John LoGioco.com

Using Twitter Before You Cold Call or Present

Mining Twitter before cold calling or presenting can help you close more deals and build instant rapport. Before a cold call or sales meeting simply locate your prospects’ twitter account.  This may take some searching but by now most people have one – especially in the technology, media and entertainment sectors.  Since Google is now indexing Twitter, try a search query for your prospect's name and "twitter."  You can also try LinkedIn but be aware that many people will not list their Twitter accounts there.  If by chance your prospect does not have a Twitter account then default to the company account.  Lastly you can try to search for the company by a relevant hash tag.  Once you find the Twitter account, look at the tweets to get an idea of what is on the mind of your prospect, but more importantly look at the links they are re-tweeting.  Critical information lies within these links on the very issues that your prospect is likely to find important.  For example, I was preparing to pitch a large publisher on our recommendation widget, which is cookie based.  Before the meeting I was doing my pre-meeting prep work and found my prospects' twitter account.  In reading the tweets it became obvious that this executive was wholly against cookie based technologies of any kind.  If I just stuck with browsing the tweets and not following the links this would have gone unnoticed.  But alas, it didn’t help in the end, as our cookie based structure scared the daylights out of this guy.  But I did curtail the pitch and adjust my words to avoid putting him on the defensive right from the start, and as a result established a better rapport with him which I am still building on to this day.

So once you have scanned the prospects' twitter account look to see if the company has an account and scan that too.  You will often discover what other partners the company is working with and who they just met with.  Often times, when a company has a good meeting with a prospective partner, they will immediately broadcast their newly found "warm and fuzzy" feelings over Twitter.  One month ago I was preparing to pitch a publisher on @outbrain and I noticed a tweet from their lead biz dev executive about a great meeting they just had with an outbrain competitor.  So on a last minute adjustment, I edited my pitch to counter this specific competitor.  This approach set the meeting off in a different direction and one that was favorable to outbrain.  It worked and we won the deal.

Finally run a search at search.twitter.com for the company hashtag.  For example if you wanted to see tweets that mention Facebook, you can search for the term #facebook on search.twitter.com.  This can be a gold mine of information to see what others are saying about the company and to get a feel for the important issues and needs of the people you will be communicating with.

These tips should take all of about 10 minutes, but don't leave them for last minute because more often than not, the information you will dig up is so valuable, you'll need to adjust your approach.

Global Fishery Managers Doom The Bluefin, Outcry Needed!

The 48 nation governing body that *tries* to manage open ocean fish (ICCAT) like the Atlantic Bluefin tuna has failed yet again. The disappointing details of this weekend's emergency meetings in Brazil can be found over at SaveTheBluefin.com.  Evidently the new recommendation from ICCAT sets the 2010 quota for the Mediterranean and East Atlantic to 13,500 metric tons, and that is 13,500 too many. Even their own scientists recommended that a moratorium, even for a year, would be the only option at this point.  Additional details include the purse seine fishery will get one month to fish (May 15 to June 15), cancellation of the of the 5 weather days and finally establishment *next year* of a 3 year rebuilding plan with a 60% probability of stock recovery and easily requiring another major quota reduction to somewhere between zero and 8,000 mt for 2011. In simple terms they agreed that killing more bluefin is still ok, and it's not.

Did you know that the commercial fleet in the European/Med is ~1300 boats.  By any standard this is way too many, especially for a fish that is teetering on the brink of commercial extinction.

However the USA did not lose any of it's quota, so kudos to Rebecca Lent at NOAA for securing this piece but I fear this came at the expense of supporting an Atlantic moratorium on taking bluefin.

Going forward, protecting the bluefin tuna as an endangered species under a CITES listing is the only answer. There is a meeting in March 2010 on this very issue and the public needs to speak.  The big question now is where will the US and EC stand on CITES?

I anticipate a global outcry based on these kill rates.  My network over at www.savethebluefin.com will mobilize with all it's might to help the push.  These tuna are a gift to mankind.  They are one of the most advanced ecological wonders of the world with powers and capabilities that are unfathomable  to mankind.  Who are we as a race to simply devastate them for a luxury food source.  We simply do not have the right and the managers at the ICCAT meetings in Brazil this weekend stepped over the line.

