Approaching Potential Partners

Identify Potential Partners

• Businesses that are hiring junior Frontend/ Full stack JavaScript/ Node.js Developers.

• Key Stakeholders at the business that could help and are likely to be the right level of authority to be a decision maker. Roles that are likely to be in the right sort of position to make a decision on partnering with CodeYourFuture are: Head of HR, CEO, COO, Head of Tech, Frontend Lead etc.

Approach Potential Partners

Use LinkedIn to see if you have any mutual connections with the key stakeholders you have identified.

• If so reach out to any strong mutual connections to see if they would be happy to make an introduction. A warm lead is always an easier start than cold. Ideally this will be booking a face to face meeting for you all, but more often than not an email intro is common practice and still very helpful.

• If you have no mutual connections you need to make the direct approach yourself. I would always recommend going straight for a call, especially when it comes to charity work.

• If you call the company HQ/Main line and request to speak to the key stake holders, you could well be asked what the call is about, describing CYF's service and goal will very often get you past the first gate keeper and gives you a chance to find out their opinion on how interested the business as a whole might be on CYF.

If you cannot reach the key stakeholder(s) by phone then cold email next best approach.

Always try to find someone’s work email whenever possible. https://hunter.io/ is the resource I use for this, but if that proves unsuccessful trial and error works more often than you might think.

When sending a cold email my tips are:

• make it personal

  • why specifically will the receiver be interested in this, general company info and their LinkedIn gives you all the information you need,

• be concise

  • keep it short and to the point,

• always end with a question?

  • you are far more likely to receive a response by ending an email with a question than without.

Meeting Potential Partners

The aim should always be to set up a face to face meeting, ideally at a potential hiring partners office’s so you get a real feel for the company culture and working environment.

Be very clear in your mind before going in to the meeting about what it is you want to achieve. Ideally we are looking for hiring partners for our CYF graduates that are happy to agree to make a suggested donation of X amount to the CYF Charity after the CYF graduate has successfully completed 6 months at the company.

Sometimes things might fall down during this process of signing up a hiring partner; not all stake holders agree to sign off any donation money, no longer able to hire juniors, budget changes, key people leave etc.

Always remember during a meeting and throughout the process with a potential hiring partner that if things fall down and a donation is no longer possible, there are still other "sales" that you can make:

• Can they make a one off donation or are they interested in sponsoring a class? o Can they donate any spare or old materials? e.g. Laptops

• Can they push out CYF to their developers who might be interested in Mentoring?

• Can they set up a company meeting for someone from CYF to come down and talk to the company about how anyone who is interested can get involved? o Can they provide an event space and food and drink for an event we could hold in partnership with them? o There is always something you can get from any meeting, you just need to remember to keep your options open and be able to provide alternatives to objections.

If you need any support or if you would like to discuss potential partners further, please contact our Head of Global Partnerships, [e-mail]