Whether you need to call a company for information, you want to make a complaint or you want to add a lead to your business's marketing list, finding the corporate number can get tricky for some companies. You might find a corporate office number for a large company as easily as searching the web, but a smaller company might make you do a lot of digging to get its number. Common sources to which you can turn include company websites, business directories, company publications and paid lookup tools. You can also try reaching the company through another contact method first.

Try a Web Search First

Before digging into websites and other search tools, it helps to run a basic web search using the company's name followed by "corporate headquarters phone number" to see if any immediately helpful results appear. Google, for example, might show a special content block with the corporate address and a button to place a call. If not, you still might see a corporate contact page for the company within the first few results or a link to a helpful business directory site with the phone number.

Search the Company's Corporate Website

When trying to find a corporate phone number, check if the company has a corporate-specific website. This might be a standalone website or a sub-site on its main domain. Often, the site including the corporate office number will specialize in sharing company news and information with investors and suppliers rather than selling products directly to customers, but that's not always the case, especially for small companies.

For example, Walmart's website includes a link on the bottom of the page to learn more about the company. That link takes you to the corporate sub-site, corporate.walmart.com, where you'll find a contact page with a phone number to reach the headquarters.

If this fails, you can also check the main company website's contact page. Calling the number shown there can get you in touch with a representative who might supply the corporate number. You can also try looking for a corporate phone number on the social media sites of the business, such as its Facebook page's "about" section.

Use Corporate Office Number Directories

If you can first do a corporate headquarters lookup so you know the right address, you can consider free business lookup tools like Whitepages and Manta. You'll need to enter the full company name and at least the city and state to bring up some relevant listings. Look for the result matching the corporate headquarters address and select it to see any given corporate phone number.

Check Recent Company Press Releases

Since companies usually put some form of contact information on press releases, searching online for a press release from the company might provide the corporate office number you need. You'll often find these on the company's website, on news websites and with press release distribution tools like PR Newswire. At the very least, you might find an email address on the release that can help you with your search.

Turn to Another Contact Method

When you find a phone number but aren't sure if it's the corporate one, don't hesitate to call any listed company number and check. You could also try sending an email to the address on the contact page or submit your inquiry through the company's online contact form. If the business has a location nearby, it doesn't hurt to drop by and ask.

Consider Using Paid Lookup Tools

If your other attempts to find company phone numbers don't bring you success, you have the option to consider doing a premium search. Along with giving you an accurate phone number, such tools make it easy to get other important business information you might need. This might include the name of the chief point of contact, sales volume, number of employees and industry details.

The eGrabber website offers company information for getting potential business leads, and it offers a trial that lets you search up to 50 companies without paying. The website for the North American Industry Classification System has a company lookup tool where you can search by the company name and address and pay a fee for each company report needed.