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Smart Calling — Chapter-03: Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart

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C H A P T E R 3 Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart P erhaps you’ve heard the quote attributed to Sir Francis Bacon: “Knowledge is power.” However, with respect to Sir Francis, knowledge is not power. To quote Calvin Coolidge, “There are lots of educated derelicts.” “Prepare to win, or lose to someone who is.” —Jeffrey Gitomer What differentiates a dumb cold call from a Smart Call is, first, what you learn about a prospect and his situa- tion. The power comes in how you use this knowledge, which we will discuss later in the book. In this chapter, we’ll cover intelligence gathering: what you want to learn and, then, where to find it. What Information Do You Want about Your Prospects? The intelligence you seek depends on what you sell and why some- one would buy. Simpler sales—those that are more transactional 38

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 39 and have a shorter sales cycle, such as an ad in the community magazine—are not likely to warrant as much time as a seven-figure sale for consulting services to a Fortune 100 company. However, the same processes and techniques can be used in both situations. In general, you are looking for factual data as well as situational information. Facts include basic statistics, such as how many loca- tions or number of employees the company has, their financial results, and, as obvious as this might seem, what the company actually does. However, I’m not shy to repeat what should be obvious since I know most people—including myself—regularly need to be reminded of the fundamentals. As an example, it boggles my mind how salespeople can pick up the phone to call a company without even knowing what they sell. For example, my company’s name is Business By Phone Inc. I am regularly prospected by clueless callers who think that we are a phone system reseller, a telemarketing service agency, or a company much larger than we are, since they pitch me on services appropriate only for companies with more than 50 employees. Dumb. Beyond acquiring the basic facts, the real jackpot lies within the situational information you uncover. This is anything about the company, industry, or individual that may make them a good prospect for you because of a need, pain, problem, desire, or other circumstance on their part. For example: r A bank is building two new branch locations. r A furniture company is being sued because of alleged faulty construction in one of its products. r A manager at any company has just been promoted to VP. r A CEO is interviewed by a blog author about trends in his industry and shares some initiatives they are working on this year. r According to a national study, sales are down across the board for independent bookstores. r New state regulations require small service businesses to collect and report sales taxes where they did not before. Think big picture for a moment about the chains of events that could create needs, pains, problems, and desires for the people and

40 Smart Calling companies involved in those situations. Consequently, there are countless opportunities for all kinds of businesses that help solve those problems or fulfill those desires. Construction companies, law firms, recruiters, anyone who helps increase sales, software developers and installers—the list is endless. Here are a few other activities that could create an environment in which someone would be eager to hear about an appropriate Possible Value Proposition: r Awarding of contracts. r Expansion or downsizing—geographically, personnel-wise, divi- sions or subsidiaries, product or service offerings. r Legal actions initiated, or the target thereof. r Restructuring. r Initiatives of any type: cost cutting, push for more sales, becom- ing more customer-focused, streamlining network operations, getting a greater ROI on anything. r Change of most types: new personnel, products, or product in- troductions. r Any other compelling event, such as a new product launch, or deadlines of any type. Identify and Look for Trigger Events Craig Elias was a top sales rep for telecommunications company WorldCom. During its collapse, Craig realized that he could either find another company to sell for or do something on his own. He chose the latter. He felt that he could help other sales reps use a model he discovered and fine-tuned while rising to the top at Worldcom. When analyzing his six- and seven-figure sales, he noticed a trend emerging. Every sale was a result of a trigger event that shifted a prospect from being someone who never would have bought from him previously into someone who was highly likely to buy from him now. These events moved people into what Elias calls the window of dissatisfaction. Elias’s model identifies three categories of trigger events. Determine how they apply to your buyers:

