The #1 Rule to Landing a Corporate Contract

My entire professional career was based around designing, negotiating, implementing and managing strategic alliances.

I did this from all three sides of the table:  as buyer, seller and minority business owner.  

I started my career doing research for Shell Oil Company and eventually moved up to supply chain management work. Here I negotiated strategic alliances with some of the largest suppliers in the world. 

You see, in the world of corporate, strategic alliances are tightly integrated relationships where resources are invested by both companies. The partnership allows for both businesses to prosper - clearly, a key component of the revenue driver, cost drivers or profitability.  

  

In 2004, I decided to leave my corporate career and start my own company. I decided I was going to approach a friend of mine, who happened to be a supplier diversity manager, about doing a contract with her company (mind you, this company is and was one of the top five largest oil and gas companies in the world). 

Her response was, “Randall, if you're honest with yourself, you know your business doesn't offer what we need.”

I was blown away. I thought to myself, "how did I forget the #1 most important step when approaching a corporation for a contract?".

You see, I forgot that when approaching a corporation for a contract, your business needs to have a clear step by step breakdown of exactly how you'll be a great strategic alliance partner.

I decided to go back to the drawing board to put together a diversely owned small business strategic alliance of my own. We actually helped rebuild a number of locations after hurricane Katrina by partnering with a large engineer procurement construction firm. 

We continued to grow our alliance until we were ready to approach my friend and the corporation she represented....

And we got the contract!

You see, corporations are looking to partner with diversely owned small business owners for one specific reason: companies with a diverse work force outperform companies that don't.

Corporations are literally spending trillions of dollars to partner with diversely owned small business owners that can show the exact benefit of partnering with them.

There has never been a better time to be a minority or woman owned business owner than now.

Have you ever thought of what a corporate contract could do for your business and life?