Chapter 4

Using Social Engineering to Gather Intelligence

The term social engineering is most widely used to describe unscrupulous behavior, such as misrepresenting oneself and lying to manipulate someone to provide sensitive information. However, we use it positively and ethically to gather intelligence for our Smart Calls. To us, social engineering simply means talking to people other than your prospect to gather information that will help you help your prospect. It can be done:

As a separate call before your first call to your prospect.

Every time you call your prospect.

I find this to be the most underutilized tool available to salespeople—and the one that has the greatest possible payoff. All it requires is that you take the time to do it, develop a sense of curiosity, and cultivate some conversational questioning techniques. Completing all of these steps may indeed grant you a revelation that many of us have had: People are willing to give you amazing amounts of high-quality information if you just ask them.

Kevin Mitnick was one of the most notorious computer hackers in the world, and at the time of his arrest in 1995, the most wanted computer criminal in U.S. history. After his release from prison, he wrote The Art of Deception (another book I highly recommend), in which he shares precisely how he pulled off many of his hacking jobs. Mitnick claims that he compromised computers solely by using passwords and codes that he gained by social engineering, in other words, simply talking to people. Now a speaker and security consultant to corporations, Mitnick points out that the weakest link in any security system is the person holding the information. You just need to ask for it.

Of course, we are using social engineering in the positive sense: asking for information from people that will help other people and the organization as a whole. The social engineering process for Smart Calling is as follows: Upon reaching a live voice, you:

1. Identify yourself and the company you represent, as in, “Hi, I’m Jason Andrews with National Systems.” This immediately shows that you are not hiding anything.
2. Ask for help. “I hope you can help me out” and “I need some assistance” are requests that can go a long way. Most people have an innate desire to be helpful to others in some way.
3. Use a justification statement. This is the key that will unlock the most useful information. Some examples are:
a. “I want to be sure that I’m talking to the right person there.”
b. “I’m going to be speaking with your VP of sales and want to be sure that I have accurate information.”
c. “So that I’m better prepared when I talk to your CIO, I have a few questions you probably could answer.”
4. Ask questions. Of course, you want to ask about the basic, factual material that you might not have information about yet. This depends both on what you sell and on the level of person with whom you’re speaking. In general, the higher up you go, the better the quality of information.

The theory behind the success of these justification statements I suggest is discussed by Robert Cialdini—widely considered one of the foremost experts on persuasion and influence—in his classic book, which I believe should be in every serious salesperson’s library, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Cialdini cites an experiment conducted by Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer in which students let others cut in line in front of them at the copy machine simply because they provided a reason for their request—“because I’m in a rush.”

Direct mail copywriters also employ this technique, often referring to it as the “Why” or the “Because.” For example, if a business is running a promotion, they know their response will increase if they give the reason for it. For example, “We need to make room for next year’s new models and are clearing out the warehouse, so we are dropping prices to move the current models.”

I recommend that you take the time to create your own justification statement—your because reason—and use it regularly.

Smart Calling Exercise
1. Prepare your own script for social engineering by using the preceding process. Be sure you have a justification statement you are comfortable with.
2. Brainstorm for the questions you will ask at all levels of an organization, and write them out. (You may want to do this after going through the chapter on questioning.)

With Whom Should You Engage?

Really, you could speak with anyone in a prospective organization. Following are some specific suggestions:

Users of Your Type of Product or Service. An office furniture sales rep told me that he garners valuable information from almost anyone he can get on the phone, since all of the employees use the furniture in the office. He finds out what pieces they have, how old they are, what they have to do when they need something new or replaced, and how functional and comfortable the furniture is. This helps him craft his Possible Value Statement to the decision maker, as well as develop some questions.
Screeners, Gatekeepers, and Assistants. We have an entire chapter on working with these people, not only to get information but also using their help to reach the end buyer. While often looked at as the enemy, we’ll discuss why they may wield as much information and power as the buyer.
Sales Department. We know salespeople love to talk, right? If you have a solution that might be able to help a company—and its sales reps—sell more, it’s pretty likely that they would be interested and help you with information.
Human Resources. You may be able to collect names of decision makers here by asking questions.
PR or Investor Relations. This is the part of the company whose job it is to provide information. If you are coming up empty in trying to locate a name or other information, go to these departments. If you can find a press release, it always has a contact name that can be a starting point in your quest.
Customer Service. This is a group specifically trained to be helpful and answer questions; it’s right there in their position title! Don’t be afraid to approach these people with your questions; not only do they have a wealth of information on the company but also they are in constant contact with the very group that your prospective client needs to please most: their customers.
Purchasing. You usually don’t want to be selling here, since their job is primarily to buy on price. However, you may be able to collect some great information from this group—such as the organization’s buying process, from whom they are currently buying, and maybe even what they pay for your type of product or service.
Accounts Payable and Receivable. Again, if you encounter a company that has the policy of not connecting you unless you have a name, in many cases you still can be put through to these departments. However, I am not suggesting that you ever misrepresent yourself or your intentions.

Assume What You Can’t Get and You’ll Always Be Right

Don’t automatically assume that a specific type or piece of information is ever impossible to get. I sometimes hear salespeople claim, “A secretary wouldn’t know anything about the specifics of their technology initiatives,” and as a result, the salesperson does not bother to ask a secretary about this topic. The fact is that you’ll never know unless you ask. Even if it turns out that the person from whom you are seeking information doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you didn’t lose anything by asking. Plus, people you least suspect to be knowledgeable in a given area may surprise you.

