The Ultimate Guide: How to Contact Property Owners and Managers

Introduction

Salespeople today face a monumental challenge in reaching decision-makers.

In today’s digital age, it’s no longer enough to simply find a name, phone number, or email address—you have one shot to resonate with a decision-maker or risk being banished to the “junk” folder.

Even when you manage to get through, your message is often drowned in a sea of generic, copy/pasted emails that start with, “I hope you’re doing well…” from reps relying on outdated, “salesy” tactics.

These messages are no longer effective when decision-makers see hundreds of similar emails flood inboxes and LinkedIn accounts every week.

And we’re seeing the effects of these tactics in real-time. Reps who persist in using these outdated methods quickly find their emails marked as junk, often before they’re even read. Open rates are plummeting and reply rates are at all time lows.

For your sales team, this means fewer appointments (at-bats) and a sales pipeline that can feel like it’s “drying up.”

But what about cold calls?

These, too, are seeing less effectiveness industry-wide because smartphones can immediately identify callers and automatically filter out numbers that aren’t in the user’s contacts. If your number doesn’t make the cut, you’re likely to end up in perpetual voicemail purgatory or, worse, blocked.

And we didn’t even cover other factors like gatekeepers, executive assistants, and more.

Simply put, reaching decision-makers has never been harder unless you have the right tools.

If you want to reach property owners and managers, the people who have the budget and actually make decisions, your outreach has to stand out. It has to be timely, relevant, and different.

That’s what we’re going to cover today.

In this article, let’s explore how you can cut through the noise and connect with key commercial property owners and managers who need your products and services.

Understanding Decision Makers

Before we dive into the content, let’s talk about how to identify the best person to contact and understand how a decision-maker thinks, and why many sales reps struggle to get through to them.

In general, sales people have a transactional mindset – after all, their quarterly sales goals depend on a certain number of deals being closed in their favor. But when it comes to decision-makers, they have a different perspective.

What Is a Decision Maker and How Do They Think?

First, a decision maker, generally the owner, manager, or facilities director of a commercial property will be the who holds the authority to approve purchasing decisions on the behalf of the account. While you may encounter gatekeepers on the path, it’s the decision maker who ultimately has the final approval to sign the deal.

While a salesperson focuses on transactions, decision-makers operate differently. Their primary concern is how your product or service can solve their problems and improve their property, company, or bottom line.

They’re also very busy, so they won’t waste time on empty pitches that don’t deliver immediate value.

Property owners and managers have developed a keen ability to spot generic, copy-paste sales tactics, and if they sense a cookie-cutter approach, they’ll tune you out.

To capture their attention, your outreach must be relevant, timely, and personalized to their unique needs- quite a combination. If you don’t have the right tools (something we’ll talk about in a moment), this requires research- and a lot of it.

According to Salesforce, successful sales reps spend up to 21% of their time alone on lead research. That’s the equivalent of nearly 2 hours per day, 4- 5 days per week—this is all to find out what makes a prospect “tick.”

In short, your prospects care about one thing: how your offering solves their challenges. If you can clearly show that your solution aligns with their needs, budget, goals, and timeline, you’ll capture their attention. Otherwise, they’ll quickly move on.

As a sales rep, remember that property owners see dozens of pitches like yours every week. While you may be passionate about your product (or your quota), they expect to see someone just like you tomorrow—so you need the right information to help you stand out.

Types of Decision Makers

Decision-makers can be categorized into different types based on their roles, responsibilities, and levels of authority within an organization. Understanding these types can help you tailor your approach and communication strategy to effectively engage with them. Here are some common types of decision-makers:

1. Financial Decision Makers: These individuals are responsible for making financial decisions, such as budgeting, forecasting, and cost management. They typically hold titles like CFO, Financial Director, or Accounting Manager. Their primary concern is the financial health of the organization, so your pitch should focus on cost savings, ROI, and financial benefits.

2. Technical Decision Makers: These decision-makers evaluate the technical aspects of a product or service. They often hold titles like CTO, IT Manager, or Technical Director. When reaching out to them, emphasize the technical specifications, compatibility, and how your solution can solve their technical challenges.

3. Operational Decision Makers: These individuals are responsible for the organization’s day-to-day operations and may hold titles like COO, Operations Manager, or Department Head. Your approach should highlight how your product or service can streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce downtime.

4. Strategic Decision Makers: These decision-makers are responsible for making strategic decisions that impact the overall direction of the organization. They often hold titles like CEO, President, or Business Development Manager. Focus on how your solution aligns with their long-term goals and strategic initiatives.

