What was his name?

He was the IT Director at one of our first customers.  In fact, what was their name?  I know they used our product to help them with their rock business.  They were in the construction industry.  I’ve got to find him.  They are definitely a prime prospect for our new service.

CSR.  I found the company name on some spreadsheet that “fell off the back of a truck”.  But no contact info.  I “googled” CSR and learned that they had changed ownership not once, but twice, since I last did business with them.  Most recently they were acquired by a Mexican company called Cemex.  Trolling their website didn’t uncover my long lost associate, Mr. X, …who, for all I knew… was probably long gone.

I would much prefer to have a name to start my calling than have to fumble my way through receptionist gatekeepers, asking for my “close personal friend” whose name I can’t remember.

Enter Google desktop.  I entered CSR into Google’s search field and told it to go scour my hard drive for evidence.  A few seconds later it came back with a hit on a travel expense spreadsheet that I submitted way back in 1999.  Evidently I had taken Mr. X out for lunch and wanted to get reimbursed for it.

I then Googled his name and came back with a newsletter published a year and a half ago.  My long lost business colleague was not only still at the company, doing the same job, but is also doing good community work.  There was a photo of him in the company newsletter, surrounded by his department, celebrating a great United Way fund raising campaign that they had just completed.

My preliminary detective work complete, I picked up the phone and started dialing…