As I mentioned earlier, you want to conduct social engineering on every call. Even if you do not reach your decision maker—which, again, will occur most of the time—you will at least have an opportunity to salvage some information from the call.

More Social Engineering Tips

Here are some additional ideas to help with your own social engineering.

Ask Them to Be Your Eyes

When a sales rep is on site at a prospect’s or customer’s location, it’s easy to look around and get clues for sales opportunities. For example, an office equipment or furniture rep could obviously scan an area to get a feel for what the company owns. How can we do that by phone? By asking, of course. In addition to asking a receptionist, admin person, or anyone, for that matter, questions about what they do or use in a product or service category, a label sales rep, for example, could also add something like “Would you please look around and tell me if you see any other imprinted labels anywhere?”

Get on the Approved List First

A sales manager shared an idea that works well with his telesales reps. Companies often have approved vendor lists upon which any seller must be before the prospect could purchase. Instead of following the route that many salespeople take—trying to sell the prospect first—this manager’s reps ask the operator or screener if there is an approved vendor list, and if so, how to get on it. The callers follow the appropriate steps. Then, when speaking with the prospect, it’s a real door-opener to mention that they’re already on the list.

Talk to Other Sales Reps

Many of you reading this are inside sales reps, conducting most of your selling entirely by phone. If there are outside sales reps for your company who sell into your territory or to the same accounts, they can be a great resource for you. Naturally, they know the main buying motivators of typical prospects and customers, and they also can give specific tips about how to handle certain customers and prospects in the field.

An Example of Social Engineering in Action

Let’s listen in on a Smart Caller who has gathered some intelligence about her prospect company, has an idea that she ultimately needs to speak with Carl Prentice, the VP of Marketing, and learned from the company operator that Diane Jimenez has the title of Media Buyer.

Kelly. Diane Jimenez’s office, this is Kelly. May I help you?

Smart Caller. Hi, Kelly, I’m Pam Drayton with Elegant Images. And yes, I’m hoping you can help me.

Kelly. Well, what do you need?

Smart Caller. I’m going to ask to speak with your VP of Marketing, Carl Prentice, and I wanted to be sure that what we do would be of some value to him.

Kelly. This is Ms. Jimenez’s office, she works for him. I can transfer you to his assistant.

Smart Caller. That will be great, but actually there’s information that you could probably help me with. You work closely with her, right?

Kelly. Yes, I’m the admin for her and a few others. Make it quick.

Smart Caller. I understand Diane handles some of the media buying there.

Kelly. Yes.

Smart Caller. Can you tell me a few of the markets where you will be focusing your buying for the next quarter?

Kelly. Who are you with again?

Smart Caller. Elegant Images. We actually help advertisers get more coverage and run more spots at better rates than they usually can get themselves.

Kelly. Oh. We’re planning on going into a brand new market for us, the Southwest, Nevada, and Arizona.

Smart Caller. Wow, that’s great. So you’ve never been there before?

Kelly. No, totally new. I really need to go, want me to transfer you?

Smart Caller. That’s okay. I’ll call back, and I actually would like to talk to Diane first. Is she in?

Kelly. No, she’ll be back tomorrow.

Smart Caller. Thanks, Kelly, you’ve been very helpful. I’ll try back tomorrow.

In this brief exchange, the Smart Caller, Pam, accomplished several things:

Confirmed that Diane handled some media buying.
Learned that Diane worked for Carl Prentice, who she feels is the ultimate decision maker for what she is selling.
Very important, scored big by learning that the company is moving into new markets where they have not had experience, precisely the type of situation that would make them a good prospect for Pam.
Built some rapport with Diane’s admin, Kelly, and even provided a hint of some value.
Learned that Diane would be back tomorrow and let Kelly know that she will call back. Of course, Pam will not be a stranger then.
Pam will then call back to speak with Diane and treat it as a quasi-social engineering prospecting call, with the goal of finding more information, learning about Diane’s needs, getting Diane’s buy-in on Pam’s services, and perhaps getting Diane’s assistance in getting to and selling Carl.

I know as a fact that most sales reps do not go to this level with their questioning. And they are missing opportunities. Granted, not everyone will cooperate with you, and not everyone will have all of the information you seek. So what? On the other hand, just imagine what you could get!

Social Engineering Feedback, and an Answer to an Objection

The success stories I received from sales reps who formerly didn’t even think to do anything like Social Engineering has been overwhelming. That’s no surprise, because I know it works.

What I also expected, and received were a few objections from doubters, those who resisted using it, suggesting that decision makers would be upset that their employees would share company information, and that as salespeople we could put others in a bad position with their boss for doing so.

Here are my answers to that:

1. Like most things we worry about, it rarely happens.
2. If it does (I have not heard any of those reports) just have this reply ready to roll:

“Oh, well I just wanted to be sure that what I had would be of value to you before I called so I would not be wasting your time like a lot of the calls you might get from salespeople who know nothing about you.” Then continue with your call.

Smart Calling Action Steps

What will you commit to do as a result of reading this chapter?

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