I found myself reading an article on Google relating to an increase in potential cell phone charges for a major cell phone carrier that I have used for fourteen years. I wanted to give him a call regarding my loyalty to their company and the fee increase. I thought to myself where would I find this company contact and others for customer service-related issues as well as those who could be potential leads for future recruiting efforts?
Time for some “outside of the box thinking!”
I grabbed a fresh cup of Café Vienna and got to searching. Below are some sites I had unheard of which I believe could be useful to you in identifying potential leads.
Eliott
Eliott, a customer advocacy site, provides a service to readers for a name, phone numbers and email address to executives for customer service at major companies. If you are looking for customer-service related staff, this could be the site for you.
Using The New York Times, I came across two company contacts:
Both individuals are still working at The New York Times. Mark Thompson has a biography which could be found on the company’s website.
Relationship Science
Relationship Science, a relationship capital platform service provider, has a great search tool on their site to identify individuals and organizations. You can see limited items, but enough to get you to a great start since the database is a paid service.
Take, for example, a search for a CEO who is over a major healthcare facility. I chose a CEO who previously was at the University of Maryland Medical Systems Corporation. An overview of the individual, relationships (other potential leads) the person has for their particular industry, memberships, educational and career history appear in the results.
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is a program that encourages small business to engage in federal research and development that has a potential for commercialization. SBIR has a vast database that tracks awards given to companies for research of particular projects by participating federal agencies. You can find award information, business information and company contacts that are related to the specific solicitation for award funds.
I like that SBIR allows you to search for awards of companies by an agency, phase, program and year as well as state. I am looking for leads, which could be companies or their contacts, to connect with about potential recruiting efforts.
Needing to identify companies with engineers who have been awarded funds by the Department of Energy for Phase II in 2017, I selected my parameters.
Selecting one of the solicitation titles resulted in my finding two company contacts with their phone number and email. Using LinkedIn, I verified that the primary investigator is a senior engineer with the company awarded funds.
ICAEW
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is a professional membership for over 147, 000 chartered accountants worldwide. ICAEW has a great library of free resources to find information on company rankings, financial information, and announcements for U.S and international companies in various industries.
As George Patton once said, “If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.” Thinking outside of the box with your search methods can lead you to identify potential leads you might have otherwise missed.