5. Influencer Decision Makers: These individuals may not have direct decision-making authority but can influence the decision-making process. They may hold titles like Business Analyst, Consultant, or Advisor. Building a relationship with these influencers can be crucial, as they can advocate for your solution within the organization.

Understanding the different types of decision-makers and their priorities can help you craft a more targeted and effective outreach strategy.

Finding Decision Makers

Finding contact information for property owners and managers has never been easier. Dozens of tools offer emails, phone numbers, intent data, and sales intelligence.

However, if you’re primarily selling into properties, you should probably start with property intelligence software, a tool built specifically to help you find qualified prospects and close deals.

The Importance of Job Title in Identifying Decision Makers

“Job title” is an essential factor in identifying decision-makers. It provides valuable insights into an individual’s role, responsibilities, and level of authority within an organization. However, relying solely on job titles can be limiting, as it may not always accurately reflect an individual’s decision-making authority.

To effectively identify decision makers, it’s essential to consider other factors, such as:

1. Company Size and Industry: Decision-making structures can vary significantly depending on the company size and industry. For instance, in smaller companies, the CEO might be directly involved in purchasing decisions, while in larger organizations, this responsibility might be delegated to department heads or managers.

2. Job Function and Department: Understanding the job function and department can help you identify the decision-maker’s role and responsibilities. For example, a Facilities Manager in a commercial building will have different priorities and decision-making authority compared to a Financial Director.

3. Company Budget and Revenue: Depending on the company’s budget and revenue, decision-makers may have different levels of authority. In high-revenue companies, purchasing decisions might require approval from multiple levels of management, whereas in smaller companies, a single decision-maker might have more autonomy.

By considering these factors in addition to job titles, you can more accurately identify the key decision-makers within an organization and tailor your outreach accordingly.

Property Intelligence Software

For years, property intelligence software was only for people in commercial real estate. The focus was on supplying relevant insights to investors, owners, tenants, and those doing due diligence on a property, such as lenders or bankers.

Today’s property intelligence software is completely different. Tools like Convex provide valuable data on commercial properties that help your reps identify prospects and reach out to them in minutes. These tools also assist in acquiring and validating email contacts, which is crucial for effective digital communication.

Key Features of Convex:

• Signals: Identify prospects ready to buy with lead scoring based on buyer intent data.
• Generative AI: Send highly personalized emails or phone scripts in just two clicks.
• Property Intelligence: Access detailed data like building age, square footage, tenant information, ownership, and permit history.
• Atlas: Visualize property and contact data on a map, create lead lists, map efficient prospecting and sales routes, and sync customer data bidirectionally with your CRM.
• Engage: Reach out to high-priority prospects based on their signal strength.
• Light CRM Functionality: Track leads, assign stages, tag coworkers, and manage pipeline with integrated CRM tools.

One of Convex’s most unique features is the integration of equipment data, including service history and warranties, allowing you to predict when properties may need certain services, giving you a competitive edge. This data gives you a significant advantage when reaching out to potential clients because it enables you to tailor your message to their specific property needs.

Teams using Convex experience a 9x median ROI*, based on year-average estimates with a 95% customer retention rate and 45% profit margin.

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator

When you’re on the topic of finding contact details, no article would be complete without LinkedIn. As a B2B networking tool, LinkedIn is the gold standard. There are two main ways to leverage LinkedIn to identify decision-makers: searching and connecting.

• Searching: You can use LinkedIn’s advanced search filters to find key decision-makers by job title, company, or industry. Keywords like “facility manager” or “property manager” will help you zero in on the right contacts.
• Connecting: Once you’ve found the right person, how you connect with them is key. Don’t just hit the connect button, check out their website, look at business or market news about their company, look through their social media posts to find an interesting topic to open with— then craft a personalized message that speaks to their needs. Highlight how you can help solve a problem or improve their operations.

This is where Sales Navigator can provide detailed insights. Finding decision-makers takes a proactive approach. Identify, verify, and engage them. Put together an outreach criteria for your team, this should include details like your target avatar or ideal customer profile (ICP), outreach triggers, and other details about them that determine whether they’re a good fit for your products and services. Including relevant information such as decision-makers contact details and insights obtained through email address search engines can enhance personalization in your outreach.