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 41

1. Bad Experience: The buyer has an unpleasant experience with a product or service, people, or a provider. For instance, there may have been a product or service change with their existing supplier that creates dissatisfaction.
2. Change or Transition: The buyer has a change or transition in people, places, or priorities. For instance, there may have been a change in the buyer at an account.
3. Awareness: The buyer becomes aware of the need to change for legal, risk-avoidance, or economic reasons. For instance, the person may have a new understanding that buying from someone like you is less risky or cheaper than continuing to buy the existing solution. These events are the types of information you would like to learn before speaking with your decision maker. Craig has a useful free tool at his site called a “Won Sales Anal- ysis” that I suggest you download. Instead of focusing on the sales you’ve lost, this application helps you analyze the sales you’ve won to help identify the common trigger events that place buyers in that window of dissatisfaction. Get it at www.WonSalesAnalysis.com. I actually experienced a trigger event while working on this chapter. I had taken a couple of full days to do nothing but write while at my Arizona home. I’m diligent about regularly saving my work—especially something this lengthy and important—as I write. When it came time for me to leave for my other office in Om- aha, I went to e-mail myself the two chapters I had written so that I would have them on my main office machine. However, they were nowhere to be found! I’m no tech novice, and I just knew they had to be hiding somewhere. I frantically searched for the files. Nada. Talk about a sick feeling! To make things worse, my flight was leaving in 90 minutes. Wanting to continue my search, I quickly added the GoToMyPC service to that computer, since I could then access it from any Internet-connected computer later. (I never did locate the files. Luckily, I had printed out hard copies and was able to re-create them—with some pain and expense.) Now, though I have not yet spoken to the GoToMyPC people, I would imagine their sales reps—if they practice a form of Smart Calling—would want to know if prospects and their employees ever

42 Smart Calling work from home or another remote location and whether they ever had emergency situations where they needed to search for data on another machine. (This is something you can learn by doing social engineering, which we will cover shortly.) As one of their customers, I’m more than willing to share this information with them—and perhaps even help them improve their product. Possible Resources for You: A bit later in this chapter, I list a number of places to collect intelligence about your prospects. Since we are talking about trigger events, I’ll jump ahead and give you a couple of these now. Both www.InsideView.com and www.SalesFuel.com are excellent online services that can help you target and take advantage of events and situations so you can Smarten your calls. Smart Calling Exercise

1. List the factual information you would like to learn about your prospects before a call.
2. Identify the situational information you would like to learn prior to your calls. Getting Personal In addition to acquiring information on the company, it’s helpful to be knowledgeable about the people. What information is important to know? Whatever is available. Dig for what you can find out about them personally and in their professional lives. I’m by no means suggesting you mention or use everything you learn, since you don’t want to come across as a creepy stalker. A female client told me a sales rep cold-called her and, in the opening, told her that he saw her picture online and liked her smile. (I can hear the collec- tive “Ewwwwwe!”) You, of course, need to be judicious and use the information appropriately. This becomes valuable when you can make a closer connection with your prospect by asking questions later in a call (questions you

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 43 will probably know the answer to: “I’m assuming you’re a Penn State football fan?”) or making a comment about what you know: “By the way, I always like to be prepared for my calls and did some research. That was a great article you wrote for the Components Insight web site.” In his classic book, Swim with the Sharks (without Being Eaten Alive), author Harvey Mackay explained the tool he required his sales reps to use, called the Mackay 66. It is 66 pieces of informa- tion that reps need to collect about their prospects and customers: business background, special interests, their lifestyle, business needs, and the nature of the rep’s relationship with them. (Although it was written in the mid-1980s, the book is still relevant, and I recom- mend it. If you would like to see the Mackay 66 right now, go to www.harveymackay.com/pdfs/mackay66.pdf.) He Won This Sale A recent item in the Wall Street Journal nicely illustrated the power of getting—and using—information about those with whom you will soon be meeting or working. A headhunter interviewing for his own new job came armed with files on 10 people within the firm (from the CEO on down) that he’d ideally like to meet with. When he spoke with his interviewers, they saw his categorized notebook, stuffed with notes and web pages on the individuals. This, of course, impressed them, since he had clearly done his homework, and he was offered a job as a partner at the firm. Where to Find Your Smart Information Although I certainly don’t feel like I recently hit 50—and friends say I still think and act like a juvenile fairly often—I can sound like a crotchety old fogy when I’m talking about the environment we sell in today. I often feel like saying, “When I was your age, youngster, we weren’t able to go click, click, click and have almost everything we want to know about a prospect appear on this TV screen in front of us before we call him.”

