Contacts and channels
Reaching the right person
The document does not arrive because you are asking someone who does not have it. How to find who does.
When a request stalls, the cause looks like a lack of interest and is nearly always something else: you are asking someone who does not have that document and does not know who does. It is especially common with mid-sized companies, where the salesperson who sold to you never touches documentation.
Who usually holds what
| Document | Who normally holds it | Who NOT to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance and policies | Administration or their broker | The salesperson |
| Quality certifications | Quality or technical management | Administration |
| Employment documentation | HR or their payroll adviser | The site manager |
| Product datasheets | Technical or production | The salesperson, who sends the old one |
Important
The fourth row explains a problem that looks like bad faith and is not: the salesperson sends an outdated datasheet because it is the one in their folder. They are not deceiving you; they simply do not maintain that document.
How to find out without going round in circles
- 1
Ask directly who handles it
"Who handles quality documentation at your company?" saves three weeks.
- 2
Ask for that person's email rather than a forward
A forward loses the link and the context, and nobody knows who answers.
- 3
Save the right contact in their record
With their role: it stops you repeating the search a year later.
- 4
And note who it was NOT
That is useful information too, especially in large companies.
Watch out
Avoid generic mailboxes for anything with a deadline. An "info@" or "admin@" works for a sales enquiry and is where dated requests die: someone opens it, decides it is not for them, and that is the end.
When the right person changes
Insisting to an address that no longer exists, or to someone who has left, generates reminders nobody reads and the impression that the supplier "is not cooperating".
Worth knowing
When what you need is held by a third party of your supplier — their accountant, their insurance broker — it can be requested from that third party with the supplier's agreement. It is usually much faster and avoids the forwarding step.
›Can I keep several contacts per company?
Yes, and it helps: one commercial, one for documents, one technical.
›What if I only get the generic mailbox?
Write there asking for the person's contact; that is the first request.
›How do I know they are still the right person?
If they stop replying suddenly, they usually are not.
A real case
The situation
A company has spent five weeks asking a supplier's salesperson for a certificate.
What you do
- Asks who handles quality and requests the direct contact
What you get
Receives the certificate the next day and saves the right contact for next year.
The situation
A generic mailbox is written to and nobody replies.
What you do
- Asks for the name of whoever handles it
What you get
The request reaches a specific person.
The situation
The contact on record is not the decision-maker.
What you do
- Asks who can resolve it
What you get
You write to somebody who can act.
The situation
Three people are written to and nobody takes it on.
What you do
- Addresses the request to one and copies the rest
What you get
There is a clear owner.
The situation
The right person is in another department.
What you do
- Asks for a redirect and records the new contact
What you get
The next request already goes right.
The situation
Nobody knows who handles that topic at the company.
What you do
- Asks the usual contact
What you get
You reach the person in one hop.
This article answers
- i do not know who to ask for the documents
- who handles this at the supplier
- generic mailbox does not reply
- finding the right contact