Marketing to
FORTUNE 500 Companies
BWC Network Strategy Session
July 13, 2005
Ian Todreas, ERG
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Marketing to F500
• Barriers
• Tips to overcoming barriers
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Some barriers to F500 recruiting
• F500 companies are big.
– Employ thousands, across multiple work sites
– Hard to identify the right person/decision maker
• BWC is not central to F500 businesses.
– “Employee” issues are not always on the radar screen
– TDM not always on the “employee issues” agenda
• Making cold calls is scary and time-consuming.
– What to say? BWC is complicated!
– We are all busy with other things
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Tips to get past the barriers
• Do your homework & develop a list of “hot” leads:
– Identify F500s with in your area.
– Which work sites have commuter benefits?
– Which ones might have commuter benefits?
– Which ones have BWC sites elsewhere?
– Which F500s are on similar lists (e.g., Best Places to Work,
Best Places for Working Mothers, etc.)?
– Which are active in the community and care about
corporate reputation?
– At which F500s/work sites do you have contacts (including
friends, family, colleagues, former colleagues, etc.)
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More tips
• Avoid cold calls by:
– Sending a letter/e-mail out first about BWC.
– Wait at least a week, then make your call.
• Don’t procrastinate…
– This campaign has a deadline (early Sept)!
– Create weekly goals (e.g., x calls/day).
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More tips
• What to say? First get organized:
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Keep copy of letter in front during calls.
Keep copy of other materials (e.g., flyers) in front.
Know thy web site (www.bwc.gov).
Always take notes on your correspondences.
• Then hone your pitch/message:
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Practice your elevator pitch before making calls.
For an ETC: your program is great, get recognition!
For an HR person: recruitment and retention.
For a PR person: distinguish yourself, leadership, free
media coverage.
– For an employee champion: all of the above.
– Other
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More tips
• Do they qualify?
– Determine this as early as possible in
the conversation.
– It’s HARD to convince someone to
substantially improve benefits in a
short time frame.
– It’s EASY to convince someone to join
BWC if they already qualify.
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More tips
• Don’t fret over getting the “right
person” on the line.
– If your first contact doesn’t express
enthusiasm, you are not necessarily at
a dead end.
– A HR exec may not be interested in
BWC, but a PR exec may find it
compelling, or vice versa.
– Be persistent, until you learn that the
site doesn’t qualify.
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More tips
• Use the CEO letter to its full potential.
– Fax copies to whomever you are speaking with.
• Handholding is effective.
– Walk your contact through the online
application while on the phone!
• Drop names.
– USA Today, MSNBC, Wash Post, etc. covered
BWC F500s last year.
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More tips
• Be prepared to counter conventional
wisdom:
– “Rural work sites can’t take advantage of benefits”
(what about vanpool, carpool, and telework?)
– “In the city, everyone takes transit anyway so we don’t
offer benefits there” (many F500s do offer benefits at
city-based work sites to be competitive. Also telework
is popular among workers looking to ease daily
commutes)
– “This work site [e.g., manufacturing plant] has
strict/varied shifts for its employees and is not
conducive to offering benefits” (while not necessarily
good for catching trains predictable shifts make for
great carpooling and vanpooling)
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More tips: Countering wisdom (cont.)
– “We had a bad year and are laying off
employees” (some companies argue that
offering commuter benefits saves the company
money by minimizing parking expenses, and
fewer employees could improve their ranking!)
– “We had a great year and don’t need to offer
these benefits” (you can never be on too many
lists of Bests)
• BWC has examples of employers of all types:
rural, urban, services, East/West/Mid
West/South, huge, smaller, etc. Use these!
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More Tips
• Ranking is a competitive force:
– Some companies want to be in the Top 20 or #1.
– Some companies would be glad to be #1 in their
industry.
– Some companies would be glad to be #1 in their
region.
– What’s the competition doing in TDM? Can you
leverage one F500’s BWC participation to inspire
another?
– Etc.
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More tips
• Things change from year to year:
– New staff come, old leave.
– New facilities open, old ones close.
– Awareness of the importance of
transportation, environment, and communities
is growing.
– Benefits offered change.
– Awareness of BWC and this list is growing.
• Be patient (think Red Sox!)
– If you don’t get ‘em this year, there’s always
next year.
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Thanks for your time,
and good luck!
Ian Todreas, ERG
BWC FORTUNE 500 Recruiting Team
Ian.todreas@erg.com
Tel. (617) 357-4623
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