Key Takeaways
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Typically, these hard-to-reach decision makers in emerging tech would include titles such as CTOs, CIOs, and innovation directors. Knowing what’s on their plate and what they care about will go a long way to engage them effectively.
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Busy schedules, high-level responsibilities, and organizational culture all contribute to making engaging these decision makers difficult. Use that knowledge to customize your outreach to account for them.
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Researching organizational hierarchies and utilizing platforms such as LinkedIn to find the right stakeholders goes a long way. Networking at relevant industry events and being plugged in through industry trend watch efforts are helpful.
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Engage hard-to-reach decision makers by personalizing your phone outreach to meet their specific pain points and showing how your solutions help them. Make your phone pitch as clear and concise as possible. This will only add to your credibility.
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Persistence pays off, but this should be tempered with a respect for the decision maker’s time. With smart follow-up, you can stay in touch, learn from your rejections and revise accordingly.
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Use technology such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and sales automation technology to help you efficiently manage and track outreach and interactions. Look at your call data to help shape and develop your strategy to get better results.
To effectively engage those hard-to-reach decision makers in emerging tech, you have to be laser-focused. Take it from us—nothing ever beats a combination of preparation, research, and communication. Decision makers in this emerging tech space usually appreciate brief, to-the-point conversations that acknowledge their busy schedules and focus on what would be most actionable.
Rapport is developed through empathy, knowing what their unique challenges are, and tailoring your message to their objectives. Being more specific in your outreach, using data-backed examples or personalized solutions goes a long way towards making more powerful connections.
Making calls at the right time is another important factor, as calling when decision makers are most available makes it more likely to have productive discussions.
Follow-up and consistency are crucial. Even more than initial outreach, here is where follow-up and consistent outreach really pays off. By concentrating on these strategies, phone outreach can be an effective method to engage even the most hard-to-reach decision makers.
Understanding Hard-to-Reach Decision Makers
To the burgeoning tech industry, understanding these hard-to-reach decision makers are crucial to the future of their organization. These people make very high-stakes decisions, sometimes related to how quickly they can adopt new technologies, innovate products, or position themselves in the market.
The truth is, engaging them can be an incredibly difficult task, given their distinct qualities, and the nature of their industries’ ecosystems.
Who Are Hard-to-Reach Decision Makers
Hard-to-reach decision makers often hold titles like Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Vice President (VP) of Innovation, or Head of Product Development. Their responsibilities involve navigating complex challenges, from evaluating emerging technologies to aligning them with organizational objectives.
Decision influencers—such as department heads or consultants—often have significant sway, even without formal authority. Understanding this network of influence is vital for crafting a targeted outreach approach.
Why They Are Difficult to Engage
Their scarcity comes from a lack of time. 63% of executives report spending more than 40 hours a week making decisions. Competing priorities and organizational cultures make them even less attainable.
For example, bureaucratic systems can create obstacles in the form of several layers of decision-making to get through before reaching these pivotal actors. Their high-level responsibilities do not allow much opportunity for cold outreach, so well thought out and targeted outreach strategies are important.
Importance of Engaging Them in Emerging Tech
By engaging these hard-to-reach decision makers, you are opening up new pathways to innovation and market leadership. Their expertise informs our product development so that we’re building the tools that the industry needs most.
Successfully connecting with them offers a competitive edge, enabling businesses to anticipate trends and respond effectively.
Identifying the Right Decision Makers
Engaging decision makers in emerging tech begins with a solid customer engagement strategy that identifies the most influential individuals within a company. By pinpointing the right decision makers, effective sales outreach methods can lead to a more focused and successful outreach process.
Research the Organization’s Hierarchy
Start by researching the organizational structure of your target agency, as this is crucial for an effective sales outreach strategy. Most companies provide a wealth of information on their executive team pages or “About Us” sections. In B2B settings, decision-makers often include C-suite professionals like CEOs and COOs, who are key to understanding customer needs and enhancing customer relationships.
