Why One Contact in a Corporate is not enough

Have you ever had one of those experiences when you set up a meeting with one of your corporate sales leads and it goes really well?  You come away from the meeting with a great feeling that you’ve really connected with the person you met with and you feel that you have a good chance of winning the contract – and then nothing. The proposal simply runs aground. When you follow up you get told the project is on hold or they’ll get back to you. You’re left wondering: “What happened there? I thought I had it in the bag?”

Yes getting to contracts is important for your business, but it’s not just about the money. I know I felt let down because I felt there was a genuine meeting of minds and then – nothing! It’s happened to most of us.

Let me share what has really happened here – in this scenario.

Most likely the person you met with is not the final decision maker. These days in corporate businesses, most decisions are made by committees or someone higher up. As an answer to that problem some people might tell you that you simply have to get in front of the final decision maker. In smaller or medium sized businesses this may be possible but in larger corporates this is not so easy.

The good news is that it is still possible to get your business proposals signed off.  You can get your creative marketing solutions accepted without having to go right to the top. As an example: it is possible to sell to Virgin without having to meet Richard Branson.

Remember if you are using  a true Attract Corporate Clients system your primary business contact will have invited you to the meeting. Of all the people you meet in their organization they will be the most enthusiastic. That’s not where you have to put your hard business selling skills to test. Your challenge instead is to find out who else in the organization has influence on making the decision. Do this at your very first meeting.  Even better, find out on your initial call: Who has the power to veto the decision? Who has a vested interest in it?

What I learnt early on is that when I set up first meetings, I never see just one person. I always make sure there are as many of the business decision makers there as possible. When I walk into a corporate office I want to be able to build relationships with as many people as possible. I don’t want the success of my consulting proposal and ultimately my business to be relying on just one person.

When you start to build relationships across an organization you get to understand many different points of view. In this way you become much more valuable to the organization because you have a much better understanding of their needs, challenges and interests.

As a consultant you can be the person that connects people, ideas and departments. You can find a way for everyone to win and for no-one to appear to be wrong. That is exactly what will attract corporate customers to you.  Most corporates don’t have a connector, someone that can provide corporate business solutions form an objective point of view.

This is the value you can promote in your business to business ecommerce ventures. Then it becomes more than a once off business contract. You can establish a long term working relationship and become invaluable to your corporate clients. It’s a win-win for both parties. You benefit from the business as you are someone that they want to work with long term, and they get to enjoy greater business continuity.

Want to know how to be an expert at winning contracts with Big Business.   Register for the www.sellingtocorporatessummit.com .  It’s totally FREE for a limited time – so be sure to grab your free ticket and learn from marketing experts like Bernadette Doyle, Ari Galper, Angelique Rowers, Ian Brodie and MORE ….