44 Smart Calling Today’s technology makes it quick and easy to acquire valuable information that can Smarten up your calls. In fact, there is no excuse for not having information about your prospects before you call. The only argument I’ve heard otherwise—that I still don’t buy–is that reps can’t afford to take the time before a call to do research. They claim that they need to be on the phone, constantly placing calls, and can’t occupy themselves with research. Bull! That’s the numbers game mentality of throwing it all up against the wall and seeing what sticks. I can’t think of any situation—even the simplest, most basic transactional call—that wouldn’t yield better results and be worth the time invested to know something about the person and company. So let’s explore where we can find this kind of information. Your Database Talk about another one of those “Well, duh, no kidding” points. Of course, you should check your company’s database before calling a prospect to see if there is any history there. But again, the obvious isn’t always followed. I have personally heard many calls where sales- people prospected individuals they thought were prospects—only to hear, “Are you kidding me? We’ve been buying from you for years!” Oops. Now that’s embarrassing. So always check the notes for any comments from previous con- tacts, if any, and certainly look to see if there were any past purchases. Smart Calling Tip Past customers are one of your best sources of new business. There is gold in this list. And don’t be afraid if the customer quit buying because of a problem. The problem will still exist—or at least be remembered—if no one bothers to contact them. However, calling will give you a chance to fix it. And if the previous buyer left, go through the Smart Calling process with the new buyer. You can always reference the previous relationship, and you have some history to work with.

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 45 Exploring the Wealth of Online Information Your Prospect’s Web Site Your prospect’s web site should be your first online destination. Again, what you sell will determine where you drill, but aside from the obvious facts you would find at their site, here are a few other ideas about specific places to go: The “About Us” Section. This is often where you’ll be able to find names, bios, and contact info for key people, as well as details on how the company began, who they serve, what benefits or tools they provide, and perhaps who some of their major clients are. Press Releases. These provide timely information that the com- pany obviously believes is newsworthy, as well as potential contact names when you’re otherwise coming up empty. Heather Beck, a sales rep with testing equipment manu- facturer Acterna, said that she was more than once unable to get a contact name from an operator or anywhere on a web site but found someone quoted in a press release that she could then call. Though this person wasn’t the buyer, speaking with him gave her a start with some names in the investigation and navigation process. Mission Statements. Ryzex Group manager Peter Andrachuk suggests looking for key words and phrases that signify im- portance to the company. For example, evaluate the com- pany’s mission statement or simply the description of what they do on their home page. If they say that one of their goals is to “make the lives of their customers easier through au- tomation of daily, routine tasks,” then that could be a phrase you could use in a letter, e-mail, voice mail, and opening statement. Job Postings. These could indicate situational change, such as expansion, and certainly personnel change (new peo- ple in new roles—perhaps that of the buyer). A sales rep for phone equipment told me he would call into the department that handled the company’s telecommunications and discuss

