Big fish

Big fish

Get ready before luring large-company prospects

by Elizabeth Martin   For many small companies, large clients are highly sought after. It’s understandable: getting a contract with a company like General Mills or Microsoft can provide a significant, dependable income stream. Who wouldn’t like that?

That’s just the problem. How can you find the opportunities within a large company and make yourself stand out from the competition?  How can you convince that large company that your firm can handle the business? And how can you be sure that large customer won’t effectively own your firm?

But first things first: You have to find an opportunity to get your foot in the door with a large company. This is where networking is key.

“You have to network with people that are potential customers for your service,” says Bryan Ross, tax partner with EideBailly, an accounting firm in Bloomington. “You’re not going to knock on the door and get business.”

Ross also believes that the current challenging economy is a key time for targeting large companies.

“In the environment now, I think larger companies are more open to having independent contractors as resources,” he says. 

“I do very little networking within my industry group,” admits Jodie Tanaka, president and owner of Minneapolis-based Tanaka Advertising. However, Tanaka says she spends a lot of time networking and building relationships in other industries in order to find out what opportunities are present in the business community.

“The opportunities present themselves rather than my dialing for dollars or being out there knocking on those doors,” due to networking, she says.

Search for needs
“I think networking is terribly important and I think that the small-business owner has to truly believe that what they offer has great value,” says Sonia Cairns, partner with Minneapolis-based Moss Cairns Inc. Moss Cairns works with organizations to manage and facilitate meetings and projects.

“So it’s not so much a matter of marketing what you do, but learning what colleagues in the professional world need, and trying to make sure that there’s a fit,” says Cairns. “In many ways, it’s a matter of really making a contribution to them, rather than asking friends to do favors. And I think that’s an important distinction.”

Rather than deciding to target every company with revenue over $100 million in your industry, work to find two or three companies where your strengths could be most beneficial, says Jill Konrath, owner of White Bear Lake-based SellingtoBigCompanies.com.

Konrath worked in sales for companies such as Xerox Corp. for over 20 years and put her experience to work when she founded SellingtoBigCompanies two years ago.

Konrath suggests learning about companies by reading their annual reports and digging in to their Web sites. She says you can find juicy tidbits such as executive speeches on the company’s Web site. These can give you an idea about the company’s priorities and the language they use. Use all the resources at your disposal to learn who the company is and what its priorities are so that you can spend your time and effort wisely.

So you’ve done your networking and learned that one of your target companies is looking for someone who offers your product or service. But before you rush in with your standard sales pitch, carefully consider your approach.

Although approaching corporate behemoths can be intimidating, it’s important to remember that many large companies are actually made up of a series of divisions that act like smaller companies.

“I think it’s mapping out a strategy and finding out how they’re put together” and finding your point of entry, says Beth LaBreche, president of the Minneapolis-based public relations firm LaBreche Murray. LaBreche Murray has 11 employees and a client list that includes names such as Maplewood-based 3M.

LaBreche Murray began working with one of 3M’s smallest divisions in 1992 when they were hired to do public relations for a single trade show. Over the past 12 years, the relationship has continued to grow. From that experience LaBreche learned that understanding the organization and finding your point of entry is essential to gaining access.

“When we’re going after a large company, we create an org chart so we understand how and where we can insert ourselves and have the opportunity to show what we can do,” says LaBreche.

But the researching doesn’t end there. 

“It’s impossible to find out who to contact,” Konrath adds. “The decision-makers are so swamped from continued downsizing and reorganization that they never return phone calls.”

Because of this, Konrath says that persistence is key to making contact with decision makers. Konrath says she has been forced to make up to seven phone calls to get the name and contact information of a decision-maker.

No shotguns
Taking the time to sit down, research the company, and think through your approach will set you apart from the competition. 

“One of the most important things to realize is that they don’t care about your product or service; they care about what’s going on in their company,” says Konrath.

Konrath says that the shotgun approach of telling the prospect all of your organizational capabilities and hoping that one will meet their needs is a common mistake.

Because of downsizing and budget cuts, many decision makers are stretched thin and crunched for time. The best way to get their attention, says Konrath, is to focus your sales pitch on how you can solve a problem that the company is facing.

