How To Cold Call A Sales Executive
Cold calling can be hard enough, never mind cold calling into sales prospects who are professionals in the very process you are trying to engage them in. As in any other role, sales professionals have business challenges just like any IT, finance, marketing, or HR exec. One can argue that a sales professional has even more pressure to fix business challenges at all costs, as their job rests on hitting ambitious revenue goals for the company. I have made cold calls into marketing, IT, education, engineers, finance, even scientists. I cannot deny that sales folks can be challenging, but if you do it right, you will have highly rewarding conversations. 
Do your research: I’m sure you have heard this before and while this is important with any call campaign, I assure you that with sales execs, this is even more important. You need to tailor your message and let them know that you know their audience. If you are reading this, you are probably in sales and likely think that your prospects are unique or challenging. If someone had a useful tool that helps sales professionals, you probably would not think they could help you unless you know this solution actually works for YOUR audience.
What is their business challenge: The key is to identify with what is getting between them and closed business. How will your solution help him/her close business? Don’t try to list features to a sales exec; they are only interested in talking to you if you can help them close business. You may think its obvious how your solution may enable them to do this, but it’s not that transparent to your prospects. Clearly and directly let them know exactly how your solution will help them close deals.
Be Direct: Again, don’t talk product features to sales execs and try to keep all emails at 90 words or less. Talk about their audience and how your solution will allow them to close more business with them.
When you find the right message, it’s important to stay confident the whole time. If you don’t treat Mr. VP of Sales with confidence, he will disregard your message and categorize you as “just another sales person.” After all, that is the dreaded category all of us sales professionals are trying to stay away from. Calling into sales professionals takes a lot of diligence and patience. These prospects don’t pick up the phone often, but when they do you need to be ready to address their challenges if you want to see good results.