Events and Conferences

Attending industry-specific events and conferences is another great way to meet property owners and managers face-to-face. Whether you’re in the HVAC or commercial cleaning sector, these events often feature individuals with vast networks who may be perfect prospects as keynote speakers or panelists. These gatherings are also excellent opportunities to search for relevant leads to enhance your marketing effectiveness.

Consistently attending such events helps you build long-term relationships and opens doors to networking opportunities you might not find online. Plus, nothing beats the power of a personal connection when it comes to building rapport.

Send personalized messages after events, create small groups of local thought leaders, networking groups, and roundtables. Utilize these contacts to build a referral network and drive warm leads into your business.

Cold Emailing/Calling

To my knowledge, no one enjoys cold calling—yet, according to our own internal research, if you’re willing to stick it out, six cold calls can get you a conversation with a key leader or decision-maker.

This can be especially helpful for smaller companies, those with limited resources and little online presence. Cold calling is still a viable strategy—but you have to be ready for some rejection and frustration along the way.

Once they pick up, you have 5- 8 seconds to grasp and hold their attention. This is where your call must be thoughtful and personalized.

If you use Convex, our Generative AI is trained on both the data from the prospect and the account, but also your own company and contact data, this means you can prepare an email or call that cuts through the noise in just a couple clicks.

While we’d always recommend including relevant data from tools like property intelligence software or CRM systems to demonstrate that you’ve done your homework, we realize that not all teams will have the budget or access to these tools—so here’s a quick cheat code… call it cold email best practices for 2024.

The Cold Email Cheat Code is:

1. About them

2. Your Service

3. Soft Pitch

4. Soft CTA

Imagine an HVAC salesperson reaching out directly to a hospital facilities director who’s shown interest in replacing their HVAC system, or you’ve seen that the systems have a maintenance interval coming up.

A great cold email might go something like this:

Subject: …cutting energy costs at [Hospital Name].

[Facilities Director’s Name],

I noticed that [Hospital Name] is currently running the (XYZ) cooling system, and with an upcoming maintenance interval, now might be a great time to explore ways to boost efficiency and lower costs.

At [Your Company Name], we’ve helped hospitals 31 hospitals in the Tri-state area cut energy costs by up to [specific percentage] and extend equipment lifespan through proactive, data-driven maintenance.

Would you be open to a quick 10-minute call to see how we can help improve your system’s efficiency?

– (Sales rep)

Here’s what you should NOT include in your cold email:

• “Happy Birthday (prospect)!” If you got this message from someone you didn’t know, how would you feel about it?
• “Congrats on all your success.” Like what? What does that even mean?
• “By way of introduction…”
• “I’m expanding my network and want to…”

Cold emails should ALWAYS:

• Have a catchy (but relevant) subject that leaves room for “subjectivity.”
• Be concise to the point, and show that you’ve done your research.
• Address a specific challenge the recipient is facing.
• Provide a simple, pain-free, clear call to action.

Don’t forget to build an effective nurture and follow-up strategy, but that’s a topic for another time.

The Best Way to Reach Decision Makers and Buyers

Next you have to contact the right person. This means building your target audience or ideal customer profile (ICP) properly. Now, you have two options when building an avatar. You can do it manually or you can let Convex do it for you.

Convex makes this process a breeze.

1. Log in and Check Signals

Start by logging into Convex and checking the “Signals” category—our proprietary buyer intent data—to see who’s in-market and ready to buy. These signals provide intent scores based on various factors, helping you prioritize highly-qualified, high-value prospects.

2. Search for Properties, Accounts, and Contacts

Search for properties or accounts that align with your products and services. This could be anything from a specific property type (e.g., hospital, airport) to individual contacts, job titles, account names, or tenant information. Convex’s property intelligence includes key insights such as permit histories, building age, square footage, ownership, transaction details, and equipment data, making it easier to identify and close new leads.

3. Leverage Generative AI for Personalized Outreach

With just two clicks, use Generative AI—trained on buyer signals, firmographic data, and your company’s contact data—to send a personalized email or draft a phone script. The AI uses data like job titles, decision-maker information, and property history to craft targeted messages that resonate with prospects.

4. Automate Follow-ups and Manage Leads

After outreach, set up automated follow-ups or reminders and track the lead in your CRM. Convex allows you to export lists of prospects, assign stages, tag coworkers, and assign dollar values to leads, offering light CRM functionality for lead management. Integration with CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot ensures seamless pipeline tracking.

All of this in 3- 5 minutes per account.

Building Your Ideal Customer Profile

If you choose to do it yourself, the biggest mistake I see here is going too large too fast. Meaning, most people say their product is “for everyone” when they’d get far better results if they focused on their perfect target customer. This means building an avatar.

