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Answer 1: He was fired two years ago.
Answer 2: She died almost five years ago.
Answer 3: He was demoted about three years ago and is no longer a decision maker for your products and services at that company.

In the spirit of networking, a sales pro called me recently and wanted some sales tips on three employees at a company I had worked with recently. He was prospecting and had three names he had identified as decision makers. As he read their names I responded with the answers enumerated above.

“…asking for a dead person is not the way to start.”

Clearly he had the right intent. He was doing research before making an initial contact with a prospect. He had found some names and was calling me to get more data. But how could he have been so far off base? Can you imagine how warmly he would have been received if he had contacted the prospect asking for these people before I was able to set him straight?

Sales Tips: What Went Wrong?
The problem was that he had used one of the old-school lead databases to get names of decision makers. It has been my experience that the data we get from these sources can be outdated and inaccurate. I’m being too generous - make that virtually worthless at times. My networking friend had provided yet another example of how unreliable these information sources can be.

I believe we can do better than these old-school lead databases that employ highly disinterested and low paid call center employees to retrieve information and sell it to you or your company.

Sales Newsletter: There are Better Ways
Prospects are demanding that we know more about them when we contact them. We need our information to be current and accurate. There are some great tools available to us that can provide current and high quality lead information. These tools have been covered in this sales tips blog before. Please see “Further reading” below. The costs for the leads they provide can range from very reasonable to zero.

Business Networking: Ryze, LinkedIn, Plaxo
Directories of Companies and Business Professionals: Jigsaw, NetProspex

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
Calling a prospect and asking for a dead person is not the way to start. We can do better.

Further reading:

• Jigsaw CEO Tells Me Why You Need His Website
• Interview with Gary Halliwell, CEO of NetProspex
• Tips for Sales: The Business Social Networking Landscape is Changing Radically

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Tags: Prospecting, prospects, technology

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