, I feel less empowered to just delete it out of hand.
Whenever you approach an account, make sure you have your value proposition down. Keep it simple and free of jargon. Make sure your grandma could understand what you are talking about in less time than it takes for a short elevator ride. If you need help on this, see my post here.
There’s more to say about approaching cold, I’ll cover that next time.