For example, a COO has a profound understanding of the organization’s operational needs and is guided by department heads on the best-suited solutions. Creating a visual map of the hierarchy can help you identify the relationship between each stakeholder, thereby improving your customer engagement strategy.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator and similar tools are essential in this pursuit. While lead exporting is prohibited, change alerts can alert you to important changes or updates. This allows you to identify who is the best person to approach and make sure your outreach is tailored to their roles and responsibilities.
Leverage Professional Networks and Platforms
LinkedIn is an essential tool for finding the right decision makers. Look for mutual connections and dive into their profiles to see what they’re responsible for. You may discover mutual contacts who can assist you with introductions.
Being active in online forums, or through the process of attending industry events, creates relationships, too. For example, a little networking at a big tech conference can quickly help you identify the key influencers you’d otherwise reach out to.
Analyze Industry Trends and Insights
This makes it even more important to understand trends in the tech space. Those decision makers, who might be pounding on decisions for up to 40 hours a week, are often swayed by the industry boogeymen. Keeping an eye on these reports and studies gives advocates insight into their priorities.
For instance, new tech innovators may be more concerned with decreasing costs or improving scalability. By being deliberate about your outreach and meeting these pain points head on, you not only create value, you build community and engagement.
Preparing for Effective Phone Outreach
Building relationships with decision makers in these new emerging tech spaces requires a solid customer engagement strategy and preparation for strategic outreach. Before making your first call, it’s essential to establish groundwork to enhance your sales outreach methods for successful and impactful conversations. With this plan in mind, your outreach efforts will be more effective, leading to fruitful, long-term customer relationships.
Develop a Checklist of Essential Preparation Steps Before Making Calls
First, develop a checklist for everyone involved that covers all of the steps. This might mean verifying the proper contact details, doing a run-through of your pitch, and drafting answers to likely objections. Since automated phone menus tend to be the first obstacle, make a plan to get past these.
In fact, plan for several conversations with every contact. We’ve found that on average it takes six attempts or more to reach a human being. To improve your chances, call at different times and on different days, as these decision makers can be highly unpredictable. Common courtesy and a bit of patience will take you far. If you make a positive impression, you’ll leave the door open for future communications.
Research Each Decision Maker’s Background to Tailor Your Approach
A customized strategy first starts with a thorough understanding of the research. Research their work history, recent deals/projects, and emerging industry trends to find your solutions best intersect with their priorities.
Or, if they just rolled out a new system last week, highlight the ways your solution integrates with or improves upon it. Don’t try to hit everybody, but rather, focus on decision makers who have needs that your offering uniquely serves.
Set Clear Objectives for Each Outreach Call to Maintain Focus
Know what outcome you’d like to see before making a call. Are you launching a new product, trying to schedule a meeting, or conducting market research? Maintaining clear goals will help keep the call focused and useful.
Figure out what the most important things you want to address are. Use those bullets as an outline to make sure you hit all the points but keep it conversational.
Understand Their Pain Points and Needs
Decision makers in emerging tech often face challenges such as budget constraints, scalability issues, or staying ahead in a competitive market. Put together a list of shared pain points to address with your calls.
For instance, modernizing customer engagement alone can increase cross-sell revenue by 22%. Customize your solutions to prove how they directly address these challenges, delivering tangible value.
Personalize Your Approach and Message
Personalization is the name of the game. Draw on your history to shape your outreach, whether that’s discussing your last call together or congratulating them on their company’s recent success.
Establishing rapport through personalized communication builds credibility and signals to them that you care and are invested in their success. For example, tell them how other clients like them have used your service to their advantage.
Develop a Clear and Concise Pitch
An effective pitch breaks your message down into clear, bite-sized pieces. Focus on functional or performance improvements, cost savings or efficiency improvements.
Approach practice your delivery to your pitch so that you can sound confident and be clearly understood. Having a bullet list of points clarifies your own ask, keeps you focused, and stops you from bombarding them with details.
Keep in mind, they appreciate time almost as much as they appreciate results.
