Business Tip of the Week: Marketing/Networking
by Gareth Cotten on 07/05/10 at 1:34 pm
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Do something different if you’re trying to reach the big boys. If you’re trying to pitch an idea (or lay out a sales proposal, or just pick someone’s brain), but are struggling to reach the decision makers, try a different tack.
To allow most big-hitters to concentrate on their primary jobs, the companies they work for/at employ a veritable army of ‘gatekeepers’. These are the PA’s, assistants and secretaries whose job it is to keep their up-lines from being unnecessarily disturbed (which generally means the likes of you).
To get straight through to them on their phone-line, try and call very early in the morning, or after working hours in the late afternoon/early evening. At these times, their paid-by-the-hour gatekeepers are very likely not at their desks, and the executives are answering their own phones.
If you can only call during work hours, you can also try the ‘informality’ approach. Here, when their gatekeeper picks up, instead of asking to go through to “Mr Smith”, you keep ultra informal, and simply say “Hi, it’s Gareth here, could I go through to John, please?”. This is not fool-proof, but if the gatekeeper gets the impression that you’re on first-name terms with the intended recipient, they could just patch you straight through.
If you decide to go with an email approach instead, good luck to you in getting their gatekeepers to pass on their direct addresses! Rather look into their website or marketing material, and find out what their email domain is (it’s what follows the @ sign in any company email addresses). Then, assuming you know their name (and you have done your research, right?), just fiddle around with the most common formats, and send an email to each one. So, if you’re trying to reach John Smith at Office Inc, you could try john@office.com, johnsmith@office.com, jsmith@office.com, john.smith@office.com, or j.smith@office.com.
Then, once you have got through to them, instead of trying to set up a formal meeting (how many people do you know who look forward to meetings?), rather invite them out for a coffee or a quick lunch. As they say, people have to eat, and it has the added benefit of getting them out of their usual environment – making them potentially less protective and defensive, and more open to new possibilities…
Gareth Cotten is one of the growing breed of SA entrepreneurs with that ‘world-domination’ look in his eyes. Gareth runs the coaching and consulting practice 'Good Advice'. Gareth is also the 'course convener' for the University of Cape Town (Law@Work) Start and Manage a Small Business course and the University of Cape Town Basics of Financial Management course. View more articles by Gareth Cotten.
Tags: business tip, Marketing, networking
