How to have a customer/sales rep direct me to the business owner?

[ProcessPro]

Hi everyone,

I'm doing some cold emailing at the moment to find businesses that need help with Amazon PPC. The only way I can reach out to a business on Amazon is through their website - but generally 'Contact us' pages go to sales/customer service teams. I'm trying to brainstorm ways to have them direct my email to the business owners/decision makers - Any ideas how can I have them transfer me?

A little more context:
I'm doing these cold emails manually, one by one and I'm really trying to not come across like typical spam. So my email sequence looks like this:

Subject: Question
Body: Hi, are your products available on Amazon? -Jonathan.

If they respond with a mere yes, my response is:
Awesome! I manage PPC for sellers - I've done ads for brands like Pepsi, Lipton, and Velcro. If that's something you all need help with, we can arrange a call - let me know? -Jon.

If they give a detailed response, my response is:
Hi, thanks for the detailed response! I should have specified upfront - I asked because I manage PPC for sellers and wanted to know if that's something you all need help with. I've done ads for brands like Pepsi, Lipton, and Velcro. Let me know and we can arrange a call? -Jon.

@Andy Black You're usually helpful with these kind of things - I'd appreciate your thoughts.
@Fox I'd appreciate your thoughts as well if it's not too much trouble.

TLDR: Any ideas on how I have sales/customer reps transfer me to owners/decision makers without being deceptive?

Kindly,
Jon.

 

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[ProcessPro]

A few of my practices to not come across spammy:
-No emoticons, formatted text
-Conversational/casual tone
-No bold offers upfront
-No links/attached portfolio upfront
-Personal gmail account used to send emails
-Just 5-20 emails sent manually per day, spread throughout

 

[Andy Black]

Bear in mind I don't send cold emails, so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt.

1) I like how your first email is really short. It's like how a real enquiry would be.

2) Should you say "Amazon PCC" instead of PPC?

Awesome! I manage PPC for sellers

3) A line/angle that works well when I email people I've done business with in the past is to ask if they know anyone who needs help with XYZ. Instead of asking THEM if they need help (which puts them on the spot a bit), I ask if they know anyone who needs help.

Here's where I discuss that email. Bear in mind it's not a cold email.

• HOT! - When your back's against the wall...

4) I think your offer could be spelled out a bit more, and more enticing.

If that's something you all need help with, we can arrange a call - let me know? -Jon.

Could that be more like this (off the top of my head):

We offer free 30 minute Zoom calls where we look over your shoulder at your account to see if there's any major leaks you can plug there and then.

Let me know if you're interested and I'll send a link to our calendar.

Jonathan

 

[Andy Black]

Any ideas on how I have sales/customer reps transfer me to owners/decision makers without being deceptive?

Make it so they think they're doing their boss a disservice if they don't pass your offer on?

 

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[ProcessPro]

Make it so they think they're doing their boss a disservice if they don't pass your offer on?

Hi Andy! Thanks so much for the feedback.

I checked the other thread and I'm definitely taking that idea about 'space freed up on calendar' - it certainly sounds less needy.

I'll specify Amazon PPC going forward and I'll think of some ways to make things more enticing.

"Make it so they think they're doing their boss a disservice if they don't pass your offer on?"
This is gold - I mean, it's common sense, but I didn't think of it the way you framed it, so I'll give that some thought.

Thanks!

 

[Speed112]

You seem to be putting a significant amount of effort into each proposal to make it as organic as you can. Do these businesses have a phone number?

The best way I've found to get past gatekeepers and in touch with decision-makers is to just... you know... ask for it.

If you know who's in charge, name-drop them and ask to be connected, and 90%+ of the time you will. Actually I don't recall an instance when I wasn't.

"Hello, this is Speed. I've been meaning to get in touch with X to discuss a business opportunity. Could you please put me in touch with them?"

Half the time they don't ask anything and they just give you their contact. The other half they might inquire what for, and you can be cordial and up-front about what you do, what pushed you to reach out in the first place, and then point out how connecting is a good use of the person's time.

Ask and you shall receive.

It's better if you contact some colleague of the decisionmaker directly on their personal email rather than use the general office/info emails. Going from mid-level to high-level is easier, because low-level peeps don't have the confidence to act on their own usually and have to ask for permission, which means there's extra friction, and there may be managers getting in the way and discounting you prematurely.

Look the people up. If you can't find their contacts, look related people up, then ask for the initial person's contact.

No, it's not rude, and sometimes the middle-man you're going through may actually be interested or know someone who is interested in what you're doing as well. Just be nice and frank about it.

Hope this helps.

 

[ProcessPro]

You seem to be putting a significant amount of effort into each proposal to make it as organic as you can. Do these businesses have a phone number?

The best way I've found to get past gatekeepers and in touch with decision-makers is to just... you know... ask for it.

If you know who's in charge, name-drop them and ask to be connected, and 90%+ of the time you will. Actually I don't recall an instance when I wasn't.

"Hello, this is Speed. I've been meaning to get in touch with X to discuss a business opportunity. Could you please put me in touch with them?"

Half the time they don't ask anything and they just give you their contact. The other half they might inquire what for, and you can be cordial and up-front about what you do, what pushed you to reach out in the first place, and then point out how connecting is a good use of the person's time.

Ask and you shall receive.

It's better if you contact some colleague of the decisionmaker directly on their personal email rather than use the general office/info emails. Going from mid-level to high-level is easier, because low-level peeps don't have the confidence to act on their own usually and have to ask for permission, which means there's extra friction, and there may be managers getting in the way and discounting you prematurely.

Look the people up. If you can't find their contacts, look related people up, then ask for the initial person's contact.

