As we are trying to raise awareness and money, we often reach out to businesses and organizations and start ‘at the top.’ It makes sense, doesn’t it? We want to find the decision maker. The person who can make things happen. The ‘top dog.’ Sometimes, however, that is not necessarily the best approach. Let me explain using an example from today.
I have a corporate donor who is a great partner with our organization. Let’s call them ‘ABC, Inc.’. My Development Committee identified a prospect who does business with ABC, Inc.. Though we have a few weak connections to this prospect, we decided that it made more sense to get ABC to help us connect with this person. So, I found out which manager at ABC handles the relationship with this individual and I reached out to this manager (this is a large company, I don’t know the manager personally). I got no response. I tried for a month, different times and using different mediums. Still no response.
I then communicated with my ABC contact and obtained the manager’s assistant’s name. I contacted her and she got back to me right away, and within an hour I had an appointment to meet with the manager this Friday morning.
So, sometimes the top person is not the best person with whom to start. The higher up they are, often times the busier they are. We have to take a look at each donor and each situation individually, but keep in mind that sometimes support staff can help us get things done faster.
Have a great holiday weekend,
KLM