A well-built avatar focuses on identifying who benefits most from your product or service. Start by defining your strengths and target those with the biggest pain points relevant to your products and services. Consider factors like age, location, job title, and income level to refine your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Next, find where these individuals spend their time online and offline. LinkedIn is great for building a list of decision-makers.

While job titles help, they’re not enough. Decision makers can vary in title or role, so cross-reference with other data points. Focus on seniority—owners, VPs, or Chief Officers—and ensure you’re targeting relevant locations for your territory or market.

How To Contact Property Owners and Managers

Using Property Intelligence Software or Sales Intelligence Software

Property intelligence and sales intelligence platforms generally offer several methods of contact that can prove successful. Typically, these methods begin with cold outreach, such as cold emails and calls. However, they also include cool personalization features like intent data and buying signals that can really transform your outreach results.

In a previous section, we talked about how easy Convex is to use, but there are a few other platforms that might be a great fit for your business, depending on your market.

If you’re looking to compare tools and would like to check out some alternatives to Convex, you might want to check out Sales Navigator, Cognism, and Reonomy. These four platforms are considered “best-in-class” and make up the top rated tools in the sales and property intelligence space.

Finding Contact Details

The first step is gathering accurate contact information. Finding relevant company (account), prospect (contact), and property data is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Using LinkedIn, their company website, or even putting the contact’s full name and title into tools like Apollo, Lusha, or RocketReach can really help you out. Just a heads-up, though—there can be some inconsistencies in the data across different platforms. Sometimes, you might reach out to a dead account because of job changes, layoffs, or other reasons. Understanding the end user’s practical concerns can also help refine your approach.

B2B Professionals on LinkedIn have been removing their contact information recently due to all of the cold outreach they’re receiving, so you may want to consider adding a few extra intelligence, prospecting, and lead generation tools to help you find the right people.

Verifying Contact Information

Verifying contact information is crucial to ensure that you’re reaching the right decision-maker. Here are some best practices to verify contact information:

1. Use Multiple Sources: Verify contact information through multiple sources, such as company websites, social media, and industry directories. Cross-referencing data from various sources can help ensure its accuracy.

2. Check for Updates: Regularly check for updates to contact information to ensure that you have the most current and accurate data. People change jobs, get promoted, or move to different departments, so keeping your contact database up-to-date is essential.

3. Use Email Verification Tools: Utilize email verification tools to validate email addresses and ensure that they are active and deliverable. Tools like Hunter, NeverBounce, and ZeroBounce can help you avoid sending emails to invalid addresses.

4. Use Phone Verification Tools: Use phone verification tools to validate phone numbers and ensure that they are active and reachable. Services like Truecaller and Numverify can help you confirm the accuracy of phone numbers.

By following these best practices, you can ensure that your outreach efforts are directed at the right individuals, increasing your chances of connecting with key decision-makers.

Crafting a Message

Remember, your message is where the “rubber hits the road.” It’s where all your research either pays off or gets ignored. A generic, one-size-fits-all email won’t cut it. You need to craft a message that speaks directly to the decision-makers’ needs.

• Proactive Approach: Start by identifying a specific pain point or challenge they’re facing. Reference recent changes in their property or mention something relevant to their industry that they care about.
• Personalization: Use any insights from property intelligence tools or LinkedIn to tailor your message. The more personalized your outreach, the more likely you are to get a response.

Here’s another Example:

“Hi [Name], I noticed that [Property Name] recently started a total renovation. Have you decided on an elevator installer yet?

I would love to set up a 10-minute call to show you how (XYZ) elevators can (value prop).

Would Tuesday or Wednesday next week work well for a quick chat?

Thank you,

– (Sales Rep)

Using a B2B Contact Database

What is a B2B Contact Database?

A B2B contact database collects contact information for businesses and their decision-makers. It provides convenient access to emails, phone numbers, and other relevant data. These databases are powerful tools for sales teams looking to expand their reach quickly.

We talked about some great platforms in the last section, and they’ll really help your team out—especially if you’re not already using an intelligence tool.

How to Use a B2B Contact Database

Using a B2B contact database can really open up a world of business connections for you. You can easily filter by industry, company size, or job title to find the perfect prospects. Plus, many of these databases work great with CRM platforms, so you can sync your contacts and make your outreach a breeze!

