The Art of Business: Thriving in the Corporate Suite
Corporate employees aren’t like you and me. They work under a different set of priorities and demands. So marketing, prospecting, and handshaking with corporate employees is fine, but you may be spinning your wheels if you don’t understand the crazy pressures, unwritten rules, and unspoken insanity that drive the corporate world. Here are a few insights to help you tap the most lucrative market of all.
1. Don’t take it personally. The average corporate employee spends an inordinate amount of time in meetings and countless hours on foolish paperwork. They are overworked and under appreciated; even more so in economic downturns because coworkers get laid off, and those left behind are asked to pick up the slack. The remaining people often manage to keep afloat simply by ignoring unsolicited (and often solicited) emails and phone calls. So when a corporate employee fails to respond, don’t take it personally. Persevere and sooner or later they’ll return your calls, often starting with an apology for the delay.
2. Understand the driving needs that drive the buy. In the corporate world, no one does anything “just because.” Every project is driven by something, someone, somewhere. Forget the warm and fuzzy talk. To capture the interest of a busy corporate manage or executive, understand exactly how you can help. If you don’t know, find out fast by probing about problems, challenges, goals, and projects.
I like the advice of Jeffrey Gitomer, a sales trainer who recommends on his Web site: “Instead of asking what it will take to get their business, wouldn’t it be more powerful if you told the prospect what it would take to get his business? Don’t you know what it will take to get their business? Why not? You’re the expert aren’t you? Shouldn’t you walk into the sale and tell the prospect, ‘I’ve studied the situation, I’ve analyzed the risk elements, and I’ve created several great ideas about what it will take to get your business.’ If you walk into the sale knowing what it will take to get their business, you’ll have a 100 percent better chance than your competitor walking in asking what it will take to get their business.”
3. Be ready to justify, justify, justify. Small business people can make decisions on any criteria they choose. Corporate employees, on the other hand, must justify their expenditures to someone else in the organization, often many people. Additionally, employees often are afraid to champion an idea or vendor for mortal fear of being shot down by a manager or executive above them. One of your key jobs is to provide ample evidence so that your contact feels bold enough to risk suggesting that you and your solution are the best choice. Rather than provide justification anecdotally or in person, provide it in a format that is easily understood and can move up the chain of command. This means PowerPoint or Web presentations or written proposals that say it all.
4. Say it in dollars and cents. Corporations, especially in lean times, love that thing called return on investment. You may not be a numbers person by nature, but your proposals will be that much stronger if you are able to show how your solution will affect or enhance the company’s bottom line. Real-life examples of results at other companies can speak volumes. Illustrations with charts and graphs are more convincing than any brochure. If you are more expensive than your competition, what added value will you provide? If hiring you will cost more than solving the company’s problem in some other way, what tangible benefits will they receive that make the added expense worthwhile? Spreadsheets aren’t artistic but they often pay off beautifully.
5.Beware the Budget Gorilla. Even if a company needs you badly and you’re obviously the best one for the job, the deal won’t go through if there’s no money in the budget. The Budget Gorilla rules the corporate jungle and that’s the way it is. You can ask your contact to try for a budget variance or offer delayed payment terms, but no budget usually means your project will be deferred until the next fiscal quarter or year.
That’s why it’s not a bad idea to ask your client early in the process if there’s a firm budget for the project in questions. Don’t necessarily expect them to tell you how much it is — price negotiations will come later. But if your contact can’t answer budget questions, it’s also a strong clue there is no budget or, worse, you’re not talking to the decision-maker.
6. Take it to the top. Your chance of success is in direct proportion to the number of actual decision-makers you sit in front of. The problem with most creative professionals is that they are sitting in front of someone who has to ask someone else if they can buy it or not. So don’t leave it up to anyone to sell your case. Says Gitomer: “The most powerful qualifying question you can ask is (and it must be asked exactly this way): ‘Bill, how will this decision be made?’ Bill will give you an answer. Then you follow up with, ‘Then what?’ Bill will begin to give you the saga about how the decision is really made. You ask, ‘Then what?’ four or five times and, presto, you’ll have the name of the real decision-maker.”
7. Get ready to jump. You would think corporations, with all their resources and strategic thinkers, would have the wherewithal to plan projects in a timely fashion. But most corporations seem to work in a panic mode with ridiculously short deadlines and convoluted constraints. “Need it yesterday” is standard operating procedure, so be ready to make big sacrifices for those big contracts.
If you’ve never worked in the corporate world yourself, find a friend who has, and ask him or her about the ways things really are inside those glass-monster buildings. You’ll be thankful for the relatively tame problems of the creative professional.
This article was last modified on December 14, 2022
This article was first published on September 15, 2003
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