Do
you want to shorten the time it takes to land a corporate contract? Of course
you do. With shorter time spent to land contracts, you will have an opportunity
to pursue multiple business avenues. In order to make this happen, you must
concentrate on your initial pitch – probably the most crucial part of the
process. I cannot stress enough how
important it is that you get it right. If you are going to be a Blueprint Pro
and we are going to get you to those six, seven, eight & nine-figure
contracts, then you absolutely must nail the initial approach.
When I was a buyer, the thing that stood out in
potential suppliers’ initial pitches was that most of them were not ready. If
you’re not ready, it’s going to take an eternity to get a contract. Sure, you
can get lucky. You can happen to be in the right place at the right time on the
right day and get a shot, and you may be one of those rare individuals that,
really and truly, all you need is that shot. Somehow everything falls into
place and you do a fantastic job. This does happen, but it’s rare. It’s the
exception, not the rule. And because this is rare, companies getting
opportunities who aren’t ready have left a negative impression of small
business readiness in the corporate world.
As a buyer, I would listen to the pitches of potential
suppliers and try to figure out when would be the appropriate time to engage
with them. The first meeting I might decide that this person is not ready yet,
but I’m going to maintain a relationship. If I happened to see them out at
another event, I would remember that, in our first interaction, the person had
seemed to be fumbling over what it was they did, and was not precise about what
it was they were going to offer…or what value it delivered to my supply chain.
I had one person come up to me and give me five
different business cards. The
implication being “I can do this. I can do this. I have this company that does
this”. I was so confused. I didn’t know what to use him for at the moment. If
you give me five different business cards, I’m not sure that you are good at
any one of your businesses. My initial reaction in these instances is to not
consider that person as someone with whom I want to do business. Because of
these encounters, I started putting together a diagram in my mind - a timeline
about how long it took before I was confident that a person was ready.
I think the fastest that I may have ever contracted
with a supplier was a couple of weeks. It was a company that made
microcomputers. When I met them, they seemed like they had their act together.
I looked at their brochure; and I had heard good things about them from someone
else. One of my coworkers needed a computer, so out of the blue, I sent that
company a purchase order for a PC. Sure enough, it came in as advertised and as
expected. I got the appropriate confirmations; the transaction went off without
a hitch; the product was delivered on time; and there was sufficient follow-up
to see that I, the buyer, was satisfied. And most importantly (this one’s always
overlooked) – the invoice complied with our invoicing requirements.
I
share that with you to say that it is possible to land a corporate contract
that is a small one, and if you perform exemplarily, it can lead to a
substantial amount of business. That company went on to do millions and
millions of dollars with us.
There
were other times when I gave new suppliers a chance, however, and they were
complete and utter disasters. I surmised
that I needed to get better at picking and choosing companies, so I started
developing a criteria of what it took for me to get comfortable that somebody
was worth taking a risk on. In the absence of that, it could take years before
I gave companies a shot again, especially if it was a really large contract –
say six, seven or eight figures – and we had to put together a cross-functional
team consisting of - for example - somebody from operations, maintenance,
accounting HR, finance, safety, etc. If it is a team-based decision, the
decision process can easily go anywhere from 6 to 18 months. Depending on the
complexity and what it takes to get buy-in, and the amount of change the
organization has to go through, it can take 18 months just to work through the
requirements. Then the final decision isn’t made until possibly 24 to 36
months.
Let’s
look at Amazon’s recent decision to relocate their headquarters. Although it
isn’t a purchase, it follows a similar process. I think they’ve been looking at
this for almost 2 or 3 years now and they finally just made their decision between
Long Island and just outside of the Washington, D.C. area. The process they
used to determine the location is very similar to the process that some large
corporations go through for you. However, it doesn’t have to take that long.
There are things you can do to short cut that time period. The number one thing
you can do to shorten the amount of time it takes to get a large corporate
contract is to be on top of your game.
This
sounds so simple, but you’d be surprised at how many folks mess this one thing
up. In order to prevent that from
happening, you have to be very specific and clear about what it is that you do
when you initially talk to corporate buyers. If you are on top of your game,
you know what you are looking for and you can quickly and clearly demonstrate
why you are the best option. That is going to shorten the amount of time it
takes for you to land a contract day-in and day-out. It really and truly is
that simple.
The
question then becomes how do you convince the buyer that you are on top of your
game? You must know your subject matter. Be an expert in whatever it is you’re
selling. You should be a walking encyclopedia around why your company is the
best in your field. The buyer has to have confidence that, based on the
presentation you give, you can deliver as promised. Next,
you have to be able to tell the buyer why you are the best at what you do in
the context of their business, which means that you need to have done your
homework about their business.
For example, you need to be able to say to the
buyer, ”I’ve researched your company and it seems to me that these may be some
of the challenges that you are having. If I’m right, here’s what it’s costing
you. And if I’m indeed right about this too, then here’s where I think that we
can impact your business and make a difference”. To paraphrase, you may say, “companies like yours typically have this kind of issue. Here’s what it is costing you. Here’s the frustration in your organization and here’s what you can do to alleviate it. And here’s going to be the benefit you’re going to receive now”.
Think about how that lands
with someone who may not know what the problem is or what the opportunity is.
Blueprint Pros, that is a wonderful conversation. If you deliver that to me as the buyer
in about three to five minutes, I’m going to say “look, if we don’t go across
the room and talk now, I’m definitely calling you in to talk because I’ve got
some people that I want you to meet ASAP”. I am now excited. I am impressed.
And whether you know this or not, you have put me in a fantastic position to be
a hero – to bring a new company into my organization that can actually hit the
ground running and make a difference. Now, most supply chain people and
supplier diversity people are not looking for the accolades. They’re not
looking for the gratitude, but it’s a great feeling for them when they’ve
brought somebody in that is a winner. Everybody wants a winner. Big companies
aren’t doing business with losers.
Most
suppliers are competent at what they do.
There also are some terrible suppliers out there. However, once they’ve
gotten their foot in the door and become integrated into the company, they are
still performing and they’ve gotten themselves into a fantastic position. This is the situation you want to get
yourself into, quite frankly, where your company provides enough value that it
costs too much money to cancel your contract. If you get yourself into a
position where it’s too much pain for somebody to cancel your contract, that will at least give
you enough time to develop innovation to get everything back on track and
maintain your preferred supplier position.
Additionally,
you have to be very careful when picking your target markets. For instance, if you’re trying to sell staffing
services to companies that are staff heavy rather than equipment heavy, that
might not be a really good market. You really and truly have to give some
serious thought when choosing your target market because that, as well, will
determine how quickly you can get in and land an agreement.
In
summary, choose your market carefully; know your stuff; be a subject matter
expert; have a compelling business case for the person to whom you are speaking;
and definitely be able to demonstrate that - given the opportunity - you will
exceed expectation. That will get you your first contract.
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