I call a global rally to help save the bluefin once and for all.  Email me at savethebluefintuna(at)gmail(dot)com for how you can help.

Blog about it, tweet about it, yell out of your front window because this is the front line in changing our ways as a global populace.  We can do it, and the bluefin will not go down on my watch!

on cold calling

In this day with sales and business development folks working sites like LinkedIn, Facebook & personal email to break business, picking up the phone is still a great way to make deals happen.  Cold calling still works, now more than ever.  Here are some tips and observations on how to cold call and make big things happen from scratch.

Tip #1 - 9AM - 5PM: 

Your future clients are most likely at their desks and able to take a call from 8:30AM to 6:30PM.  This means that any task you are doing outside of trying to get in touch with your prospects can be classified as a distraction during these valuable hours.  So this means planning tasks like reporting, administration, and research outside of this valuable time period.  If you are not trying to get in touch with a valuable prospect, then you can be sure someone else is.  If it’s one of your competitors, you could be out. Since we are all buried in email most of the day, our phone rings less, much less in fact.  I would bet the frequency of phone calls has dropped several factors over the last 5 years.  So for some this is an opportunity to catch someone by voice.  

Tip #2 - Pre-Call Preparation: 

Before you call here are a few simple steps to prepare for when a warm body (prospect or gatekeeper) answers your call. The ultimate goal on a cold call is to establish a positive rapport with whoever answers and in most cases you have ~6 seconds to succeed or fail.  Therefore before you call visit the prospect’s web site.  Make sure you have an idea of what they do, their structure, their needs etc.  Also look at the “News” section on the site to see any recent breaking news or announcements.  Often you will discover possible synergies here that can add to your pitch.  Know where you are calling.  Look at the “Contact” page or the area code of the number you are calling.  Once you have the location check the weather report and the local news site.  These can be great little weapons in establishing a quick rapport with whoever picks up the phone.  Example – I was looking to get a meeting with a large media organization in California. Before I called I checked the local news sites and saw that some fires had been burning near the client.  So when I called, I mentioned this and in an instant had a robust conversation going. Rapport established. 

Step #3 - Love thy Gatekeeper: 

Most high-level executives still have someone answering their phone, even in the interactive space. However executive assistants now handle multiple executives so overall they are busier then they used to be.  However, since most BD/Sales folks use email as their primary method for prospecting, the number of incoming phone calls that gatekeepers answer on aggregate has dropped.  This is an opportunity.  These gatekeepers want to talk with someone and often times welcome a nice voice.  The trick here is to not treat them like a gatekeeper but like the prospect you are trying to reach.  If you ask for “Mr. Smith” and the gatekeeper has you on hold ask the gatekeeper how their day is going, or about the weather that you know is happening.  9 out of 10 times they are happy to respond and you can start building a rapport with the gatekeeper.  Many times after you establish a positive rapport with a gatekeeper they will say something like; “Hold on, let me grab Mr. Smith for you….” 

Step #4 - Thanking the Gatekeeper: 

Most sales people drop the gatekeeper like a rock when finally getting to the prospect.  This is a huge mistake.  The best thing you can do is send a thank you email or voice mail to the gatekeeper for helping you.  This small amount of outward appreciation will set you apart from the many others who call and never circle back.  In general gatekeepers don’t get that much praise, so a little love from you is most welcome.  So next time, when the prospect you worked hard to contact and meet goes cold, and you need to get re-connected, you call on the gatekeeper for help.  If you said “thank you” the gatekeeper has the power to get you back on the calendar and on track to closing the deal. 

Step #5 - Getting On The Calendar: 

The Gatekeeper often runs the calendar.  So for all the reasons just explained, if you have a good rapport with the gatekeeper you can use this to schedule a call or meeting on a calendar.  This is especially effective when your deal might stall or get sidelined and the prospect has gone cold.  Instead of becoming a pest with a steady stream of emails pick up the phone, talk to the gatekeeper and ask for help getting on the calendar. 

