Corporate Advantage
Get Hungry

Try these techniques if your sales have plateaued or if you are looking for new customer prospects.

by Beverly Kuykendall

   Looking for additional markets? Getting hungry yet? It takes some degree of discomfort to inspire contrary action. You may be at the point where you realize that a contract is not going to walk into your office and sit politely at your desk. So what is your next step? Why, contrary action, of course. Do something you may not ordinarily do.

Take a look at what you’ve been doing to grow your business. Review your strategy and if it is time to make a move, be resolved to change what is not working. Try a different market.

Try a Different Market
Education and health care markets represent institutional-type opportunities for veteran-owned small businesses. These are large institutions that service the public they are often overlooked by VOBs.

Do you have a student at a local school? Use your generous involvement in school activities to inquire about the school district’s process for purchasing what you sell. Do they have a general stores department? Are all purchases handled from a centralized location? What is the purchasing threshold? Who has the business now? Visit the school district office, talk to the receptionist and ask about the purchasing process. While there, review the information on the bulletin boards. Many times public bids are posted in the front office. Better yet, be prepared. Visit the Web site of the local school district and learn how they do business.

What do you sell and who in the educational system or the health care market purchases it? If you said the purchasing department, you are only half right. Purchasing actually issues the purchase order, however, the decision about what to purchase and from whom is often made by someone located in a different building or a different department. Contrary behavior may mean it is time to stop knocking on the doors of purchasing agents to the exclusion of the program manager or the technical user. Fully penetrate the account. Talk to everyone you can. I once found myself in the morgue of a hospital. I was initially terrified. The folks in the morgue that I eventually developed a great, long-term relationship with, showed me the secret parking spaces, told me when my competitors had been in and allowed me to take inventory and write out my own orders that they then had signed by the purchasing department and converted to a purchase order. It turns out that the products that I sold were actually stored near the morgue! This became my largest and most profitable account. From that time on, I learned how to segment my sales calls and talk to as many people in the account as possible.

Leave your Comfort Zone and Try Something New
If you sell information technology, networks, proprietary software or hardware, ask the purchasing agent or the supplier diversity representative to help you schedule a capabilities briefing with the department or person(s) who will actually use what you are selling. Or, make a bold move and simply walk into the receptionist area and start asking questions. You have to start someplace.

“Take a look at what you’ve been doing to grow your business. Review your strategy and if it is time to make a move, be resolved to change what is not working. Try a different market.”Become your best salesman/woman. You’ve not earned your selling stripes until you have been thrown out of an office or two. If one sales call goes bad, go on to the next. Just don’t go home until you have gotten at least one promising result. Start your day with a list of targets, dust off your bag and start selling.

Hospitals belong to purchasing groups or Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO). How do they purchase? How do you become a vendor on one of these large contracts? There is a purchasing department at each hospital. Call from the receptionist area and try to get them to allow you five or 10 minutes to visit. Let them know that you live in or near the area and that you would like to be able to sell within your local community. All they can say is “no” — then you can ask for an appointment for another day, when they are not so busy. At least you will have their name and number.

Use the “Living Local” Approach
Go through the phone book, and look for corporate or branch offices of large corporations in your area. Again, use the “living local approach.” Go to the Web site, register, then start dialing for information and appointments. What do you have to lose?

When you finally gain the opportunity to talk with someone, ask them the best way to get to the person who uses your products or services. Ask them about the procurement process and how to gain access. Mention the traditional difficulties of being a VOB and ask how to overcome those. Do they have vendor days? Can they give you additional contacts within the facility?

Pick one day a week for this type of prospecting. You will be surprised at what you learn. Selling is an honorable, usually well-compensated endeavor — and what better company to sell for than your own. Who better to represent your product or service than you!

Past Articles in This Column

·                  Corporate Advantage: The Ambiguous Threat of Inaction

·                  Corporate Advantage: Reconnecting the Disconnected

·                  Corporate Advantage: Don’t Make … the Big Mistake!!!