Strategies for Engaging Decision Makers
Engaging decision makers through emerging tech, like autonomous vehicles, with effective phone outreach requires a careful, strategic customer engagement strategy. These sales outreach methods make your message smart and to-the-point, enhancing personalized engagement and helping you build powerful relationships with time-strapped decision-makers.
1. Build Credibility Quickly
By creating an atmosphere of trust from the get-go, you lay the groundwork for meaningful dialogue. Provide collateral like case studies or testimonials from past clients within prospects’ industries to illustrate previous success. Show that you truly understand their challenges by alluding to industry trends or relevant pain points they’re dealing with.
For example, if your desired audience is tech CFOs, mentioning how your solution helps them achieve budget optimization can strike a chord. Include data-driven insights like ROI statistics to build credibility. Decision makers appreciate useful numbers, so pull real facts and figures to back up your statements.
2. Use Data-Driven Insights
Analytics help us figure out how to do the outreach most effectively. LinkedIn’s robust search tools make it easy to narrow down decision-makers by title. This gets you closer to identifying which CEOs or COOs are going to be most interested in your product.
Share evidence that directly relates to their interests, like companies that focus on engagement are 22% more profitable. Visual aids, such as charts, can help break down complex information and leave a lasting impression with your pitch.
3. Focus on Value and Solutions
Clearly demonstrate how your solution meets their specific needs. Make pain points sing by offering solutions, like how a MAP might define available resources and milestones towards a solution, leading to smoother implementation.
Emphasizing potential ROI on top of that makes your value proposition even stronger.
4. Be Persistent but Respectful
Follow-ups are essential. Decision makers almost never answer the first ask. A marked and measured timeline that balances doggedness with tactfulness is a sign of professionalism.
Be courteous and keep up regular communication. Using a mix of phone calls, emails and LinkedIn messages will keep you on their radar without being a nuisance.
5. Adapt Based on Feedback
Active listening hones your strategy. Guidance provided throughout call-in day preparations informs your messaging to target decision makers.
The willingness to pivot displays openness and responsiveness. Establishing a feedback loop means making the next one even better, making future outreach more impactful.
Best Practices for Phone Outreach
Bringing decision makers along with emerging tech requires patience and finesse. Utilizing a customer engagement strategy, phone outreach remains a powerful tool when used strategically, especially for building connections with hard-to-reach individuals. Here are some best practices to ensure you get the most out of your sales outreach.
Prepare a Script to Guide Your Conversation
Having a script gives you a baseline, helping you stay organized, make sure you hit all the important points, and still allowing for natural conversation. With an adaptable, flexible script you’ll be able to respond to the decision maker’s answers and ensure the conversation feels real and natural.
For example, include a brief introduction, a value proposition tied to their industry challenges, and a closing that encourages further discussion. Scripts help you stay organized but avoid sounding robotic by personalizing key sections based on research about the individual or their company.
Choose the Right Time to Call
Timing is everything when it comes to successful phone outreach. Experiments have indicated that for the most part, early mornings or later afternoons are optimal, though this may differ by industry.
For instance, tech executives might only be responsive after 4 p.m. Experimentation is important—keep a record of your call times and outcomes to find trends. All of this data should be used to constantly refine your strategy and ensure that you are increasing your connection rates over time.
Use Active Listening Techniques
Active listening builds rapport and shows you’re truly invested in what the decision maker wants. Active listening techniques such as paraphrasing their concerns or summarizing key points help them feel heard.
For example, if they say they’re having trouble scaling their operations, validate this, and ask what solutions could work best in their context. Simple actions like asking follow-up questions can uncover deeper insights, allowing you to align your value proposition more effectively.
Ask Open-Ended and Relevant Questions
Open-ended questions help turn phone calls into conversations. Rather than presenting a question like “Are you looking for support optimizing your tech stack?” this approach lays the groundwork for deeper conversations to understand their unique, local needs.
This opens the door for more detailed responses, allowing you to get a better sense of their needs. Make sure to customize your questions to their specific role/field. For example, getting a CTO to talk about system compatibility might be easier than getting a CFO to discuss cost efficiency.