No, it's not rude, and sometimes the middle-man you're going through may actually be interested or know someone who is interested in what you're doing as well. Just be nice and frank about it.

Hope this helps.

Hi @Speed112, you mentioned some valuable points there indeed.

A couple of things, I'm not in the US at the moment - I can't foot the bill of international calls - plus I wonder if my accent could be problematic? I'm also trying to figure out ways to get the names of business owners. I have a few methods thus far:

1) Linkedin
2) About us/Our story sections of websites
3) hunter.io

Haven't used them much yet as I only found these methods today.

"Look the people up. If you can't find their contacts, look related people up, then ask for the initial person's contact." - I really like this. I'll think about how I can implement this.

 

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[ProcessPro]

Make it so they think they're doing their boss a disservice if they don't pass your offer on?

@Andy Black

What do you think of these as initial emails?
Hi there, I saw your products on Amazon. I have some ideas for a collaboration that I think can be profitable to *business name*. Where do I submit a business inquiry? -Jonathan.

Hi there, I saw your products on Amazon - I'm emailing concerning your Amazon Ads account; I need to speak with the business owner or the person who handles this. Thanks. -Jonathan.

I have not yet anticipated possible responses and how I'd follow up from there but those sound (to me at least) like they'll create some desire to refer to the owner? What do you think?

 

[Miketing]

You don't want to be emailing them through a "Contact us" form at all. You want to be getting the direct email of the decision maker.

You can do that one of two ways:

1a. Enter their website into a contact database such as Apollo, Uplead, or RocketReach. You'll then see the CEO/Owner's email along with anyone else that matters.
1b. Enter their website into LinkedIn or Google, find the person you want from their company page, then use a LinkedIn scraping tool/extension to get the email address

2. Buy a list of Amazon seller leads which someone has precompiled for you.

 

[Speed112]

Hi @Speed112, you mentioned some valuable points there indeed.

A couple of things, I'm not in the US at the moment - I can't foot the bill of international calls - plus I wonder if my accent could be problematic? I'm also trying to figure out ways to get the names of business owners. I have a few methods thus far:

1) Linkedin
2) About us/Our story sections of websites
3) hunter.io

Haven't used them much yet as I only found these methods today.

"Look the people up. If you can't find their contacts, look related people up, then ask for the initial person's contact." - I really like this. I'll think about how I can implement this.

Last time I focused on phoning business owners (and wanted to seem legit) I bought a US phone number with unlimited calls through VoIP for $10/month. I'm sure there are affordable ways to call from abroad.

Now I just call from my Romanian landline where I have unlimited international calls for $3/mo.

LinkedIn is a very powerful outreach tool that I am using primarily atm for my FBA business. In fact, I highly recommend using it in tandem with email in a multi-channel approach to try to get those 7 touches and familiarity. The key to that is making the touches valuable to your prospects.

Once you find the right sourcing method that works for your business you can also automate or off-source parts of it to cut down on time and optimize your flow. That's how you scale up.

The about me -> find contact -> reach out genuinely -> providing real value -> discussing opportunities -> closing the deal method is probably the most effective one if low volume is enough. That's how I find my high-ticket copywriting clients.

Although I've found that highly-researched and high-quality emails on the first point of contact work best in those cases. Literally identifying a burning need that the prospect has and proving that you've got everything they need to solve it. I've sent 3000 word emails with samples and arguments and a lot of work... Not sure if that works outside the copywriting niche, though, and it's probably not worth the effort if you're not closing $5k+ deals off them.

Amazon PPC is pretty crowded and there are a lot of savvy business people that can tell when you know your stuff, so I suspect the high quality "I'm gonna stand out and you're gonna hire me" approach can definitely work.

Let me see if I can find some materials on this approach...

P.S.: Don't worry about your accent. Nobody cares about that. It might even be an advantage since people are forced to pay more attention to you and listen better.

If you truly believe that you can provide value to these people, and that them spending time listening or reading to what you have to say is worthwhile for them, then you shouldn't have anything holding you back from making contact.

 

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[Itizn]

If you're going to manually write each email, you are much better making cold calls as opposed to cold emails.

 

[Speed112]

If you're going to manually write each email, you are much better making cold calls as opposed to cold emails.

Yep.

Call -> Email -> Call works better than Email -> Email -> Call, which works better than Email -> Email -> Email. Conversion-rate-wise.

The benefits of an email approach are that you can off-source pretty much everything and reach out to thousands of people each month.

You always want to get them on a call, though. That's where you close the deal. Very rarely, especially in competitive niches, do you close people straight from email. It's more common to close people straight from the initial cold call.

The big money, though, is in the calls where you're both on the same page, under no pressure, where you can freely discuss the opportunity and negotiate everything multilaterally. So usually after multiple follow-ups over multiple channels.

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black

What do you think of these as initial emails?
Hi there, I saw your products on Amazon. I have some ideas for a collaboration that I think can be profitable to *business name*. Where do I submit a business inquiry? -Jonathan.

Hi there, I saw your products on Amazon - I'm emailing concerning your Amazon Ads account; I need to speak with the business owner or the person who handles this. Thanks. -Jonathan.

I have not yet anticipated possible responses and how I'd follow up from there but those sound (to me at least) like they'll create some desire to refer to the owner? What do you think?

These seem too generic and too long. I’d bin these if I received them.

 

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[doster.zach]

These seem too generic and too long. I’d bin these if I received them.

I would try and do 10% of the cold emails you are currently doing, and spend 10x as much time per each and tailor it to the company more. Research the companies on LinkedIn, try and find business emails of actual people in the company, not just hello@foo.com