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Contacting big business

For corporate targets, you would do best to make your initial contact by e-mail to the Vice President of Marketing. Advertising, or Corporate Sponsorships.  After you have sent the e-mail, wait about a week, then follow up with a phone call. 

This phone call should NOT ask, “Did you receive my e-mail?”  Rather, ask if the company needs any further information from you in order to evaluate your proposal.  If the e-mail was never received, you can find that out when you ask if they need further information, but more importantly, asking about further information forces the target to open your e-mail and actually look at it.  If you ask only if the e-mail was received, he can confirm or deny without ever opening it.

Before you make the phone call, spend some time thinking about exactly what you will say.  You may even want to write yourself a script so you don’t freeze up when your target answers the call.  In this era of corporate downsizing, many executives have had to forego secretaries, so it is entirely possible you will get through to the actual person to whom you wrote on the first try.  You don’t want to be caught with your pants down, stammering to think of what to say.

Calm yourself down before you call.  Remember, you are helping the business executive by giving him an opportunity to put his marketing dollars into something that will set him apart from his competitors.  Yes, this will also help you out, but thinking of it in terms of what the sponsorship will do for the company will help you to relax while you close the deal.

On the call, you will want to be able to state in 30 seconds or less the crux of your proposal, again emphasizing the benefit to the company, rather than what you will get out of the deal.  Ideally, the call will end with the executive asking you to send a formal proposal for his consideration.

Contacting a non-profit

Depending on the nature of your proposal, you may be trying to line up non-profit sponsors as well as corporate sponsors.  You will likely line up your corporate sponsors first, and get them to commit to providing something to the non-profit entity.  Next, you will contact the non-profit, usually by phone call to the VP of Development, advising them that you have procured for them this great benefit from a major corporation. 

Once you have explained the benefit to them, you can tell them the part you want them to play in the mix of things.  A big thing the non-profit can do is to publicize the thing you are promoting via their extensive network of supporters.  For example, if you have arranged for your sponsor to donate $1 to the Red Cross for every time your free e-book is downloaded from their site, you would ask the Red Cross ask their supporters to go to the sponsor's site and download the e-book.

Again, there is no reason to be nervous during this call.  You are giving the non-profit executive an opportunity to raise funds and awareness about their cause, which is their primary job.  You are doing them a favor, even though it will benefit you at the same time.

The non-profit can spread the word about your product, idea, or service by including information in their newsletters and e-mails to their staff, donors, and clients.  Make sure not to indicate that your offer to benefit the non-profit is predicated on their willingness to promote you.  Even if they don’t want to provide publicity for you, remember that you already have a commitment from your corporate sponsor to benefit the non-profit, so you need to make that happen in order to provide the goodwill and reputation benefits you promised to the company.

Again, ideally the call will close with the non-profit asking you to send a formal proposal for their consideration.

Come back Monday for Part 5!