“It’s not about you,” says Konrath, “it’s about the customer, and everything you say and do has to relate to how you can help the customer do a better job, achieve their goals, meet their objectives, everything relates to that.”

Adds LaBreche: “If you do a great job the word can really spread.”

Tanaka Advertising has experienced the transformation of a relationship from a single job to something much bigger.

The company was doing a few projects with U.S. Bank, then known as First Bank, in Minneapolis. One day, the vice president of the group they were working with asked to have a meeting with Tanaka to understand the company’s capabilities. After the presentation was completed, the vice president turned to Tanaka:

“He said, ‘You don’t know this, but you were just competing with our rebrand to U.S. Bank and you were competing with Martin Williams and Periscope, and you got it,” recalls Tanaka. 

Being psychologically prepared to “play with the big boys” is important too, Konrath says.

Many small companies believe that large companies already house departments that offer the same service. The economy seems to be turning around, yet many companies are still reluctant to hire. That means that the company’s employees are likely busy putting out fires or working on other projects. Konrath says that many companies are stretched too thin these days and are looking to outside resources for help.

Companies should also be prepared to do business like large companies, says LaBreche.

“Do business the way they want you to do business in the first place,” she says.

“We want to look like we’re ready to do business with large companies,” says LaBreche. She says she would rather anticipate one of her large client’s needs, than scramble to fulfill a request.

She cites the company’s extranet as an example.

Because of the nature of public relations, LaBreche Murray produces a large number of files for its clients. The extranet will allow clients to use a user name and password to access all their files through LaBreche Murray’s Web site.

“That’s something that I haven’t seen large companies demanding yet, but I’m predicting that that’s something they’re going to want,” says LaBreche.

“So when we talk to a large client, we say, ‘We’ve got this, this, this, and this,’ and they’re just tickled pink” because the company has already set up the business in a way that will serve that large client best.

LaBreche Murray also offers its clients electronic billing. Although such features may seem expensive, they don’t have to be, says Margrette Newhouse, senior vice president of business banking for M&I Bank in Minneapolis. In fact, depending on its complexity, electronic billing may be less expensive than posting and check processing costs.

Investment required
However, being ready to do business with large companies may involve investments in equipment and technology with no promise of a return on that investment. In that case, it’s not always necessary to make the investment without a contract in hand, but showing prospects that you are capable of scaling your production to meet their needs is important.

“It’s making sure that you look like you have your ducks in a row from a processes, procedures perspective,” says Newhouse,

For example, even though your company’s inventory might be smaller than what a large customer would need, you can demonstrate that your processes can scale up to meet those needs.

Although large clients may promise large revenue, it is important to keep your business in balance, business owners say. Otherwise one customer’s change in fortunes, or change in direction, can wreck your firm.

“One thing that we said from our first day in business, and that was that there wouldn’t be any cash cow clients,” says Tanaka.

Although the company still has clients that include Eagan-based Northwest Airlines, Golden Valley-based General Mills, and Minneapolis-based Target Corp., Tanaka says that the company wanted to maintain a diverse industry base.

In addition, Newhouse recommends working with an attorney and a banker when drawing up contracts with a large client.

“There’s a lot of working capital needs and costs that you’re incurring working with that large company,” says Newhouse. Make sure that you thoroughly understand the client’s expectations about who pays for capital expenditures such as new equipment, and make sure that information is included in the contract. 

[contact] Sonia Cairns, Moss Cairns Inc.: 612.819.0678; sc*****@********ns.com; www.mosscairns.com. Jill Konrath, SellingtoBigCompanies.com: 651.429.1922; ji**@*******************es.com; www.sellingtobigcompanies.com. Beth LaBreche, LaBreche Murray: 612.338.0901; bl*******@************ay.com; www.labrechemurray.com. Margrette Newhouse, M&I Bank: 612.904.8194; ma****************@****rp.com; www.micorp.com. Bryan Ross, EideBailly: 952.918.3502; br***@********ly.com; www.eidebailly.com. Jodie Tanaka, Tanaka Advertising: 612.378.3928; jt*****@*******nc.com; www.tanakainc.com.