Relevant Chews

The Structural Company (ex: IBM, Microsoft, GM)

Structural companies perform well to task, but rarely see risk as an opportunity. They are typically public companies that have multiple channels and layers to their mix, and there are two ways you can pitch them: RFP or Non-RFP.

Getting on the RFP list is all about positioning and only half the battle. Any more than 8 respondents drops your odds of winning to less than 20%, providing the company is unhappy with the incumbent. And don’t shy away from the skeptics in the conference room, they can be your greatest influencers if you win them over.

The (fun) aggressive approach is to make a connection, help them recognize a need for change and bypass the RFP process. Either road you take should be relevant to the team making the decision and honor these 3 rules for alignment:

1. needs to solutions
2. innovation to task
3. cost to ROI

A common sales mistake, especially in this new economy, is hitting your next prospective client with your wish list of services. Social media marketing can help you have conversations with customers to discover their pains, and success with the Structured company will come with patience and flexibility.

Bottom line: Don’t sell a cost effective solution when you can sell the best solution. If your company leads in an area of expertise, then go directly after that piece of business from the customer’s perspective—and negotiate money over terms of agreement and deliverables.

Part Four: Selling Change to the Human Resource Company