“Now you do it,” I nodded at the phone.
“Do what?” she asked, staving off the inevitable.
“Where did he work before he worked at International Truck?” I coax.
“Allied Signal!” she exclaimed, looking back at the notes.
“And what do we do now?” I coax again.
“Call Allied Signal!” she almost shouted.
“Why do we do that?” I ask.
“To get his old group!” she almost shouted.
“You go, girl,” I said, settling back into my chair, crossing my hands in my lap.
She looked at me, her face half-full of surprise and half-full with anticipation. I could feel her nervous energy.
Silently tracking back to Hoover’s she pecked in “Allied Signal” and a whole host of possibilities came back, with the first one being Honeywell. “What the heck?” she mumbled to herself, and I watched as she scrolled down through the 36 possibilities the two words offered. Silently watching, I saw that she next went back to LinkedIn to see if she could deciper “which” Allied Signal he had worked for. A tantalizing clue beckoned on the LinkedIn profile: Process Engineer Allied Signal (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Plastics industry)
Part of the clue stated “Plastics industry” and I saw her pick it up and open another Explorer page and type in www.google.com. Into Google’s search box she entered “allied signal” plastics and 149,000 returns emerged. “We can work with that,” I thought to myself as she scrolled down the page, settling on the seventh listing down (again, a Honeywell reference was first on the page) that announced, “Allied Signal Buys 2 Concerns - New York Times”. The old posting (May, 98) described two purchases the company was making but it did not reveal Allied’s location.
“Allied Signal, the maker of Prestone antifreeze and Fram oil filters, has been building up the two businesses amid slumping demand for its automotive products.”
Impatiently, she clicked back to the first page of the Google results and clicked on the first result, Honeywell. Doing a search find on the Honeywell page the words ‘allied signal” were not to be found.
“What the heck?” she said again. “Here it is again, Hoover’s returned Honeywell first too – you think Honeywell could have bought “Allied Signal?” turning to me.
“Maybe,” is all I offered.
“What do you think?” she pressed, looking for a port in this storm.
“What do YOU think?” I queried back. “What do you think you should do now?”
“Call Honeywell?” she asked.
“You could, but Honeywell’s a monster sized company - $31B in sales with lots of divisions and over 1400 locations, according to Hoover’s” I noted, as she simultaneously pulled it up. “Why don’t you see what you can find on the two companies, first, in Google?” I prodded.
Turning back to her keyboard she penned “Allied Signal” and “Honeywell” and there it was – third one down told the tale: “AlliedSignal was an aerospace, automotive and engineering company that acquired and merged with Honeywell for $15Bn in 1999, after which the new group adopted the Honeywell name.” The next result mentioned Honeywell’s ‘Specialty Materials’ unit. “At least we have a toehold,” I thought to myself.
“Look at this next one – you think Allied’s plastics could have become a part of Honeywell’s ‘Specialty Materials?’ division. She seemed to be reading my mind.
“Could be,” I answered, and then, the warning. “1999 is pretty old news, what do you think?”
‘You’re right – but doesn’t it make sense that Honeywell’s Specialty Chemicals business might have these people inside?”
“It does.” I concurred. “Now what?” I asked as she clicked on the “Honeywell Specialty Chemicals” listing that gave us the phone number to New Jersey. After copying it out into her work document, she
dialed the phone.
I could hear the slight rat-a-tat of the Receptionist answering, and then, “Hi Elaine, this is Stephanie Morris, can you please give me the direct dial or the extension number for Jeff Devers?” she asked.
“No, there’s only one ‘e’ in Devers, I believe,” she answered. “He’s not?” I heard her answer to the receptionist’s reply that he was not “listed in the directory”. “Can you please transfer me to Process Engineering?” she then asked.
“You do?” Stephanie answered. “Can you tell me where the plants are located?” she pressed further.
“Oh, okay, let me check my notes and get back to you.”
Pressing the disconnect button she told me what I already knew from listening to her; that Jeff Devers was not in the directory and that the company had several different process engineering groups in different locations and that the girl at the switchboard didn’t have time to list them all.
“That’s good,” I offered. “Now what do we do?”
Turning back to her keyboard she pulled the LinkedIn page back up. Typing in “Honeywell” into the company box and “process engineer” into the title box, six users appeared, and one of those had the magic world “plastics” in his profile. He was located in Richmond, VA and Stephanie reached for the dial pad.
“Hold on,” I stopped her. “What if she tells you they “don’t have” a Richmond, VA location?”
“Huh?” she looked at me like I was talking nonsense.
“Look at those six results, at the bottom of that LinkedIn page; see where it says, ‘9 more LinkedIn results here’?"
“Yeah, what does that mean?” she asked.
“That means that LinkedIn has nine more people that ARE OUTSIDE MY NETWORK that we will not be able to see the names of but WE WILL be able to see what divisions they’re in, what their titles are, what all of their profiles say-”
“Really? That’s neat!” she interrupted. “I get it! It also shows us what locations they’re in and look! There’s another Process Engineer in ‘chemicals’ in Philadelphia! If she says she doesn’t have a VA location she just might have a PA location - I get it! I get it!” she hurriedly exclaimed again.
Back she dials and she asks for the main number to the Richmond, VA location. It is given to her. Then she asks for the main number for the Philadelphia plant. It is also given to her. Then she says, “If I give you someone’s name, can you give me a direct dial?” To this question I see her type in a number after the person we found on LinkedIn in Richmond, VA. Then I hear her say, and I am blown away by this, “Does it show if he has an Administrative Assistant?” I watch and listen and then I see her typing in a name. “And does she also have a number?” she presses. My chest is filling with pride as I watch the number she types in fall precisely next to the Process Engineer’s number. And then she asks, “Is there a Manager, as well, in that group, in case I can’t reach either of the other two?” I almost fall out of my chair. She finishes typing in the Manager’s info, again with the number falling within a short range of the other two, and I hear her hesitate. I catch my breath as I hear, “Does that Manager show anyone else under him? There are? Can you tell me who they are?” and she types in seven names, quickly. She tells the Receptionist “thank you” and says “good-bye”.
She turns to me like she’s in shock. “That was so easy!” she exclaims.
“No kidding, Sherlock,” I tease. “But you didn’t get the numbers and titles for those seven,” I nod at the results, teasing still.
“I couldn’t take her any further. I could sense her hesitating on me,” Stephanie remonstrated, feeling as if she had to defend her results.
“I’m TEASING, Stephanie – those are fabulous results – you took my breath away. Good girl – always follow your instincts – if you were “feeling” that, chances are something was going on with her and you were smart to back away. Besides, I see you have the VA main number - it’ll be a piece of cake to get the other info when you call in there!”
“I wonder if we can get VA to tell us who’s in PA?” I heard her muse aloud.
“Like a duck to water,” I thought to myself. My work was done.
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Maureen Sharib is a seasoned telephone names sourcer, names sourcing since 1997. She and her husband Bob own the names sourcing firm TechTrak.com and Maureen telephone-names sources daily as well as teaches telephone-names sourcing in her online telephone names sourcing course "The Magic In The Method." She can be reached by email at Maureen at techtrak.com or by phone at (513) 899-9628. Maureen will come on-site to your company to teach telephone names sourcing to your sourcers.
