How to find the right person to contact at a company

Why does the biggest title often lead nowhere?

It feels efficient to write to the CEO. At a company of thousands, that note usually goes to an assistant, who ignores it or sends it down the chain with no context. Meanwhile, the person who feels the problem each day never hears from you.

Instead, ask who loses sleep over this. If you sell tools that cut factory downtime, it is a plant manager before it is a CEO. If you want to write about a company's return policy, it is the customer operations lead or a press contact. See what a decision maker is.

Who is it, by company size?

These are starting points, not rules. Check them against what you can see of the company.

How do you work out who owns your problem?

Do a little reading before you search for names:

1. Read the company's site for how it describes itself and its teams. The team names tell you what titles to look for.
2. Look at its recent public announcements. A new office or product points to someone newly responsible for it.
3. Check who speaks for it at events and in interviews on your topic.
4. Write down two titles that could own your problem.
5. Search for those titles at that company. On Invenitor, you can write "who runs logistics at [company]" in plain words, or describe the role at similar companies.

Try the query builder if you are not sure how to word this.

How many people at one company should you contact?

Start with one. Two at most, if they do clearly different things. Writing to five people at once with the same note is noticed, because colleagues talk to each other. It makes you look careless and can end the conversation with all of them.

If your first choice does not reply after a reasonable follow-up, try one other person. Mention that you tried their colleague. Honesty here reads as polite, and it stops them wondering.

What if you reach the wrong person?

This is not a failure. It is often the best thing that can happen. A note saying "I may have the wrong person. Who handles this?" is short and easy to answer. People often reply with a name, and a referral from inside the company is a good opening for your next message.

When you write to that next person, say who pointed you to them. Then thank the person who helped, and let them know how it went if it worked out.

Keep a short record as you go: who you wrote to, who they pointed you to, and what they said. After a few companies in the same sector, you will notice that the same title keeps owning your problem. That pattern is worth more than any single contact, because it tells you exactly what to search for next.

What does this cost to do at scale?

Keep the number small. If you have 20 target companies, one search across a role and sector costs 20 credits (₹40). Opening one or two people at each costs 1 credit (₹2) per person, and only when an email or phone comes back. Opening the same person later costs nothing extra.

Whatever the number, write each note yourself. Invenitor does not send messages, and its Terms prohibit unconsented electronic marketing and automated outreach. In any case, a note written to one person gets read differently from a mail merge. Read how to write a first email before you begin.

Common questions

Should I contact the CEO of a small company directly?

Yes, usually. Under about 20 people, the founder or owner tends to make the decision and read their own mail.

How many people at one company should I write to?

Start with one. Colleagues talk, and the same note sent to several people looks careless.

Keep reading

• How to find your first customers without a sales team
• How to find someone when you don't know their name
• How to follow up on an email without annoying people
• How to find someone's work phone number
• How to find someone's email address