In 2008 I gave a Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) webinar on the evolving field of social media. There was so much buzz around social media and as information professionals we were excited to have another source to tap into! Since then, most information professionals have assimilated social media into our research process.
As I conduct research projects I find myself climbing up and down the research continuum, usually starting with secondary research queries, then going to people's blogs and social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, industry Nings, and Slideshare and lastly to human intelligence (HUMINT) where I either talk to a knowledgeable person over the telephone or in person. I like the intermediate phase of using blogs and social media, as they are so much more interactive, and I have an opportunity to ask questions electronically or better yet to read the answers to my question since someone else already asked it! Before social networks I would have to go back to the Internet to find more human sources to query; now I can also go back to a social network.
In general when I get a research project, I always get a head start by using a 'paid for' service, since this leads me more quickly to the right places to find information. One of my favorites is ATTAAIN (http://www.attaain.com), a relatively new company which takes you to where you need to go on the free Internet to find relevant information, plus Hoovers, and social networks.
Mining for gold on LinkedIn
In a recent project, I was researching a well known privately held executive coaching firm. My ATTAAIN search connected me with almost 400 people working at that company through my LinkedIn connections, as well as an 'Answer' on the 'Questions & Answers' section on LinkedIn. So I decided to explore LinkedIn for an hour or two, and really hit the jack pot. A number of people had asked the same questions I was going to ask. I liked that, since when you ask a question on LinkedIn, it becomes a permanent record. Sometimes you want to be more discrete lest the target company suspect. Better yet, people had asked 'my questions' within the last few months, so the data was fresh enough for my research, another benefit of social media since it inserts the date!
Here is what I found out:
The qualification criteria the company used when recruiting members
The fact that they used security screening as part of the qualification process and which software they used
They had installed Salesforce.com to manage their sales process, including the quantitative improvements they had experienced in higher sales yields with fewer sales people including specific numbers!
Many members shared the plusses and minuses of their coaching experience
Ten competitors were identified, including some feedback on them.
As a researcher, I have a healthy skepticism about what I read on the Internet or on social networks. But in the case of this company, the comments I read were consistent so I felt they were credible. To play it safe, I called some colleagues who had used this company's services and their impressions were similar to those expressed on LinkedIn. One kind person put his telephone number with his LinkedIn message, which warmed up my cold call to him. He provided me with the information I lacked to assemble a fairly comprehensive company profile, including an intelligent estimate on revenues and expenses for 2009. Wow, I couldn't believe how much time these wonderful people on LinkedIn saved me.
But social data is not a panacea
As illustrated in the previous example, I like to find people through social networks to warm up cold calls. However, this tactic doesn't always work. In a recent project I needed to connect with a particular hospital department to learn about their usage of a specific technology. I got lucky and found an association that listed chapter leaders around the US who worked in this part of the hospital, and they included phone numbers. While I didn't know any of these people, the call was warmed up by how I had found them through Web 1.0. However, after connecting with about 20 of them I realized that I didn't have enough interviews to give my client the information they needed to develop their opportunity analysis for this new product. I needed another 20 interviews.
I had a list of potential hospitals filtered according to the number of specific procedures which might require this new technology. I figured I could find people to call through LinkedIn by identifying the hospital and job title using the advanced search feature. Armed with these names I would warm up the almost cold calling process.
I spent about an hour and I really came up short. While I found some people, there was no assurance that they actually worked in the right area of the hospital that I needed to talk to. Many of their LinkedIn profiles were so scant, that I suspected they probably weren't up to date or perhaps they had purposely kept them scant since they weren't open to sharing.
Cold calling still plays a critical role
I was disappointed, since LinkedIn and/or Twitter had been more helpful with other projects. Instead I 'Googled' to get the telephone numbers for a large number of hospitals. I called the main number at each hospital and asked to be transferred to the appropriate department. It wasn't so straightforward since hospitals don't call this functional area by the same name. However, I managed to get through to another 20+ hospitals through cold calling. I was pleasantly surprised that one of my best interviews, with one of the largest US hospitals, came through a cold call. In these cold calls, the person answering the phone often didn't have enough experience with the technology I was seeking, but would find out who did, and would transfer me to the right person or give me their telephone number to call back later.
It was a wake-up call for me. Although this wasn't a competitive intelligence project, it reminded me that the same technique often works when you cold call, regardless of the reason. You have to understand why someone would want to talk with you by putting yourself in their shoes. Early in this project I had listened in on a conference call where managers in this medical discipline were being interviewed. I learned how they were motivated and developed my approach around that. I also read up on the technology and competing technologies, so I could ask better questions or use elicitation skills to get more information depending on how the person answered me.
Not everyone was helpful, but I would say about 90% of those I connected with tried to be helpful based on what they knew about this medical technology.
I don't know how else I could have completed this project in about 70 hours. Cold calling does take nerve since they often don't go as you plan them. I find that if I don't take myself too seriously and listen really closely, not just to the words, but to the tone and attitude, I am pretty successful. It helps that I have been cold calling for a while so have built up some confidence.
The bottom line for researchers: cold calling can still be a real time saver, and in the case of this medical project, it was the fastest and most effective way to get the client the information they needed to forecast their opportunity to sell a new product!
While social networks have increased the information and sources we can reach for our projects, we have to work smart to identify which sources along the research continuum scale will render answers most expeditiously. Sometimes social media is a great resource: in other projects it can be a waste of time. Discriminating researchers must quickly decide which resources will work best for each project and take advantage of running up and down the research continuum as we piece together our conclusions.
Tips to Improve Your Cold Calling Success
Think and Do:
How do you think they're motivated?
Why would they want to talk with you?
Can you guess what they're like based on their occupation?
Read up on their profession if you don't know it.
Prepare a good intro about yourself: short and crisp.
Be ready for their questions about you. Decide what you won't share.
Prepare the list of questions you need to have answered.
Why would they want to answer these questions?
Which questions might be easier for them to answer?
Make sure you have some open ended questions to start.
Do you want to mix your interview tactics between questions and elicitation, that is getting the other person to reply conversationally rather than by answering your questions.
Can you learn about them on LinkedIn, Zoom Info, Jigsaw or other social media?
Warm up the call up with this information: do you have something in common?
Or is it easier just to call the person without taking the time to research who they are?
How to Be:
Psych yourself up: envision and expect them to share with you.
Be interesting on your end, even if you're horrified!
Smile as you talk: your optimism travels through your tone of voice.
Think confidence: this comes through.
Psych yourself up: what's the worst thing that will happen? (They'll hang up or ask you too many questions & you'll hang up.)
Learn what works with every phone call & tweak accordingly.
Listen closely to each person. You'll be amazed at additional questions that you'll think of that will delight your clients.
Listen to what they don't say, and decide if it's worth going into.
Leave them feeling good about themselves: you may want to call them back.
Ellen Naylor has 30 years of marketing and sales experience with a focus on competitive intelligence (CI). She worked in corporate CI at Verizon and Northwest Airlines before forming a CI and market research consultancy, The Business Intelligence Source in 1993. Ellen is an active SCIP member, serving on its board of directors, chapter leadership, and numerous committees since 1990. She is a popular speaker and prolific writer in Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Competitive Intelligence Foundation books, Naylor's Mailer and her blog, http://cooperativeintelligenceblog.com. She is also a member of AIIP and ASP, among other associations.
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In 2008 I gave a Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) webinar on the evolving field of social media. There was so much buzz around social media and as information professionals we were excited to have another source to tap into! Since then, most information professionals have assimilated social media into our research process.
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