Sending out a few hundred mailshots to other companies. I have a database with contacts but it is a couple of years old now so some of the contacts may well have left.
So should I:
a) Send out personalised letter risking it having the wrong contact name
b) Send out non-personalised letters?

I would have thought that a) is more risky.

depends how much time you want to invest.

if it's to someone who'sa left chances are it'll be ignored/binned.

if it's to a position rather than a person it'll be seen as junk and may be ignored.

how many on the list? – if it's short or this is important to you (which it probably is!) you could always phone each organisation – 'is x still there?' and if not ask for the name of the replacement. You'd end up with an up to date contacts list to.

If you do a), any 'wrong-uns' will probably go straight in the bin – if you do b) most will probably go in the bin anyway. That's certainly my experience.

EDIT: What he says ^^^ RE: ringing around first – we do it every six months or so.

Also, with the numbers of changes in companies over the past 2 years with the credit crunch and that I'd view any 2 year old list with extreme suspicion as to accuracy.

WWW and BB talk sense. Make sure your database is up to date. No point sending the most persuasive letter ever with the best offer in the market if the person you need to see it doesn't – simply cos it's addressed to someone else (or nobody)

If you do a), any 'wrong-uns' will probably go straight in the bin – if you do b) most will probably go in the bin anyway.

Pretty much mine too 🙁 But I need to be doing something 😐 Guess I'll be spending some time on the phone then,

If you're updating the contacts database, prioritise the ones you would most like contact with and phone them first and then work down the list to ones you consider 'speculative' at best. Do a little bit at a time. Much better than starting at "A" and being thouroughly p'ed off by the time to "C" and losing the will to live 😉

Much better than starting at "A" and being thouroughly p'ed off by the time to "C" and losing the will to live

Oh yeah…….. know that feeling well. Anybody who can do it for a job is obviously made of stronger stuff than me!

As jobs go, its even below 'spend time on quality system' on my things to do list…. and both these two are waaaayyyyyyy below everything. My desk has to be spotless and thumbs well and truly twiddled before their even considered 😉

at last company we had in excess of 1000 customers, with shed loads more contacts. There was no way of realistically ensuring no mistakes. Came down to dear sir on minor customers and dear X where we knew the name because they were an important account.

Being as it was a building supply company most of our customers had been decimated so even if the list was right on monday probably be wrong by friday.