Cold Calling Without a Name

[Bitnis]

How do you get past the gatekeeper when phone calling businesses if you don't have the owners name?

 

[HomeService]

I prefer to just go there in person, then I get to know them and eventually get a name, or not.

But on the phone, I used to just call smaller businesses and then the people are generally friendly, who answer. It may be a technician or a worker who answers- rather than a gatekeeper who may be a temp. Actually, a receptionist temp is a good thing.

I then start asking if the boss provides benefits. Temps say no. Workers either say, "Yes, but they are bad"... or "No"..

I then get the name of the "person who handles that"...

So my main goal is to provide benefits that are not there, and to get with the person who can take care of the problem of the lack of benefits. A lot of gatekeepers say no, but sometimes it's a small business and the owner actually answers the phone, and I'm talking with someone about benefits.

 

[Mark]

I think you can buy list with their names and numbers on it.

 

[Delta76]

How do you get past the gatekeeper when phone calling businesses if you don't have the owners name?

Why call without a name? No need to make things harder than they need to be. If you don't have a name, you're at the mercy of the gatekeeper. However, I would say something similar to:

"Hi, this is ______ calling and I'm not sure who I should be speaking with. Would it be okay if I tell you why I called and then you can tell me if it is you or someone else I should be speaking with?"

Definetly an uphill battle instead of "is John available?". At least by getting agreement first you are more likely to get the name of the correct person.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

That makes sense!

 

[Bitnis]

Delta,

Are you using/do you recommend a dialer? Once an answer comes through, how do you know who to ask for?

From reading here it appears calling is your bread and butter so I figure you know what you're talking about. I like your script too and mine will be very similar to yours.

Thanks

 

[czar]

Ask to exchange business cards and who to contact. If they are friendly, stop by a week or two later. If they are unfriendly, wait a month or so. The hostile gatekeeper might be surprised to see your face again on a follow up and might lighten up a bit when they see you aren't just a hit and run kind of salesman. I'm still new to insurance sales, but I know that follow up face to face calls get more appointments than the first alone.

 

[tryan326]

When I used to cold call businesses for sec 125...I would say " Hi my name is ___________ I need to speak to the owner in reference to your employee benefits".

Alot of times they would assume that I was calling about their existing plan. I picked a quite a few deals this way.

 

[eza4short]

Thats is a good pitch

 

[benseattle]

I ALWAYS want to ask for someone by name, rather than the weak "Uh, can I talk to the owner, please."

Get a library card. Go online and look in Databases and take advantage of InfoUSA. With this FREE database, you can tailor a search to your liking. I use the following search criteria: the name of the owner, president or CEO, zip cole, number of employees and "headquarters/single branch." I don't want to call a company and find out they're based 1000 miles away.

With the owner's name, I can simply call and say, "Hey, this is Ben... let me talk to Bob Jones for a second." The gatekeeper thinks I'm Bob's friend and I usually get right through.