Contacting multiple people at the same company: When and how to do this

Whether you’re looking for agencies or direct clients, it’s always a dilemma whether to contact multiple people within the same company. And if yes, whether to contact them simultaneously, or in a staggered way. A number of people in my recent March Marketing Madness challenge group had this question, so I thought it might be helpful as an article topic!

First, the easy scenarios

This is a nuanced question, so let’s get the easy aspects out of the way first:

• If the potential client is an agency, there’s less stress about bugging them, because you know that, at least in theory, they need you. Agencies can’t do business without translators and interpreters, and their staff are almost always overloaded. Years ago, an agency owner told me, “Follow up until you get a yes or a no,” and that advice is perfect. As I’ve previously described, expect to contact an agency two to six times before you get work from them.
• If the company is tiny, just contact one person at a time. You can usually get a sense of a company’s size from their website or LinkedIn. If LinkedIn lists them as having 1-10 employees (the smallest category on LinkedIn), don’t contact four people at once.
• As with most things in life, remind yourself that other people don’t think about you as much as you envision that they do. In fact, strangers barely think about you at all. Much less do they gossip at the office, “That translator who contacted THREE PEOPLE in our company at the same time! THE NERVE!” Seriously, that’s not a thing that happens.
• Overdoing it isn’t the end of the world. I’m in an orchestra for adult cello learners (shoutout to my fellow mediocre and enthusiastic adult musicians!) and our conductor always tells us this. “When I tell you to play in a different way; louder, softer, more staccato, more legato, your goal should be to make that change dramatic enough that I then tell you to dial it back just a little bit. Like you want me to say, ‘That was definitely louder!! Great!! But next time, make it 10% softer than that’.” The same is true of our marketing: right now, it’s likely that you’re radically under-doing it. Maybe you swing the other way and overdo it a little bit; the potential client notices that you really want to work with them, because you e-mailed seven of their project managers. Honestly, so what? Then dial back.

The dilemma

Here’s where it gets tricky. You identify a good potential direct client, but there are multiple people who look like they might hire freelancers:

• Director of Marketing
• Marketing Manager
• Director of Communications
• Director of International Communications
• Director of Content
• Content Specialist

And so on. Here’s my “finished is better than perfect” strategy.

• Pick three potential contacts. If possible, spread out across departments. In the example above, choose one person from Marketing, one from Communications, and one from Content.
• Create a schedule, by which you contact each of the three people by e-mail, then on LinkedIn, then by e-mail, spacing these touchpoints one week apart for each contact. This will take five weeks.

It looks like:

• Week one: Introductory e-mail to Contact #1
• Week two: Introductory e-mail to Contact #2, LinkedIn connection request to Contact #1
• Week three: Introductory e-mail to Contact #3, LinkedIn connection request to Contact #2, Follow-up e-mail to Contact #1
• Week four: LinkedIn connection request to Contact #3, Follow-up e-mail to Contact #2
• Week five: Follow-up e-mail to Contact #3

This repeatable system makes the contacting less painful, and you’ve now nudged this company nine times. If you’re interested in the specifics, such as how to find e-mail addresses and what to say in these messages, that’s the topic of my April 23 master class, Marketing to direct clients using e-mail and LinkedIn.

I hope this tip is helpful in your own marketing efforts! Have a great week!

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