Best Practices for Contacting Decision Makers

Contacting decision-makers requires a strategic approach to ensure that you’re reaching the right person with the right message. Here are some best practices to consider:

1. Personalize Your Approach: Personalize your approach by addressing the decision maker by name and referencing their company and role. Show that you’ve done your homework and understand their specific needs and challenges.

2. Use Relevant Language: Use language that is relevant to the decision maker’s industry and role. Tailor your message to speak directly to their pain points and how your solution can address them.

3. Focus on Value: Focus on the value that your product or service can bring to the decision-makers organization. Highlight the benefits, such as cost savings, increased efficiency, or improved performance.

4. Use Multiple Channels: Use multiple channels, such as email, phone, and social media, to reach decision makers. Different individuals may prefer different communication methods, so diversifying your approach can increase your chances of making a connection.

5. Follow-up: Follow up with decision-makers to ensure that they have received your message and to answer any questions they may have. Persistence is key, but make sure your follow-ups add value and are not overly aggressive.

By implementing these best practices, you can increase your chances of successfully connecting with decision makers and building meaningful business relationships.

Qualifying Questions to Build Relationships

Qualifying questions can help you build relationships with decision-makers by demonstrating your interest in their organization and needs. Here are some examples of qualifying questions:

1. How does your organization currently address [specific challenge]?: This question can help you understand the decision maker’s current processes and how your product or service can improve them. It provides insight into their existing solutions and potential gaps.

2. What is your budget for [specific project or initiative]?: This question can help you understand the decision maker’s budget and whether your product or service is a good fit. It also helps you gauge their level of interest and readiness to invest.

3. What are your organization’s goals and objectives?: This question can help you understand the decision-maker’s priorities and challenges. It shows that you’re interested in their long-term vision and how your solution can support it.

4. What are your biggest pain points?: This question can help you understand the decision maker’s challenges and how your product or service can address them. It allows you to tailor your pitch to their specific needs.

5. Who else is involved in the decision-making process? After your initial discovery call, This question can help you understand the decision-maker’s role and who else may be involved in the decision-making process. It allows you to identify other key stakeholders and tailor future or account-based outreach (ABM) accordingly.

By asking these qualifying questions, you can build stronger relationships with decision-makers and better understand their needs, ultimately increasing your chances of closing deals.

Syncing with CRM

Syncing your contact database with a CRM system is a critical step to maintaining an organized and efficient sales process. Here’s how to do it effectively:

1. Choose the Right CRM: Make sure your CRM system aligns with your business requirements, supporting full integration with your contact database. It is important to ensure compatibility to maximize the utility of both tools. If you’re out of budget, Hubspot can be an excellent tool to get you started. They offer tons of free tools that will get you up and running. As you grow, you may want to switch to a handful of tools that will help you scale. Salesforce, Contently, and others will help you manage the sales pipeline and drive value to your prospects until they convert into leads.

2. Import Data: Once you’ve chosen a compatible CRM, you need to import your contact data. Most CRM systems offer a simple import function that allows transferring data from spreadsheets or other formats directly into the system.

3. Map Fields Correctly: As part of the import process, ensure that the fields in your contact database correspond correctly to the fields in your CRM. This might include matching contact names, email addresses, phone numbers, company names, and job titles.

4. Automate Updates: To prevent your data from becoming outdated, automate updates between your contact database and CRM. This ensures that any changes in contact information or new entries in the database are reflected in your CRM.

5. Train Your Team: Finally, make sure your sales team is well-versed in using the CRM system and understands the importance of maintaining accurate records. Proper training will enable them to leverage the CRM for optimal results in their outreach efforts.

6. Practice Data Cleanliness: Regularly review and clean your contact database to eliminate duplicates of incorrect or outdated information. This will ensure that your CRM system remains efficient and effective.

By choosing a great solution, synchronizing your contact database with your CRM system, and using the best practices of each platform, you can streamline your sales processes and enhance your ability to connect with potential clients effectively. This integration is a key step in building a comprehensive and powerful sales operations infrastructure.

Conclusion

Creating an “outbound” (reaching out to decision-makers rather than waiting for them to come to you; “inbound”) function is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business, but it’s not always an easy “motion” to “stand up.”

You can gather all sorts of useful info and connect with the right people by using different sources like search engines, social media, and company websites—but remember, 90% of the people you talk to still won’t want to buy when you send them a message. This is where building relationships and nurturing sequences, reminders, and follow-ups can drive long-term growth.

Ready to accelerate revenue and save time?

Schedule a demo of Convex to make connecting with property owners and managers simple.