Step I – Identify the Best Person for Your Product

•   You may think that this is super easy since you know who you built the product for. It is what you pitched the VCs isn’t it?


•   Well you may be in for a surprise, not to mention that different organizations may have different titles for your target.


•   Take a look at your competitor’s websites. We are well aware of the fact that your product is so advanced that you do not have competitors yet but you should still take a look at your “perceived” competitors’ sites.


•   Who is vouching for their products? Do they list a number of roles and industries?


•   Call on other friends in the industry and ask them or if you are at a trade show doing some research, ask the vendors at the show who they regard as your perceived competition.

Step II – Collect Prospect Data

You need prospect data, meaning that you need to know the name of the person at the account who has the title you have identified as your primary target in “Step I’ (Director of…) and you need their contact details. This can be done in a number of ways:

•   Linkedin – if you have a premium account and are signed up for the right groups – you may just be able to find your target


•   Jigsaw or Netprospex – If you upload the contacts you already have, you can get credits for downloading new contacts based upon your specifications


•   iProfile (or similar) – expensive, but worthwhile services that provide you with an extensive organizational chart and detailed contact info

Step III – Send an Email (or two)

•   A sentence about who you are looking to speak to and a brief product description
•   Three short bullets about how you can benefit them, save them money, or revolutionize their operations


•   Provide them with two times and dates and ask which is a preferable time to call


•   Write a “PS’ that states that if they are not the right person then you would appreciate a referral

Step IV – Get a Referral

•   Most likely, you will not reach the best target the first time around, or you will not be able to identify who that person is. This is where a referral comes in.


•   Always ask for one if the person you are communicating with says that they are not interested or if they are not the right person.


•   In addition, if you get no response to your email or phone call, resend the email with the word “Follow Up” in the subject line and indicate in the body that you are “just following up”.