OK.  So you are ready to make a few phone calls and see if you can get an appointment with a prospective client.  You get the mandatory liquid beverage, arrange your legal pad and pens, go to the john, pick up the phone, put it down again, go out in the hall to talk to ..anyone..and, finally go back to your desk. 

STOP!  Before you make that call and get stymied by the gatekeeper (He’s not in, on vacation, cannot met with anyone till 2010), lets go exploring.

Why?  ‘Cause the more yu know about the person and the company, the more likely you will be able to charm the gatekeeper and, later, the prospect.

Google, google, google.  Look at all the media data on file.  Note important tidbits.  Google the persons name.  Make notes and have a few questions as a result of the search.

As Jeff Gitmer says in The Little Red Book of Sales Answers:  "Everything you need to know about a customer has been written by them or about them.  And it lives on the Internet.  All you have to do is uncover it.  AND USE IT."