Tom:
Had another question for you. I am calling companies ahead of time and asking who I could send some samples and a little more info about our company to. However, when I go in and ask for that person the next day or so, the odds are that, the person I spoke with on the phone will be the same person I am asking if I can speak to Joe the marketing guy (or whoever). Do you think that the secretary will be slightly upset that I said send info to and then I stopped in instead? I was thinking of maybe just saying, I decided it’d be more personal to stop in and drop information off. What do you think? I just don’t want to come off on the wrong foot at the beginning by appearing to lie to the secretary about my intentions. Thanks Tom.

-Bryan
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Bryan-
You can take that honesty one step further and just ask the secretary what the process for becoming one of their vendors is/would be. She’ll just flat out tell you what you need to do if you are doing so in a non-threatening, respectful, and ultimately honest way.

I’ve used that technique a hundred times. Just flat out stating, “I know your company does printing, and I wanted to know the most respectful way to try and become your printing vendor.” I realize that you are busy, and I didn’t want to try any tricks, so I figured the best way would be to just come straight out and ask you. When she says, just leave some stuff, you would respond with another radically honest answer, “I realize that you have a lot of people like me come in here every day, and I realize that you and are busy. I would be happy to leave him some information, but I was really hoping to impress , what would YOU suggest I do to impress ? Do YOU think that if I were to send a hand written card, …. would that have any effect?” “Etc, etc. etc. etc.”

This type of honesty will do more good for you than you can imagine. Remember, you are on their team, not your own team…. just ask them. They are at work, you are at work. You’d both rather be doing something, but there is always a way to establish some mutual respect for one another and your respective jobs.

So to directly answer your question, if you are talking to the same person, yes, by all means, just tell them that you thought it would be more personal to stop in and drop the information off in person.

Hope that helps.

Tom Richard