Seeking out the Decision Makers

This is not a silver bullet for your cold-calling efforts, but it is a helpful guide as to whom you should be seeking in the different types of accounts on whom you’ll be calling.

Food Accounts
Generally speaking, these companies are helmed by a hands-on owner. If, through your research, you know the name of the owner, ask for her/him. If not, I would recommend asking for the Plant Manager. You might have to fall back to an Operations Manager if they don’t have a Plant Manager. For those food companies that are not managed, day to day, by an owner – she/he may be off site, and this is an investment – then you definitely want to seek out the Plant or Operations Manager.

Manufacturing
Start high and work your way down: ask for the VP Operations. Sometimes you’ll get that very person, other times you’ll be told, “We don’t have a VP Operations.” If that’s the case, ask for a General Manager or Operations Manager.

Distribution Centers
Again, start high: ask for the VP Operations. You might need to seek out the Warehouse Manager or the Operations Manager.

Small- and Medium-Sized Accounts
I won’t try and dissuade you from calling on these types of accounts because some of them are diamonds in the rough: you can get good margin in a lot of them because they serve a specialty market, for example. If you get the feeling you’re dealing with a small- or medium-sized account, ask for the Shipping Manager. The reason I recommend this is that this type of company generally requires the employees to wear a lot of different hats. If you start with the Operations or General Manager, she/he may pay no attention to you because they have bigger fish to fry. If you start with the Shipping Manager, you may ultimately need to be kicked up to her/his boss, but you’re in a good starting position for gathering information.

Companies dealing in Government Contracts
The same guidelines apply as those of a Manufacturing account, but you may also want to seek out persons with titles like “Design Engineer” or “Manufacturing Engineer”. If all else fails, just ask for one of the engineers. They will ultimately pass you off to a purchasing person, because that’s Standard Operating Procedure, but they’ll want to test you and your company first to see if it’s even worth passing you off to the purchasing department. In these types of accounts, if you ask for purchasing first, you’ll be drowned in a sea of RFQs and get nowhere.

Dealing with the Gate Keepers

Always start off asking for a specific title – the gate keeper is better handled when you are specific. Generally, you never get anything for which you don’t ask.

Failing specificity, if the gate keeper asks for more direction, try, at all costs, to avoid using the words “purchases” or “buys” – their little Martian antennae shoot up, and they direct you straight to the purchasing department. In about one case in a thousand, the purchasing person is really the one with whom you want to work, but the other nine-hundred ninety-nine times will require someone with more firepower.

I would recommend saying something to this effect: “I’m looking for the person who is ultimately responsible for movement of materials both into the plant/facility/company and out the shipping door.” The latter part of that sentence tends to get them NOT focusing on a purchasing person; the former part of the sentence usually keeps them from deferring you to the shipping manager (which isn’t your goal unless it’s a small- or medium-sized account as indicated above).

No matter how eloquent you may be in your pitch to the gate keeper, you may still be pushed toward the purchasing person. You have one last chance to see if you can get the name of the VP, Ops Manager, General Manager, etc. by saying something along these lines: “By the way, what is the name of the Ops Manager. I’ve always found it helpful including her/him when I work with the purchasing manager because they tend to work together so closely.” It’s cheesy, but it’s worth a try. Also, if you’ve been pushed off to the purchasing manager, and you have been given an e-mail address, sometimes just getting the name of the person with more firepower is helpful because you can figure out her/his e-mail address by the way the purchasing person’s e-mail address is constructed. For example, the purchasing person’s name is Trevor Statham, and his e-mail address is tstatham@newprospect.com. If you can get the name (with correct spelling) of the person higher up the ladder, you can generally guess at her/his e-mail address.

In closing, I’ll use a dating analogy: you need to make a compelling pitch to the gate keeper to give you the right phone number. If you don’t, you’ll probably get the phone number for the local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous or the recording for time and temperature.