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I’ve made a career out of finding contact information for B2B decision makers at companies that I’d like to do business with.
In fact, I’ve sent over 3 million cold emails to them, generating tens of millions in pipeline revenue in the M&A space. Finding decision makers isn’t always easy, but it is worth it!
While there’s no way I could have manually sourced enough decision makers to send 3 million emails, there can still be value in doing it yourself:
Imagine sending a cold email to a dental office about a revolutionary new software. However, the email gets sent to one of the dental hygienists.
That dental hygienist might be:
Plus, since they don’t have the authority to make that decision anyway, the email doesn’t get more than a second of attention before it’s deleted.
Or even worse (and I see this all the time), the email gets sent to a general office inbox that no one checks…or an email that isn’t even in use!
There’s a reason salespeople often qualify a prospect first to find out if they’re the ones who can make the buying decision. If they can’t, the salesperson will often ask to reschedule for when the decision maker can be there.
It’s the same with sending an email or cold calling. If you’re struggling with finding new business, it might not be your pitch—it could be your targeting!
All your work becomes useless when you fail to contact the appropriate decision maker.
Who you should target at the company depends on a few different factors, such as your product and the structure/revenue/headcount of the company.
If you’re targeting smaller companies, especially with headcounts of 20 or less, going right to the top is your best bet.
At that size, they remain intimately involved in most company processes. They have their fingers in every pie and are still frequently making decisions in every department.
What sways a CEO? Well, since their purview covers the whole company, a variety of pitches could be effective here:
And many more.
However, if you’re targeting larger companies, your best bet is to find a decision maker more directly involved with the specific process your offer solves.
This usually depends on size, as a smaller company may have a single accountant to handle the financial needs. As you target larger companies, you’ll be looking for job descriptions like Controller or CFO.
These people are swayed by hard numbers, as the company’s bottom line is their main focus. Pitches like “makes things easier” or “decreases stress” will be less effective than “save you X dollars per month.”
These types of roles are usually looking for software solutions that can make their infrastructure less complicated, more powerful, or cheaper. It’s up to you to identify what your software does best and if it aligns with a specific CTO’s goals.
For example, a company growing tremendously is usually looking for a solution that grows with them, not to save money.
On the other hand, a company that’s been around for years and has stayed roughly the same size may be looking to lower costs or simplify their tech stack.
Depending on what the company does, you’ll likely start noticing these positions when the headcount hits 15+. So while the CEO might still be involved, the day-to-day pain and pressure fall on these positions more squarely.
And, they usually control the budget or have the juice to convince the CEO to go for your product.
Depending on your product, the best person to contact at a company might just be an employee! This can work well in two scenarios:
While there are plenty of ways to find contact information for the position you want to target, I’ve narrowed it down to what I think are the seven best.
Let’s dive in.
The first (and best) place to start is on the company’s own website. Here’s a great example from Card Ladder, a software company for sports card collectors & investors:
They put their Instagram handles front and center. This helps to humanize their company, but also facilitates building relationships. Smaller companies often do this.
Key pages to check:
If you strike out on the website, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and do some good ol’ fashioned detective work.
Because it’s the primary platform for business leaders, it’s a great place to track down your target audience. If you’re going after smaller companies, a quick search may find you the CEO, CTO, or whichever decision maker you’re looking for.
If that doesn’t work, check among your connections—do you have someone already in your network that’s connected to the company? That might be your in.
LinkedIn is big and it’s busy. You may have a hard time making a direct connection with a CEO, but you may be able to establish a connection through a second or third layer. Maybe start following the sales manager and begin commenting on their posts, which can draw the attention of a CEO.
With LLMs becoming better and smarter at gathering data from the internet, simply asking ChatGPT might get you an answer!
Of course, be sure to verify the sources to ensure you have the correct person. My best advice here would be to corroborate the information given with another tactic on this list to ensure you’re going after the right person.
Early in a company’s existence, the founder is more likely to be the face of the company. They’re often working directly with clients and handling customer service issues themselves.
This can lead to their names being directly mentioned in customer reviews! You might see this on Yelp, Facebook, or Google—anywhere the company has collected reviews.
In some cases, the business owner may even identify themselves!
Check out this great example at Legacy Plumbing in Frisco, TX.
The top review names a couple of plumbers at the company. If you only did a quick check, you might think one or both of them are founders.
But, check out the second blue circle! You’ll see that Theron Y. is actually the business owner. Boom! Now we’re getting somewhere.
Many founders will either send emails out themselves or have someone send them out on their behalf. Many companies discuss who they are in their welcome emails, and these are often written from the founder's perspective.
It’ll often be obvious in that first email, because they’ll say things like “I started this company because….” Or, the email could describe the founder in the third person as well: “John Smith started this company because….”
In many cases, the CEO’s name will be listed right there on the company’s profile!
In addition, there are other registries and profiles online that you can check that may list the CEO. This may require navigating to a second page of a Google search, but it’s worth the effort to ensure you’re targeting the right person for your offer.
Companies love to pat themselves on the back. When they hit a milestone, hire a C-level manager, or participate in a local activity, they often write about it (or get someone else to write about them). This may show up on their blog, someone else’s blog, a local news source, or even in a press release!
Keep an eye on news sources in your target industry (a Google Alert works great for this), and you’ll constantly find companies (and their employees) to target.
To sum it up, you’re likely to have the most success by looking at the company’s website first (especially on “About” or “Company History” pages). If that doesn’t work, you can try LinkedIn, or using AI (such as Google Search’s AI or ChatGPT).
Overall, here’s a quick order of operations for how we’d recommend finding decision makers:
Company Website → LinkedIn → AI Search → Google Reviews → Yelp Reviews → Email Newsletter → BBB → Press Releases/News/Blog
Finding out who the decision maker is can make or break your marketing strategy—but you also must be able to reach out to that person effectively.
With combined decades of experience, this is what Coldlytics does. We know how to find up-to-date contact info for decision makers, and that process is built natively into Coldlytics.
So, rather than spend hours of manual work yourself, trust your data-gathering to us. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when you can lean on our experience providing the best-quality lead data on the internet.
Create a free account today to see how our lists have helped many small businesses grow.
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