Sales Development

Whale Hunting Practice #11: Drill Down 6 Degrees

By November 1, 2009December 29th, 2015No Comments
 The Whale Hunters Process doesn’t include “cold calling.”  Let’s face it: you are not going to land a new deal, ten to twenty times your average deal, by placing a phone call to the prospective buyer.  That is an outmoded, old-fashioned, small-minded method of sales.  It is not a strategic business development method.

So what would you do instead?

At this point in your Whale Hunting process, you have a great deal of information about a list of companies on your Whale Chart.  Part of that information consists of the names and titles of key executives.  Now’s the time to put that knowledge to work in your network.

First, have your Scouts conduct deep Internet searches on all of the key execs that they’ve identified.  Include Google searches, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook.

Next, bring your team to the table to find connections in professional associations, philanthropic boards, community interests and alumni associations.  Look for connections between your target whales and your current clients.

Set Google alerts on key executives to bring forward news about their activities.

You will find a connection.

Do you have an example of a six-degrees connection?  We’d love to hear it!

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