"These Hard Times"?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by neoshaakti

Today members on my team and I called a lot of local companies and corps. asking to talk to their community relations manager or department; however, we were met by an overwhelming "not interested" or "business has been terrible, we can't donate money at this time". Are other teams running into similar problems?

Is my approach wrong?

I'm not here to gripe about how expensive FIRST is or anything
I'm just here because Im curious if other teams are experiencing similar roadblocks, and whether they've figured out a more effective method to approaching corporations.

You're feedback and thoughts on this are appreciated.

Our team has a few months to raise 6k because in order to apply for the 2nd year grant from NASA, they need to see you've raised 6k from corporate or community grants.( If I am not mistaken...)

Im located in Central NJ, by the way

Thanks

Managers and executives are typically charged with maximizing profits for their shareholders. Thus 'giving' away money is counter to their job.

In order to counter this, you need to understand the needs of the company and 'sell' what your team has to offer. This could be as direct as advertising space on the robot, website, etc. Or it could involve educating the company as to why it would be benefitial (especially in the long run) to the company to support the teams endevors.

Basically you have to know your customer, know what you have to offer, and have a plan for presenting this information quickly and in an easily undersandable way.