The Needle in the Haystack:
Finding the Right Person

Part Two

March 1, 2006

Step One is a tedious, boring, and absolutely necessary part of your success. Do not shirk from the task of doing the research as thoroughly as you possibly can.

Step two will call for additional research but you are getting much closer to FINDING THE RIGHT PERSON. And that is your whole objective at this point.

In order to get the right mindset you must first stop thinking of yourself as an angler, a guide, an individual - you are an entrepreneur with a small company; namely yourself.

A most interesting, albeit dismal, statistic is that 75% of small businesses shut their doors because the owner was working too hard for the small amount of money coming in. You need to think about that for a minute because if you are to be in the 25% who do not close their doors you must work smarter.

Selling your proposal to a big company is a tough proposition. Sometimes these companies are like sealed vaults. And the names of the decision makers seem to be on some CIA protection list. Phone calls almost always get punted directly to voicemail and if you are waiting for a return call make sure your nursing home has an open line for you because that’s where you are likely to be when it comes.

So how do you get in to the right person? How do you get to meet with the decision makers? This is the next step in preparing your mind and your presentation.

More lists will happen here but so will your first phone calls.

It is not time to begin making your presentation yet. In this step we are just segregating information and getting the right names, numbers and addresses in readiness.

Understanding why it is so tough to get in to a big company is part of the battle because, with that understanding, will come a different point of view. You will begin to realize that you need a unique method and plan to get in. This is where the beginnings of that unique plan should start to form within your mind.

Getting with the right person is becoming an increasingly difficult proposition. This is due to several trends occurring almost simultaneously over recent years.

Big companies keep getting bigger and becoming more global. There is a constant reorganization going on that makes it extremely difficult to find and keep up with the right people within the company. Corporate executives have become increasingly reliant on email, the internet, and voicemail for their communication, education, and time utilization.

Marketing and advertising executives and their departments are under constant bombardment from both inside and outside the company. This daily blitz of prospects who wish to part them from a portion of their budget soon becomes like the traffic noise on the highway outside; unless someone brings their attention to it, no one really notices.

It is truly a madhouse. Can you blame them for trying to make some sort of sense out of their incredibly hectic days? You would do the same thing and so would I. That’s why it is so vitally important to understand what it is like to sit on their side of the desk so you can figure out how to get yourself and your proposal across that desk.

Right about now, there may be a thought rambling around in your head saying, “Oh what the heck. I might as well just save myself the trouble and quit right now. Everyone is going to say no anyway.”

You may feel overwhelmed and even a bit frustrated by the daunting task before you but realize this – some anglers ARE getting in with a company and they are then being very successful at getting in with additional companies.

Their services are not any better than yours. They don’t offer a better value for less money. They don’t have a marketing firm working 24/7 for them. But they have figured out what it takes to get into the system in order to land that meeting with the decision makers. No magic, just a reorganization of your thinking and methodology.

In fact, I would say that the anglers that successfully obtain sponsor dollars over the next 3-5 years will have three things in common – thinking, analyzing, and researching. These anglers will spend significantly more time preparing for their presentation than the average angler. It is their knowledge of the corporate world that will move them to head of the class.

The success of your presentation is directly proportionate to your depth of understanding of the target company and its products. You must be able to see the whole picture from their perspective before you can develop and implement an effective presentation.

It is helpful to know that companies manage their marketing and advertising in several ways. The following three categories describe the various general approaches.

In some companies marketing and advertising are completely separate from each other. This is a good thing for you because now you have two chances to present your spiel and get a yes. In these situations, it is the marketing department that is responsible for coming up with ideas and pushing them over to the advertising department for budget consideration and making the idea into a reality. If you can’t get through to the marketing department to give them your idea, it is possible to go straight to the advertising department. If you can get in there and they like your idea they can just give it the go ahead.

It is essential to know exactly how your prospective company manages their advertising so you can get in touch with the right people. It’s not a difficult thing to find out either. All you need to do is call the company and ask the question, “Does your company manage advertising and marketing in house or does an agency handle that for you?”

Generally, the person answering the phone will know the answer but if they do not simply ask to be transferred to someone who does. This is not a question to leave on a voicemail so get an answer from a live person before you proceed.

If they say it is in house ask the name and extension of the person in charge of the department. If they say it is an agency ask for the name and phone number of the agency. Repeat the phone call to the agency and ask who is in charge of your prospective company’s account. You don’t want to speak to them yet. You just want to know their name, phone number, and extension.

When you have the information above in answer to your questions, you will know who the decision maker is. That is the most important piece of information you have gathered so far. Now you have a name, telephone number, extension, and maybe even a personality profile. The profile is sometimes available in the bio section of the website and can give you a real insight into how to best present your proposal.

Ad agencies, depending on their size, may represent as few as two or three companies or as many as several hundred. A little more research is in order to find out as much as you can about the agency, the type of accounts they handle, and whether there is an “across-the-board” trend to their advertising approach or whether they are very “product-specific” in their advertising.

Every company and ad agency has a specific point person that is ultimately responsible for initiating new marketing or advertising trends. These people are usually highly insulated by a large number of assistants. Only one of those assistants may be of help to you and that is the Executive Secretary! All others are a waste of your time as their primary responsibility is to say “no” to anything but their own ideas. Simply speaking, they are not going to risk their job on your idea!

If you just cannot find a way to get the person in charge on the phone, the executive secretary is the way to go. This person is usually highly capable and can smell BS a mile away. So be very honest about why you wish to speak to their boss.

Remember, this is the person that the Decision Maker trusts to weed out all the riff raff so they can spend their time dealing with only the best prospects. Your initial conversation with the executive secretary can sometimes make or break your chance at a deal.

Step Three will deal with how to plan your proposal and implement these conversations to give you your best shot at actually having your proposal considered as something more than another trash can liner.

Most small and medium sized companies will not have the massively tiered structure outlined above because it is expensive. These companies still make decisions at the grass roots level with the owner, CEO, and/or graphics design person making the decisions. It is easier to get in front of these smaller companies and make your pitch to the right person. The downside is that they usually just don’t have the budget to “do the whole deal”.

SO, is this a bad thing? No.

Small to medium sized companies are where nearly everyone begins as a matter of necessity. They are, in fact, the perfect place for an early yes or two.

Many small deals become a big deal. It just makes your job a little more time consuming (because you have to represent more products) when you are out there marketing and selling their products.

OK, so you know a great deal about the company, the products, distribution, national, regional and local sales volumes and revenue and you understand how the companies on your list like to manage and spend their advertising dollars. You have some names, titles, addresses and phone numbers and, hopefully, you have the right decision maker in each situation. You are now ready to begin the “fun part” (see also extreme stress) of this pursuit.

Thus we go to Step Three where you will develop your proposal, your pitch, and your deal. It’s about to get real!

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