Finding the Pressure Point
When you’re cold calling, you’ve got 10 seconds, at most, to convince the prospect that you’re worthy of attention. The quickest way to get the attention a prospect is to frame your opening sentence around a business issue that (proverbially) keeps the prospect awake at night.
In my previous posts, I suggested name-dropping a feared competitor. That often works, but a boogieman competitor isn’t always ava...ilable. When you need a Plan B, here's a way to find exactly the right pressure point for your opening line:
If the company is publicly held, click to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s search site. Enter your name of your prospect’s firm, click “FIND COMPANIES.” You’ll either get a list of companies with similar names or just the company you want to know about. Click on the target company, then locate and open the latest 10K or 10Q report. Skim the document for a section entitled “Issues and Uncertainties” or "Risk Factors" (or something along those lines.) That section of the report warns investors what’s worrying top management. It's a virtual map of the corporate underbelly.
If the company isn't publicly held, you'll need to dig around for some skeletons. Google the competitor’s full corporate name along with terms like: “troubled,” “dissatisfied,” “problem,” and “lawsuit.” Chances are you’ll discover at least a few references to situations where the firm has stumbled, possibly in areas where the prospect has some responsibility. At the very least, you should be able to find something about recent setbacks or some important employee leaving the firm.
Finally, based upon your best understanding of the prospect’s job title, craft a single sentence that positions you as the person who can make the pain go away.
For example, suppose you’re selling database management software to an IT manager at Bristol Myers/Squibb. A quick look at the latest 10Q shows that the company was recently investigated by the SEC concerning the firm’s handling of wholesaler inventory. (No big deal, really, but very likely to be on the radar of an IT manager.) Read on, and you discover that “the Company agreed to not engage or attempt to engage in criminal conduct.”
Look no further. Your opening line is: “Hi, I’m John Doe from Databases-R-Us, and I want to meet with you to see whether we can help ensure that database integrity problems don’t make it impossible to track wholesaler inventory. How does 9am on Wednesday sound?”
Next: what to do when the cold call gets the cold shoulder.