Getting to the RIGHT People

To improve sales we need to communicate the right message to the right people at the right time – that’s common sense.  Any marketing budget will be under pressure to demonstrate a return on a company’s investment, often within a specified timescale – so part of the budget must be allocated to quality lead generation. 

Identifying which companies within which sectors within which countries you wish to target are the first, and possibly the easiest steps.  Considering specific roles within those organisations that are the right decision makers in the purchasing process for your goods or services is the next key stage, but the process of obtaining the contact details for those roles can be extremely difficult, time consuming and, ultimately, costly. 

Target Name Research

A methodology called Target Name Research should be applied to gather “hard to get” information which cannot be sourced from traditional marketing lists.  High level key decision maker names are sometimes easily available – that’s pretty much where most commercially available data lists start and end - but their personal details such as email address and direct telephone number, responsibility, their PA’s name and who they report to are usually concealed for obvious reasons!  And frequently names of the management team that support them, and who are part of the decision making process are not published.  If your target decision maker or influencer is in a niche discipline there is no chance of finding their names on any published list.

How?

However, if you have access to some or all of the above resources you are in a more fortunate position than most.  Obtaining many of the excellent types of data sources is in itself costly, and will require your staff to be trained.

What Next?

Once the list of targets is established, you will need to apply “primary research techniques” – in other words call the companies and verify that the contact data collected is current and correct.  This stage is vital in the process, as the secondary research conducted can rapidly become out of date. 
Plan your project carefully.  Different approaches will need to be applied according to the size of company targeted and the number of target names you have identified that you need.  Be prepared for frustrations - companies will usually need to be called several times over a period of sometimes several weeks, experimenting with different times of day and days of the week.  And don’t forget the time differences for international projects, and allocate your resources accordingly.

Also for many, when working on a global scale, language can be a major stumbling block – it is safe to say that few companies in the world have the range of language skills necessary to cover the geographic areas targeted; certainly emerging markets present a challenge, and in many areas regional dialects must be taken into account.

Expect the returned information to be relative to the depth of approach – the more time spent on a company, with “no stone unturned” in terms of gaining information, will obviously yield more comprehensive data than limiting the number of calls made to a site, but is infinitely more expensive.  Also expect some sectors to be more difficult to research than others.

Whilst many companies have a sales force across a number of countries, it makes sense to free up the time of highly trained and expensive sales people to focus on building relationships and closing deals with their clients.  Engaging the help of a business development company with a flexible approach to suit your project, and the professional skills to provide consistently good data in a short space of time can often be a valuable solution.