SUBCONTRACTING TO MAJOR CORPORATIONS REQUIRES DIFFERENT SKILLS
Selling to major corporations requires extensive research. To find companies that may ultimately become customers, search industry literature for prospects, then read their Websites to see what their plans are; perhaps you have a way to help them.
Avoid contacting any procurement department because they require a Request For Proposal (RFP). This means your RFP will be buried among those of vendors they already use.
By sidestepping the procurement department, you will need to approach specific units inside the company; you might also consider approaching a regional office away from the central office location.
If you are a female, a minority, or a veteran there are special resources you can use which we will discuss later; these will do much of the research for you.
To use these special resources, you must go through a process of certification. Should you wish not to become certified for some reason, you can still approach the functional units on your own.
When you deal with individual corporate units, you need to find the exact people you need to contact. Social media like LinkedIn will be a big help in identifying your prospects.
When you’ve made your contact, be persistent in your efforts. Later we’ll discuss voice mail and bypassing gatekeepers.
Expect your sales effort to require some time after you make your contact. Big corporations go through several layers of bureaucracy; it is not an instant process. Be patient and continue to press for a sale.
Be sure to follow the movements of employees you have contacted. A new contact can provide an opening for you because new people often want to start over with new suppliers.
SPECIAL RESOURCE FOR MINORITIES
This resource is the National Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc. Their mission is to advance business opportunities for certified Asian, Black, Hispanic, and Native American businesses.
This organization includes 3,500 corporate members, many of which are America’s largest companies, along with universities, hospitals, and others. The regional councils certify and match over 16,000 minority businesses with members who want to buy from them.
This resource began out of a 1968 Chicago minority business opportunity showcase. Purchases from member corporations have grown from $86 million in 1972 $100 billion in 2010. If you are a minority who is eligible for certification, you should certainly join this group. They get the job done. Minorities comprise 34% of the US population, while they represent only 21% of all businesses, 7% of gross receipts, and 3% of all corporate purchases.
SPECIAL RESOURCE FOR VETERANS
This is the National Veteran Owned Business Association.
Their stated mission is to exploit opportunities for the more than 3 million veteran owned businesses. NaVOBA will help veterans regardless of their business interest from a small shop on main street, a franchise, or contracting with various government agencies.
Their magazine, Vetpreneur, is the only national publication that exclusively covers veteran owned businesses.
The idea for NaVOBA began in 2001 and finally became what it is today in 2007. In 2001 the same group started G.I. Jobs, a magazine devoted to convincing American corporations to “Hire Veteran.” The move to get corporations to “Hire Veteran” has been so successful that it is now pitching the idea of “Buy Veteran.”
In 2007 NaVOBA hired Rocky Bleier as its national spokesman.
Why is Rocky Bleier important?
He graduated from the University of Notre Dame. As a running back with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was on teams that won four Super Bowls. During his rookie year, Rocky was drafted into the Army and shipped to Vietnam where he was wounded in both legs and received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After returning from Vietnam, he rehabbed himself and worked his way up to the starting lineup with the Steelers. Since retiring from football in 1980 he has been involved with several small businesses, including a disabled veteran owned construction company.
A perfect fit for a veterans advocacy organization, don’t you think?
Being a member of NaVOBA assures a measure of approval from the public; a recent survey revealed 70% of those surveyed said they would rather buy from a veteran-owned business than from a non-veteran owned one.
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NaVOBA has a data base of corporate members so you can find those likely to buy from you. You can learn about selling to the federal government by registering at (www.vetbiz.gov) and (www.bpn.gov/ccr).
The Contracting Opportunities Portal is a tool only available from NaVOBA which provides an easy way to corporate contracting opportunities.
NaVOBA offers members MilitaryFranchising.com, an online tool that helps those interested in a franchise find the franchise that best fits what they want.
WOMEN’S BUSINESS ENTERPRISE NATIONAL COUNCIL
This resource for women entrepreneurs offers aid to this group in finding customers for their products and services and supporting women’s issues when dealing with corporations.
The Small Business Administration has approved this Council as a Third Party Certifier for Women Owned Small Business (WOSB) certification.
This approval allows any woman-owned business who receives Council certification to be considered for WOSB certification; at the same time, those who apply for WOSB certification will automatically receive Council certification.