Step #6 - Prospects Who Answer: 

If you are lucky and get the prospect to answer their phone or get connected by the gatekeeper, you have ~4 seconds to start down a positive path.  For me, what works best is to introduce myself and ask if the prospect has a minute to chat with me.  This immediately gets the prospect into answering your question and if yes, into a loose agreement that you have a few seconds to speak.  The next few words should be your best elevator pitch custom fit for the prospect’s company.  In this short sentence you need to give the prospect one good reason why you deserve another minute on the phone or better yet a meeting.  Then *stop*.  Listen and hear the reaction.  A cold caller that does not know when to stop talking is in the wrong business.  If you cross that imaginary line of rambling, you are immediately thrown into the “used car salesman” bin and you are done.  Should this happen you have 2 seconds to dig yourself out.  The best solution is to say “I’m sorry, I just rambled, essentially I can deliver you “x,y and z” and would like the chance to explain in more detail how I can help.”  Then see what happens.  Often times the apology will get you back on track. 

Step #7 - Time Zones: 

If you have prospects in different time zones, plan your calls accordingly.  If you are based in New York, cold calling Eastern Standard Time prospects from 8:30AM to 11:30AM is best.  Then move to your Pacific Standard Time prospects who are just getting in or your Central/Mountain Time zones.  Stay away from 12Noon to 2PM.  This will give your prospects time to eat, digest a bit and have a coffee.  The worst time to try and break in on the phone is when someone is hungry or tired.  Lunch takes the hunger away, and if you call after 2PM your prospect will likely have just had a coffee and is ready for the afternoon – which includes a call from you!  Good luck, deals are out there for those who call and ask. 

The next post we will look at how to prepare for a meeting once you broke through by cold calling.

Big Jersey Bluez

Here's a great little video (5 minutes but edited) of big New Jersey bluefish hammering top water plugs from my kayak.  This is Spring Jersey fishing at it's best.  Big blues, close to shore and on a rampage.  Launched off of Union Beach, in the back Raritan Bay in early May 2009.  Great thing about the kayak is most of the boats that were looking for striped bass, took off after no bites, but without a motor I had to stick around.  We'll I was rewarded for my immobility because after the tide started to run, these big blues surfaced and were splashing all around me.  I was alone witnessing first hand the annual invasion of these big bluefish enter the bay and murder anything in sight.  As you can see, I love dem bluez! 

(I just got a new macbook and this is my first iMovie - so please give comments good or bad)

For best viewing go here to my new Fishing channel on Vimeo.

If you're a YouTube junkie you can also see the clip here.

Spring Stripers, Fresh Clams & A Kayak

Yesterday I actually took a day off and had a ball fishing on my kayak for striped bass and bluefish in the back bay.  I ended up catching 4 fish, all good sized as you can see below.  3 nice striped bass and one really large bluefish, the size we were catching last year off the lumber yards at the Atlantic Highlands Marina.  Here's is a shot of the last and largest bass of the day - which I kept.  All other fish released.  As many of you know I don't usually keep fish, but this is one of two bass that I plan to keep for the Spring season.  We had blackened wild caught striped bass last night and it was special. 

Below is the first bass that took a fresh clam about 20 minutes after setting up my chum slick.  I had the chum bag going near the bottom and fresh clams going over the side every 10-15 minutes.  I went through the bait in 3 hours but the strategy paid off.  Most of the other boats around me were chumming with little bits of bait and were catching mostly shorts.  I was also baiting with the largest clams possible, as again the other boats looked to be using just small pieces of bait.

 

I loaded up with 2 large chum balls and 2 dozen clams from Pete Crosta's Atlantic Highlands Bait & Tackle Shop (732 -291-4500) at the Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbour. As usual there is always a crew hanging out at Pete's.  Yesterday Capt. Robbie Barradale, President of the Bay Shore Saltwater Flyrodders Club was there.  He's a great guy and actually gave me some great advice which I employed on this trip.  So thanks Robbie for the information, as you can see it paid off.  If you want to join a great club around the Bayshore area and learn from some great fisherman, check out their site.  It just shows that patronizing your local bait shop goes way beyond what you actually carry out of the shop.  If you are fishing the beach or from a boat ask Pete for his special spring clam chum balls.  It will make a difference, trust me.  Combine great company, helpful tips and fresh bait, all with a fresh pot of coffee brewing and you can't miss at Pete's.

This final shot gives you a look at my rig, with the last bass of the day on deck. 

 

It's already been a great Spring for me as I have been blessed with a few nice fish.  It's so great to see the water a bit cleaner, the birds in good spirits and of course the fish.