Trying to find the person making decisions for either a training or HR project can be very frustrating and time consuming. Sitting on hold; getting bounced around from one person to another, from one department to another. We end up talking with the wrong people, and being denied contact information by protective employees; we get voice mail after voice mail and even get disconnected. Finding decision makers, what we at Mentor Tech Group refer to as “digging”, is a long process with roadblocks and dead ends.
Chances are, when you are targeting decision-makers for training or HR projects, the list that you are working with will not contain the person who would oversee those areas. But most standard lists do contain some basic contacts like: VP or Director of Human Resources, VP or Director of Information Technology and CFO, for example. You can often use these contacts as a starting point to begin the “digging” process.
We have discovered over 31,000 training and HR decision makers for nearly 6,500 companies – and in our experience of “digging”, the best person to contact as an overall starting point, is the VP or Director of HR. This may not be the exact contact you are looking for, BUT often times, the training department is part of HR, and the person who oversees training may report directly to the VP of HR.
As when anything worthy is achieved, there are obstacles to be overcome:
Where in the company are the training or HR decisions made? Corporate headquarters? Or at the divisional level? Or both? The larger companies have many different divisions with many different locations. For example, the Fortune 1000 may break down into over 29,000 sites! Each division could have separate departments making decisions independently, or they may have only one.
Who (what title?) makes the decisions – or influences the decisions? There is no universal title for training or HR decision makers. It can vary widely from company to company, especially in the training sector.
Nonetheless, MTG can provide some insight as to how to obtain the necessary market intelligence.
Where?
Some companies make training or HR decisions at the corporate level – then mandate that strategy, for example, throughout the divisions of the company. Others do not make these decisions at the corporate level. You should be able to determine this from your initial conversations with the corporate headquarters. If they do have the titles you are looking for there, then suffice it to say that you may not have to look further. If they do not, then you will need them to direct you to one of their larger divisions where they do engage in the “training” or “HR” functions.
When the corporate headquarters is not staffed with a big group, these decisions may be “pushed” out to the various components of the company. In these cases, you should try to find out what division of that company is a good one to “pursue.” Who has a training organization? Who has a large training function? Where do HR projects originate? Get the number to the HR department (or the Training Department!!) at one of the divisions. And then start over again.
Who?
Mentor Tech Group’s core competency (and major focus) is finding prospects for training and HR organizations – so we have to find decision makers. We discover who the decision-makers are regarding these projects by “digging.” “Digging,” means searching for a person with a specific title – or one of many possible titles. Decision-makers in training are usually leaders of the Training Department – but they may not be called “Director of Training.” Decision-makers in HR may be the VP of HR, but they may not. Therein lies one of the challenges to this task: There is no universal title for these roles.
The most common titles—and easiest to find—are:
- Director of Training and Development
- Director of Organizational Development
- Director of E-learning
- Director or VP HR
Look for Part II of this article in our next issue – where we’ll discuss the many other possible titles to look for and the secrets to successful “digging.”
P.S.
And don’t forget, if you don’t have the time to do the “digging” yourself – or if you just want to focus your efforts on what you are good at, let Mentor Tech Group do the digging work for you! We can provide a “turnkey” up-to-date database of training and HR decision-makers at a moment’s notice! Click here to check out our well-targeted Marketing Lists.
To start saving money, please call us at (651) 457-8600.
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