How to Reach Decision Makers at Any Company

Getting to the Right Person

You can have the perfect pitch, but if you're talking to the wrong person, it doesn't matter. Here's how to find and reach the actual decision makers.

Why It's So Hard

Executive assistants screening emails
Junior employees who can't say yes
"Send info" responses that go nowhere
Voicemails that never get returned

The reality: Decision makers get hundreds of sales messages per week. Most get deleted without being read. You need a different approach.

Step 1: Identify the Right Person

Before you can reach someone, you need to know who to reach.

Going too high (CEO doesn't care about your tool)
Going too low (analyst can't buy anything)
Wrong department (IT vs. Operations vs. Finance)

Who owns the budget for this purchase?
Who feels the pain your product solves?
Who has bought similar solutions before?

LinkedIn (search by title + company)
Company website (leadership page)
Press releases (who's quoted?)
Job postings (who's the hiring manager?)

Step 2: Research Before Reaching Out

Once you know who, learn about them.

Recent posts or articles they've written
Podcasts or interviews
Company news they'd care about
Mutual connections
Shared background (school, previous company)

What you're building: A reason to reach out that's about them, not you.

Step 3: Find a Path In

Cold outreach to decision makers has low response rates. But you have more paths than you think.

Path 1: Mutual connections

The most effective approach. If someone they know can introduce you, your chances increase dramatically.

Your LinkedIn connections
Your teammates' connections
Your investors' connections
Your customers' connections

How to find these efficiently: Manually checking mutual connections takes forever. Tools like Draftboard map your entire team's network and show you connection paths to any decision maker, scored by relationship strength.

Path 2: Their team

Sometimes the path to the decision maker is through their team.

Connect with someone on their team first
Provide value (insight, content, help)
Get referred up

Path 3: Events and content

Comment on their LinkedIn posts
Attend events where they're speaking
Engage with their company's content
Build familiarity before reaching out

Path 4: Trigger events

They just got promoted
Company announced funding
They posted about a relevant challenge
They're hiring for roles that indicate your solution

Step 4: Craft Your Message

Your message needs to do three things immediately: 1. Establish credibility 2. Show relevance 3. Make a small ask

Bad example: > Hi Sarah, I'm with Acme Corp and we help companies improve their sales efficiency through our AI-powered platform...

Good example: > Hi Sarah, I noticed we're both connected to Mike Chen - we worked together at Stripe. Given Acme's recent expansion into enterprise, thought it might be worth comparing notes on [relevant topic].

Credibility signal (mutual connection)
Relevance (their specific situation)
Low-friction ask (comparing notes, not a demo)

The Direct Approach (When You Have No Path)

Sometimes you have no connection, no warm path. Pure cold.

Make it hyper-relevant: > I saw your post about [specific thing]. We've been working with [similar company] on exactly this problem. Thought you might find our approach interesting.

Lead with insight: > I've been talking to a lot of [their role] about [their challenge]. The #1 thing that keeps coming up is [specific insight]. Curious if you're seeing the same thing.

Reference a peer: > [Similar company's decision maker] mentioned this was a priority for them. Given the similarities in what you're building, figured it might resonate.

Getting Past Gatekeepers

If you're calling or emailing a general inbox:

Be direct and confident
Use the decision maker's first name
Sound like you belong ("Is Sarah available?")
Have a specific reason ready

Avoid generic inboxes when possible
Use the decision maker's direct email
Make the subject line personal, not salesy

firstname@company.com
firstname.lastname@company.com
flastname@company.com

Tools can help verify which format a company uses.

The Multi-Channel Approach

Decision makers are hard to reach on any single channel. Use multiple:

Day 1: Send email Day 3: View their LinkedIn profile Day 5: Send LinkedIn connection request with note Day 7: Follow up on email with new value Day 10: Comment on their content if they post Day 14: Final email

You become familiar
You catch them on their preferred channel
It shows persistence without being annoying

Signals You're Reaching the Wrong Person

"Let me check with my manager"
"I'll need to loop in [someone else]"
"I don't have budget authority"
"That's handled by another team"
Long delays with no progress

What to do: Ask who else should be involved. Get introduced to the actual decision maker.

The Referral Play

The most reliable way to reach decision makers is through referral.

Current customers (especially if they know the decision maker)
Investors (especially if they invested in both companies)
Partners
Industry connections

How to execute: 1. Identify the target decision maker 2. Check if anyone in your network knows them 3. Ask for the intro 4. Use the intro to get the meeting

Tools like Draftboard make step 2 instant - showing you exactly who in your extended network can connect you to any decision maker.

Account-Based Approach

For high-value accounts, go deeper:

Week 1-2: Research the company and key players Week 3-4: Engage with their content Week 5-6: Find connection paths and get introduced Week 7-8: Direct outreach to decision maker with full context

This approach has lower volume but much higher conversion.

Measuring Success

Channel (email, LinkedIn, phone, intro)
Path (cold, warm, referral)
Title level
Response rate
Meeting rate

Use this data to focus on what works. For most people, warm paths through mutual connections will dramatically outperform pure cold.

Conclusion

Reaching decision makers requires more than a good pitch. It requires finding the right person, building a path through mutual connections or relevant context, and reaching out in a way that establishes credibility immediately. The more you can make cold outreach feel warm, the higher your success rate.