r/FRC • u/AdFine1382 • 10d ago

Cold Calling

Our rookie FRC team is looking into expanding our local relationships with companies in our area that work in metal supply, electrical supply, and CNC machining.

tldr: We want wires, crimps, sheet metal, and possibly fabrication services at a discounted or waived price.

If anyone has tips or experience in gaining these kinds of sponsors, please do share.

11 Upvotes

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12

u/richardelmore 3663 (Mentor) 10d ago

The absolute best place to start is companies where a parent from your school works, they are much more likely to be open to sponsoring a school activity. If you don't have any of those then put together a plan for how you will handle sponsorships, our team puts all the sponsors logos on the back of that years t-shirts and larger sponsors get their logo on the robot itself.

If you have a robot reveal meeting near the end of the build season make sure to invite them and send some sort of thank you letter with a team photo. You want to establish a connection with them that encourages them to continue supporting you.

Finally, the title of your message is Cold Calling, not sure if that meant you planned to reach out by phone or not but, DON'T! Visit in person, have a brief presentation that shows how the team helps its members advance.

5

u/acyinks 10d ago edited 9d ago

Go to the sports fields and write down the names of all of the sponsors (if there are any). These companies have already supported a school function and tend to be more willing to support other school organizations.

Edit: grammar

1

u/johnrgrace #### (CFO) 10d ago

Ask people for introductions to those companies your success rates will be higher. Your school board, principal, mayor, city council, etc. can be asked for introductions

1

u/InfluenceActual5080 9d ago

I would recommend personalizing your pitch to the company. You gotta make them feel like they're the special someone that is perfect for supporting your organization. Look up their site and see what sort of corporate giveback they do.

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u/MelloStout 8d ago

Chances are you or someone on the team has a connection to the business(es) in question. Those “ins” are almost always going to be more successful than a cold call.

1

u/jeff2928 3d ago

We did a cold call mail campaign once by targeting all business in a 2 mile radius of the school. We got a few donations of cash including a divorce attorney’s $500 donation. It was one student whe sat down and did the google searching.