Letter vs e-mail vs phone

[Garret]

For our team we use a combination of the three.

Before we ever contact a company we always do a fair amount of research about the company in order to get a feel for what they do, but more importantly to get a feel for how we should pitch the team to the company. We generally look for: names, bios, and contact info for the executives; what the company makes; competitors; and current outreach of the company. We will also use any other information that helps us to better show the company how sponsoring our team is beneficial to them.

We generally initiate contact with a company using a written letter/package. This letter package contains a letter written to the individual we are contacting, a powerpoint presentation about our team and/or a team video, and sometimes additional marketing materials. In our letter we make it clear that we intend to call the person in the following weeks (we usually give a specific date).

We then call the company (I mean the person we contacted) and then from there we give them our spiel, ask them about the letter, and so on. we then try to schedule further correspondence with the company. Depending on the company we may offer to visit their site and run a robot demo or something of the sort.

If this correspondence is continued, we usually do it via email or telephone, whichever the person chooses.

The key to it is to appear official and to always follow through with whatever you say you will do. There are many things you need to pay attention to when approaching sponsors, and as such it needs to be planned out.

It really doesn't compare the 3 but it shows how we contact them. Any of the medium can be shut down as easily as the others, including in person. Your best bet is to be as official as possible and of course, use whatever resources you have at your disposal.