46 Smart Calling the upcoming needs they might have with the additional employees. In addition to checking a company’s site for post- ings, check www.Indeed.com, a compilation site for online job postings. Company Site Searches. Some company web sites have a search box that makes it much easier to hunt for specific infor- mation within the site. Here’s a way to do it using Google: Type your search term in quotes, then site:companysite.com. For example, if I am looking for sales managers at Verizon, I would search “sales manager” site:verizon.com. Smart Call Success Story: How a Rep Gathers and Uses Intelligence from a Prospect’s Site A Regional Account Manager with McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge, Tim Nelson says, “I think the most important [thing] I learn from [an organization’s] web site is how the company por- trays itself. I sell new project information to architects, engineers and general contractors, and they all have ‘brag sites’ that tell of the jobs they’ve built. That tells me their focus. It also gives me an indication of their [level of] Internet savvy-ness, as this will affect how someone would use our solution. “Their sites also [let me know] who the principals and heads of other offices are that might be impacted by the information I sell. Knowing about other key people allows me to be more pointed in my questioning. Instead of asking ‘Does anyone else need to be involved with this?’ I can say, ‘Since this will also impact your Project Management team, does Doug need to be involved in any of this?’” Other Online Resources There are numerous places you can go to gather intelligence online, several of which I’ll mention. However, I could just skip my entire dis- cussion on using the Internet to gather information and defer to Sam Richter’s book, Take the Cold out of Cold Calling—Web Search Secrets: Know More Than You Ever Thought You Could (or Should) about Your

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 47 Prospects, Clients, and Competition (www.TakeTheCold.com). Sam is an expert at finding information about people, companies, and in- dustries online, and his book provides advanced tips for using search engines as well numerous sites to visit to collect intelligence. There’s information available online that you probably never thought was accessible. For example, here are summaries of just a couple of the tech- niques Richter presents for using Google. “Filetype” Searches. You can type a company name in quotes and then filetype:, followed by a file extension to locate online files publicly available. For example, if you’re looking for white papers a company had posted on its site, you would type “Johnson Engineering” filetype:pdf. This can be done for all types of files, such as PowerPoints, spreadsheets, and documents. (Richter also cautions that it may not be ethical to use everything you find because it is possible to locate files that a company did not realize were actually posted at its site.) Street View. Depending on what you sell, it could be useful for you to see an actual photo of your prospect’s location. Click on “Maps” at the top of the Google home page, and enter the street address. Then you can use the various tools to move the photo around and zoom in. I wish I was getting a commission on my recommendation for this book, but I’m not. If you are serious about Smart Calling, though, you absolutely need it. It’s under $25. Trust me on this; get it. Sam’s site (www.TakeTheCold.com) also has other free resources for you that can Smarten your calls. Smart Calling Search Tip Geographic software company LizardTech’s John Ruffing shared an interesting idea about finding people who are buying. If you sell (continued )

48 Smart Calling (Continued) to governments at any level, do Internet searches for “Requests for Proposal” and your key words. He said that most government entities must post their RFPs, and this is therefore a good way to find them. Google News Alerts Google News Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) is a free service that needs to become part of your Smart Calling toolbox. Google will send you e-mail at the frequency of your choice (even daily) that notifies you of any new content posted to the Web containing the search term(s) that you determine. At minimum, you should have alerts set up with your main competitors’ names and those of your biggest customers. You should also include both the company name and the names of individual decision makers of your most highly coveted prospects. How to Steal Business When Your Competitor Undergoes Changes Here’s how to use a Google Alert to be notified of what could be a trigger event for you: A friend told me how his business bank recently changed owners and names . . . three times. One astute bank sales rep who has been pursuing him manages to contact him after each change while the effects are fresh in his mind. Although he hasn’t moved yet, the timely calls combined with the annoyance of the changes are beginning to wear down his resistance. Change is inevitable; it happens every day. And Smart sales reps have processes in place to take advantage of change. A couple of sales points for you: r Prospects can be particularly vulnerable after their existing ven- dor is acquired, is merged, or undergoes some other type of change.

