Selling to Corporate Clients

Selling to corporate clients requires a different approach to standard small to medium sized business to business sales. Corporates often have set procedures managed by purchasing teams who have an approved supplier list. It is very difficult to get onto an approved supplier list - you can work at it for years while a chance opportunity can get someone else onto the list quickly. Often suppliers fail to understand the opportunity when they find themselves on a large corporate's system and they don't follow it through to get the most out of it.

It can be difficult to get a contact in a large corporate. Most have receptionists answering the telephones who are often referred to as gatekeepers. One of their main roles is to screen calls and it is very difficult for someone selling a service to get past this gatekeeper.

Emails are also unlikely to link a sales person to a buyer. Lists can be purchased, but often the email addresses on the lists have been used so many times that the recipient is no longer open to approaches. Even the best lists can be over-harvested.

One way is to have a product that can be bought at short notice over the internet. This can be considered more of a discretionary spend than a planned one. Make best use of the contact you make at this stage to try to get onto that corporate's supplier roster. One example is team building events for small teams, which are often booked with one or two weeks' notice. The booker of these events is often a PA or a member of the team who will be attending, but there is an opportunity at a time of goodwill to ask to be introduced to someone in the buying department.

One of the problems you will need to address is that purchasing departments will be approached many times by potential suppliers. They will be much more prone to saying no than offering an opportunity. So, it is important to have some sort of advantage that lifts you above the usual approach. Give it some thought, particularly thinking about your service from the user's perspective, and come up with a clever strategy.

Another effective way to gain attention is to organise an event on a subject of relevance to your target corporates and have good guest speakers. It is easier to gain attention if you have a valuable message, rather than just trying to sell something. Promoting your service at the event is more subtle and this is the point. Do not think about how to sell to corporates, think instead how to get their attention.

Selling goods and services to large corporates is not easy, but it can be achieved if you understand the issues and look at the situation from their perspective. If you do get an opportunity it is important that your team builds it as far as you can and try to find your way into that crucial approved suppliers list.