Follow Up Strategically and Consistently
Sometimes a well-timed follow-up is all that’s needed. Develop a structure and timeline for ongoing check-ins. Provide downloadable content to share, such as detailed case studies and industry reports.
Set up reminders with tools such as calendar reminders to ensure follow-ups are done in a timely manner. If they express interest but say they need more time, follow up with a brief email recap of your call. This will go a long way in keeping you on their radar.
Being consistent in communication and follow-through not only conveys professionalism, but your sincere interest—which establishes trust over time.
Bullet List of Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s:
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Research the decision maker’s background and company beforehand.
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Keep the tone professional yet conversational.
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Provide value by offering insights relevant to their challenges.
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Be respectful of their time by keeping calls concise.
Don’ts:
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Avoid using overly aggressive sales tactics.
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Don’t interrupt or dominate the conversation.
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Refrain from ignoring verbal or tonal cues of disinterest.
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Never skip a follow-up if they’ve shown interest.
Overcoming Challenges in Phone Outreach
Making contact with decision-makers in emerging tech fields takes an intentional and strategic effort. Though direct, phone outreach poses a unique set of challenges. From getting past gatekeepers to dealing with rejections and staying motivated, achieving success requires some planning, perseverance, and flexibility.
Let’s unpack these challenges and meet them head on with specific, actionable strategies.
Address Gatekeepers Effectively
Gatekeepers are usually the initial obstacle. Developing rapport with them is key to earning their trust and collaboration. Begin by recognizing their expertise and using courteous language. Instead of immediately demanding for the decision maker, pause and consider.
For example, you might ask, “I know you assist them with their schedule. Can you please let me know when would be the most convenient time for me to call you?” A willingness to learn and demonstrate that understanding will go a long way.
Tactics such as requesting their advice or demonstrating true interest in their viewpoint are effective enablers. For example, you could respond, “I understand this is a hectic period for them. They need to discuss any circumstances that warranted having a separate outreach.
Try things such as keeping it short and ditching the one-size-fits-all script. Have a quick pitch for your call ready that speaks to their company’s unique needs.
Handle Initial Rejections with Tact
Rejection is a fact of phone outreach but it doesn’t have to throw you off your game. A growth mindset turns them into teachable experiences. Reacting with respect maintains goodwill.
Or, if you get the response, “We’re not interested,” you might say, “I appreciate you telling me. If that’s all right, I would really appreciate being able to follow up in a few months.
It’s useful to have a set of go-to conversational phrases. For instance, “Thanks for telling us the truth! Can I continue to email you about these kinds of solutions?” or “Thank you for your consideration. If your situation changes, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Maintain Motivation Despite Setbacks
Phone outreach requires a thick skin, that’s for sure, when overcoming buyer silence can require as many as 18 touches. Setting small but achievable milestones, such as celebrating every callback received or every meeting scheduled, helps maintain a sense of progress.
A positive community of peers is equally important—hearing how others have overcome challenges and learning from their successes breeds motivation.
Designing a simple mantra such as, “Every no brings me closer to a yes,” helps sharpen your resolve. As always, keep in mind that the more personalized your outreach is, the better.
Your generic pitches don’t make the cut, so create personalized outreach by doing in-depth research on each prospect. A systematic 7-phase, long-term follow-up plan can do amazing things.
Leveraging Technology to Support Outreach
Engaging decision-makers in the emerging tech landscape takes a more targeted approach, one that blends strategy with specialized tools. Technology is essential to any outreach strategy, helping to create more streamlined processes, stronger personalization, and insights you can act on.
Read on to find out how specific tools and techniques can take your phone outreach to the next level.
Use CRM Tools for Tracking and Insights
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems play a crucial role in enhancing a customer engagement strategy and ensuring effective sales outreach. These tools offer a centralized database of customer information, including previous interactions and preferences, which facilitates consistent, tailored communication.