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 49 r Capitalizing on this change requires that you track from whom a prospect buys, monitor any changes, and then be able to sort your database accordingly and place an effective call. So here’s exactly what to do:

1. Set up a Google News Alert with the names of your top com- petitors. When anything happens with them that appears online, you will be notified, based on the key words you enter.
2. Set up a Current Vendor field or group that is searchable in your CRM system or contact management program. Find out on every future Smart Call with new prospects which vendor they are buying from (which could be a secondary objective; see how all of this falls into place?). Then, it’s a breeze to do a quick sort of all the prospects who have the competitor’s name in the field and plan strategically timed contacts when changes make it appropriate.
3. Call with value. Naturally, you don’t phone these prospects ex- uding an attitude of “So I see your vendor was just acquired. I bet things are a mess there! Why don’t you switch to us?” Instead, pique some interest in the opening by hinting at value, and be prepared to ask questions designed to get them to tell you the problems and pains they might be experiencing as a result of the change. For example: “Mike, I had called you six months ago, and we discussed how I might be able to help cut some of your component costs. At the time you mentioned you were with AB Vending, and a change at that point didn’t seem too timely. With the recent acquisition of AB, some of my other customers have noticed some changes in the promptness of getting orders delivered. If that is an issue for you, we have some options that might be worth taking a look at. . . .” Again, be sure that prospects don’t view your opening as the “just checking in with you” type of call or a call that falls into one of the many categories of mistakes reps often make with their openings. (You can find more on the mistakes—and what to do instead—in the opening statement chapters.)

50 Smart Calling Jigsaw Jigsaw (www.Jigsaw.com) is a user-generated database of more than 16 million people and their contact information (at the time I wrote this—and probably much larger by the time you read it) that I highly recommend. Each contact lists a phone number and an e-mail address. Co-founder Garth Moulton informed me that more than 80 percent of the contacts have direct dial phone numbers—an invaluable resource for Smart Callers. Jigsaw is a kind of Wikipedia-type service for business contacts. The service is free, but you must contribute information about con- tacts of your own to build up credits that you then use to search for other contacts. Because users are constantly updating information, the contact details are more accurate than lists that are purchased. If you wish, you can opt to pay for the service instead of adding your own information. By the way, Garth Moulton is a sales guy like us who capitalized on a tremendous idea by taking action on it and who writes a very interesting blog: www.jigsawsblog.com/. I suggest you check it out. LinkedIn I’ll mention other forms of social networking—along with their pros and cons—in a bit, but LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com) is the one so- cial networking site designed specifically for business, and I strongly suggest you become a member. Completely free to join, the site al- lows you to enter your contact information and professional and educational details. You’re then able to connect with other mem- bers (more than 45 million at the time of this writing). You can learn valuable information about prospects and can contact others by inviting them to join your network. You can also look at the other people’s connections to see who knows someone you want to reach and ask to be introduced to them. You are able to search for individ- uals and for companies, see who works at those companies, and see if any of your connections—or their connections—work there. There are also special interest groups that you can join to stay informed in an area and/or connect with others. Depending on how often and intensely you use LinkedIn, you can opt for various levels of its paid version, which allows you

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 51 supplementary features and greater access. For example, I wanted more information on one particular contact at a prospect company, so I subscribed at the premium level, made contact, and paid for the subscription many times over with the subsequent sale. Blogs Anyone can blog—and many millions do, even if they have noth- ing to say (which is often the case). However, if your prospect blogs, you can glean some very valuable information to help you connect and hopefully help them buy. It’s worth checking for blogs written by and about your prospect and the company at www.blogsearch.Google.com. (Shameless self-promotion: I also rec- ommend my blog, www.TelesalesBlog.com, for useful information on Smart Calling and all other aspects of sales.) Other Free and Paid Online Sources of Information Here are some of the other more popular sources—both free and fee-based—of information available online. This list is cer- tainly not all-inclusive, so I suggest you check our resource cen- ter at www.Smart-Calling.com for updates and other informational resources. r Manta (www.Manta.com.) is a free search service that provides company information such as locations, numbers of employ- ees, and estimated revenue figures. (I say “estimated” because that’s the case for the search I ran on my company—since I never answer revenue questions when people call seeking that information.) r American City Business Journals (www.BizJournals.com) pub- lishes the local business newspaper in most of the major markets. You can check out this site for national business news, as well as the local news in your city or market. r Prospects consider you to be more credible when you are knowl- edgeable about industry issues, trends, and numbers. FindArticles (www.FindArticles.com) provides both free and for-a-fee articles from trade publications, news services, and other sources.