The SBA approval of Council certification opens the door for women entrepreneurs to compete for government contracts. To be certified, a business must be at least 51% owned, operated, and managed by women; this certification is accepted by over 1,000 corporations, as well as many states and other buying organizations. New applicants can apply for all certifications at the same time by completing the Council process and the WOSB application.
When both of these certifications have been granted, to participate in the Federal Contracting Program, applicants must complete several additional steps required by the Small Business Administration.
There is no cost for Council certification. The Council provides MatchMaker programs that connect Corporate Members to certified women entrepreneurs.
VOICE MAIL THAT GETS CALLBACKS
You have searched far and wide spent many hours on Google and LinkedIn, but nobody ever gets back to you. What to do? Some answers regarding voice mail are provided here which we briefly summarize:
The message should be short, 15 to 40 seconds; focus on your goal which is to get a return call. Provide some benefit to your caller that will make them return your call, such as some problem you can solve for them. Your message should not tell too much, just enough to get the recipient to call you. Produce five different messages to use; this will allow you to track response and see which message is most effective.
GETTING PAST GATEKEEPERS
In today’s world, companies have set up barriers to prevent most newcomers from talking to decision makers. The most common barrier to a salesperson is the receptionist, who has been trained to protect her bosses from everyone. This is a major problem for salespeople, but here will find some ways around gatekeepers. Here are some of them:
Forget figuring how to get past the gatekeeper, instead, think about how you can work with them by providing something of value the boss will want to know about.
Gatekeepers are among the decision makers’ trusted advisors. Seek to build a professional relationship, rather than being evasive, and they will eventually help you. They are now part of the sales process and you must accept that fact and sell them before you can sell their boss.
Eliminate most of the small talk and quickly get to the reason for your call. Do not immediately ask for the decision maker. State your case to the gatekeeper and ask for their help in getting to the right person. Tell the gatekeeper upfront why you think what you are calling about will add value for the decision maker. Ask the gatekeeper who else may be involved in what you want. They may be able to direct you in a better direction than the one you originally asked for. Try to develop a friendly rapport with gatekeepers. If they see you as a persistent and professional salesperson, it is likely they will help you. If they see you as just another annoying salesperson, you are sunk.
SUPPLIER CONNECTION FOR THOSE NOT IN A SPECIAL GROUP
After several years in the process, IBM and a group of other large corporations have produced a service named Supplier Connection for reasons described here. Some reasons for this new organization are:
Small businesses now have access to the $300 billion in purchases made by large corporations.
This service is free and a potential vendor only has to fill out a form similar to the Universal College Application one time to be considered for many kinds of goods and services contracts. Right now 1,000 small businesses are registered on Supplier Connection where over 250 large buyers are searching for potential vendors. Supplier Connection (www.supplier-connection.net) is a cloud-based platform enabling small businesses to become visible to large corporations looking for suppliers.
The Supplier Connection portal is available to US Small businesses with these qualifications:
- Less than $50 million in revenue, or less than 500 employees.
- They must provide any of the following goods and services:
- Facilities Support
- Food and Beverage Manufacturing
- Industrial Manufacturing
- Lab Supplies and Equipment
- Logistics
- Professional, Marketing and Technical Services
- Service Parts
- Software
- Facilities Support
US SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (SBA)
The SBA offers a number of services to aid small businesses in getting contracts with large companies and the US Government.
To start, you need to certify that you are a small business by registering at a federal Website, obtain a tax identifying number, and determine the industry code for your business. You also need a DUNS number.
Sub-contracting with a Prime Vendor is a good way to get started. To bid on federal contracts, enter your business profile in the contractor database. There are other ways to get contracts including GSA Schedules, Green Contracting Opportunities, and many others.
CONCLUSION
When you begin reading this article you may think it is necessary to be in a preferred group like minorities, women, or veterans in order to get help obtaining contracts from large corporations and the government. This is exactly what got IBM and some other large companies to form Supplier Connection. The SBA also offers many contracting services to small businesses, but there may be some entrepreneurs who don’t want to become involved with a government organization. This could have been why IBM and others organized Supplier Connection at considerable cost to themselves—$10 million to be exact. Whatever the reason, there are many Websites out there to help small businesses obtain contracts. Try one and see your little business grow.
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