Finding the decision maker at a small business

At a small business the decision maker is almost always the owner, and sometimes a manager the owner trusts with buying. You find their name in three places: a contact database that covers small firms, the business's own website (the About, Team or Contact page), and the shop floor itself. Expect the database to know only part of them; the website and a short call asking for the owner by role fill most of the rest.

This article is for people who sell to shops, cafes, salons, clinics, workshops and other businesses with one site and a handful of staff. It covers who decides at that size, where their names turn up, how to read what you find, a made-up example, the mistakes that waste the most calls, and an AI employee that does the searching for you every morning.

Who decides at a business of five people

In a company of several hundred people, a purchase goes through a buyer, a budget holder and sometimes a committee. In a business of five, one person usually owns the money and the decision. That makes the sale shorter, but it also makes the person harder to find: they rarely have a title anyone searches for, they are often busy serving customers, and their name may appear nowhere outside the business.

A starting point drawn from how small businesses usually work, not from data. Check it against your own calls.

Where the name turns up

• Your contact database. If you use Apollo, the Apollo block looks each business up in your own account by its website and asks for people with the titles you give, such as owner or founder. It finds many mid-size firms; single-site businesses are often missing or listed without anyone.
• The business's own website. Small businesses like to put a face on their site: "Meet the team", "Our story", a signature on the blog. The Browser block can open each business's website and read those pages for a name and role.
• The listing itself. Nearby places brings the main phone number, the website and whether the place belongs to a chain. Chain branches send you to head office; independents are the ones where the owner is reachable.
• The shop floor. For walk-in businesses the owner is often there. A visit at a quiet hour, or a call asking for "the owner" rather than a name, works when nothing else does.

How to read what you find

A name from a database is a lead, not a fact. People move, sell up or step back, and a small business's listing can lag behind. Treat each name by how it was found:

• A person found in your database with the title owner or founder at the same website is a strong lead. Use the work email only if your database has it and your local rules allow writing to it.
• A name read from the business's own website is usually current, because owners keep their own pages, but check the page's date if it shows one.
• No name at all is common and not a reason to drop the business. Ask for the owner by role.

A worked example

This is a made-up example with invented numbers. A company in Melbourne sells booking software to independent beauty salons and wants a short list each morning with a person to ask for.

1. Nearby places looks for beauty salons and nail salons across inner Melbourne, keeps only independents, and keeps only places with a phone or website.
2. Only new lets through only salons the flow has not seen before, so each one is looked up once.
3. Apollo asks for owner and founder at each salon, one item per salon with its first contact.
4. A Branch splits the salons Apollo found someone at from those it did not.
5. On the No side, the Browser block opens each salon's own website and reads its about or team page for the owner's name. It does this for up to five salons a run, which suits a short morning list.
6. An Email at the end sends the rep the salons, each with a name when one was found, its phone and its website.

Say a morning brings 14 new salons. In this invented run Apollo knows someone at 4, the Browser block reads a name from 3 of the 5 websites it opens, and 7 arrive with only a phone number. That is a realistic shape for small businesses: a name for about half, and a clear way in for the rest.

Mistakes to avoid

• Dropping businesses with no name. The owner of a salon with no website is still the owner. Call and ask for them by role.
• Calling at the busy hour. A cafe owner at lunchtime or a salon owner on Saturday afternoon will not talk. Ask what time suits on the first call.
• Treating a chain branch like an independent. The manager of a chain branch rarely buys software or supplies on their own. Use the chain field to send those to whoever sells to head offices.
• Writing to a personal address you guessed. Use only what a business published or what your own database holds, and follow your local rules on cold email.

How to do it with an AI employee

The template Decision makers at new cafes is a ready version of this for cafes; Morning call list with decision makers and call notes adds call notes. Change the type of place and the city to your own. In order, the blocks are:

1. Schedule every weekday morning, and Area of interest for your city.
2. Nearby places for your types of business, independents only.
3. Only new, so nobody is looked up twice.
4. Apollo for owner and founder, if you use Apollo.
5. Branch on whether a contact was found, and the Browser block on each business's website for the rest.
6. Email or Google Sheets for the rep.

What lands in the inbox each morning is a short list: each business with its type, rating, phone and website, and a name and role where one was found. Run it once by hand first and read every name before the rep calls anyone.