52 Smart Calling r It should go without saying that you read the trade publications for your industry and those that you sell into. You can find trade journals (http://smallbiztrends.tradepub.com) and subscribe to them for free. r The web sites www.Spoke.com and www.ZoomInfo.com help you locate people and require free registration to access the more detailed information on people. A quick search of my name and a few other people turned up results, but the details were not always precise. While these sites are useful, be aware that your findings may not always be up-to-date. r A paid service from Dow Jones (www.Factiva.com) provides research and news from a variety of sources on industries, com- panies, and individuals. r Another paid service (www.Hoovers.com), owned by Dun & Bradstreet, provides information primarily on larger companies. r OneSource (www.OneSource.com) is a paid service, providing information on companies, industries, and executives. r One of the world’s largest research and information providers, LexisNexis (www.LexisNexis.com) offers several paid services specifically for prospecting and relationship development. From the home page, click on Corporate and Professional, and then Sales and Marketing to get data that will be especially helpful for you and your industry. Social Networking—or Social Not-Working? Certainly, sites such as Twitter and Facebook can provide you with some valuable Smart Calling information. However, they can also be a tremendous time toilet. One of the main arguments against using social networking sites for prospecting is that the higher-level people you might want to reach are simply not spending time on these sites. For my money, Dan Kennedy is one of the top marketing and sales minds in the world. In his “No B.S. Marketing Letter,” he cited research conducted by the blog www.UberCEO.com that found that not one Fortune 100 CEO had a blog, only 2 had Twitter accounts, and a scant 19 had a personal

Intelligence Gathering: Making Your Calls Smart 53 Facebook page. UberCEO claimed that it was “shocking” that so many top CEOs were so disconnected; Kennedy wrote that he was shocked that two were actually using Twitter—these folks are busy. Kennedy says that the higher up the ranks you go in business and affluence, the less use of social media you will find. He explains, “It’s really silly to believe any really important, exceptionally productive business leader is devoting time to these things.” Personally, I took the plunge to test out Twitter and studied it (www.Twitter.com/ArtSobczak). I built up my number of followers, and I find that, like many things, there are some practical applications for Smart Callers. If your prospects do tweet (I still can’t believe it when I write that word), you may be able to find useful information about their ideas, issues, and them personally. In addition, many companies have Twitter accounts, so this could provide useful insight as well. As for Facebook, I do not use it. My feeling—and that of many others—is that it primarily is more of a true social network, with the majority of use being personal. I prefer to connect with my good friends the old-fashioned ways: actually talking to them and being with them. Even though I do not make the time to do it as often as I should, I certainly don’t need to spend valuable time online updating others with whom I have lost contact. However, I do know businesspeople who use Facebook to make business contacts and collect personal information, which I can justify. Further, there are also special interest and business-related Facebook groups that could be of value to you. This should not be a revelation to you: Look at social networking as you would any other activity that requires a time investment on your part. Analyze how much time you need to invest in it, and discern what your return is. Smart Calling Tip Invest in your knowledge. If your major competitors and prospects are publicly traded, buy one share of their stock. If you use a (continued )

54 Smart Calling (Continued) discount broker, ask them to send you the share certificate. This entitles you to quarterly and annual reports—and other goodies you might be able to use. You now have a clear idea of the information you’d like to have about your prospects before speaking with them, and a number of places you can go to find it. But we’re not done yet. Some of the very best information you can get will come from other people. I’ll show you how to do this in our next chapter. Smart Calling Action Steps What else will you commit to do as a result of this chapter?