Those of you experienced with cold calling...who do you contact at larger companies? I've done many corporate business and holiday meetings, but I've always been contacted by the customer. Now I'm trying to approach new large companies, but I don't know what department to deal with. Any help is appreciated.

Christopher,

I've yet to find a sure fire way of dealing with this pickle.

Ultimately you want to get your sales information on the desk of the right person. But finding the right person is often a task that goes nowhere as fast as it possibly can.

So far, departments that have helped in my experience are...

Human Resources
Promotions
Community Relations

and I wouldn't swear to it, but some of my best results come from administrative secretaries. I guess a lot of the time the task of planning the office get togethers falls in their laps.

While the admin secs may not be the final decision on what money gets spent on who/what/where etc, they're very likely the best people to pitch your program to the one with the checkbook.

Good luck!
Robert Bloor

I'm just having the hardest time finding out who organizes meetings. I've tried the admin. assistant route, but for larger companies there are so many of these I'm back to where I started.

Christopher,

How about you tell us what you ARE doing and perhaps we can guide you from there. Be detailed.

Robert Bloor

Quite frankly, I haven't done much yet. I was contacted by Coca Cola and MCI in the past and they booked me for their shareholder meetings. From that I was contacted by five or six other companies so I've never initiated a contact. I've just ridden that wave.

I have promotional packets that I send out to by universities and festivals and such, but I have specific names of people that I've dealt with. It's the cold calling of new corporate accounts that bothers me. I want to send out my promo packets, but to which department? You can't just call Microsoft and expect to ask the receptionist who would handle such matters.

I have found that targeting the human resources and/or the public relations areas seem to work out fairly well. It is usually these two areas that do the planning for in-house parties and fundraiser events outside of the company.

Christopher,

Coca-Cola and MCI...

Okay, here comes a rhetorical question.

What is the current state of your relationship with these two companies?

Those are two major players and you said you picked up several others from those. You should be milking those relationships along so that you're getting the inside track on a virtual "who's who" of event planners and VIPs.

Think it through.

More rhetorical questions...

When was the last time you contacted either company? Sent them a Happy Thanksgiving card?(HINT HINT) Sent them a thank you for a referral? Called up your contact just to see how they're doing?

Again, rhetorical. I don't need to know the answer.

Robert Bloor

Christopher,

Finding a company's decision maker for entertainment is like playing the three-card monte. You have to find the money card using some sleuthing techniques.

What may complicate the search is that although most companies are structured the same way, they have either different names for departments handling the same functions as their counterparts in other companies, or it could be that that function is delegated to a department using logic that is not known to outsiders.

There is a knack for finding your way around the labyrinth of departments in a large corporation. As suggested above, your best bets are the departments or offices handling Promotions, Community Relations, Human Resources, and Public Relations. Let me add three more usual suspects—the Corporate Affairs Office, Marketing Department and Public Information.

I’ve found the phone book is the best tool to use in finding the right contact person in a target corporation. I don’t know how companies are listed in U.S. phone books, but here in the Philippines, the first phone number listed under a company name is its trunk line (or the main line that connects to all departments and offices). If I were to search for a person using the phone book, I’d look at all the departments under that company, and try to deduce their functions from their names. Marketing, Special Events, Promotions, Corporate Affairs, Human Resources, etc. (as mentioned above) are likely candidates. Another way is to dial the trunk line, bypass the automated operator and talk to a human operator. She should know which department handles entertainment and special events.

Trying to be in contact with the right person in a large company could be fun or frustrating, depending on one’s frame of mind. So good luck.

Ben Benjay
Manila, Philippines