For instance, you can document when a call was made, the outcome of that call, and set reminders for next steps, all in one sales engagement platform. Powerful CRM insights empower sales teams to continuously refine their sales prospecting strategy, identifying what resonates best with key decision-makers.
Metrics such as call frequency, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction scores enable organizations to pinpoint areas for improvement. A comprehensive checklist could include response time, history of contact, and quality of lead.
For example, AI-powered CRMs utilize predictive analytics to help organizations identify and prioritize promising leads that are most likely to convert, enhancing their overall sales cadence and improving efficiency.
Automate Follow-Ups Without Losing Personal Touch
Sales automation tools take the busywork out of follow-up scheduling and more while still allowing you to keep things personal. Personalized emails, for example, generate 14% more click-throughs, emphasizing the power of targeted communication.
Automation can take care of reminders and updates, which means more time can be spent on meaningful conversations. The answer is finding the right mix. Where automation provides efficiency on the administrative side, the human element deepens relationships.
Create custom communications with recipient first names. Cite previous conversations and place strict character limits on automated replies to ensure your constituents feel engaged without being inundated.
AI tools go a step further by analyzing previous interactions to recommend the most relevant content in a more personalized way.
Analyze Call Data to Improve Strategy
Call analytics offer a treasure chest of useful data to help shape your outreach. Tracking call outcomes—even if the call resulted in a follow-up or closed deal—can start to show you trends. Or you might discover that outreach efforts on certain days of the week or times of day result in more success.
With this data in hand, you can iterate and improve your approach. AI tools can help determine which interactions are the most successful, providing insights on tone, timing, and content that really resonate.
A simple dashboard that tracks performance metrics such as average call duration, lead success rate, and lead conversion keeps things focused on optimization. Use it to inform your long-term outreach strategies!
Only with high-quality data can these insights be turned into targeted, actionable outreach that makes the biggest impact.
Conclusion
Engaging hard-to-reach decision makers in emerging tech through phone outreach requires a targeted approach, advance preparation, and savvy strategies. It’s just a matter of knowing who to call, being prepared with your value proposition clearly articulated, and leveraging the right tools to make your outreach easier. Each call provides an opportunity to establish rapport and prove that you have a handle on their priorities. Being persistent but knowing when to change tactics will pay off. Tech is a game changer for measuring progress and keeping your work organized.
Building these bridges is no small task, but it is a crucial pursuit. Build on what you’ve gained from the experiences shared above, and continue to iterate on your tactics and strategies. With each step, you’re moving closer to those meaningful conversations. Be tenacious, be transparent, and see your success multiply.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are “hard-to-reach” decision makers in emerging tech?
These senior executives or key stakeholders in tech companies are crucial for effective sales outreach, as they hold the decision-making power. They are typically very busy and selective about whom they engage with, making a strong customer engagement strategy essential.
How do I identify the right decision makers?
Aim for titles such as CTO, CIO, or VP of Innovation while leveraging social selling on platforms like LinkedIn. This approach helps identify decision makers responsible for tech adoption and corporate strategy.
What is the best way to prepare for a phone outreach?
Dig deep to learn about their challenges and craft your customer engagement strategy to address them. Prepare an opening line to demonstrate how you are best suited to enhance their customer experience.
How can I engage decision makers effectively on the phone?
Provide something of clear value upfront in your sales outreach, and get to the point quickly. Here’s where many sales teams lose focus. Personalizing your approach is key to effective prospecting and capturing the attention of potential customers.
What are some best practices for phone outreach?
Call outside of peak hours to enhance customer engagement, limit conversations to less than 5 minutes, and always ask for permission to follow up, ensuring you address their business needs effectively.
How can I overcome objections during phone outreach?
Listen to potential customers, show them that you understand their concerns, and then provide personalized engagement solutions that make sense. Share engaging success stories to establish credibility.
What tools can help improve phone outreach success?
Utilize CRM or other software to log all touchpoints, then use generative AI tools like chatGPT to inform you of personalized engagement strategies. Call analytics can further sharpen your sales outreach by helping you hone in on what’s most effective.