Tips for Business Owners: How To Land Big Clients And Keep Them

Attracting big clients is always something small businesses should set as one of their goals. When it comes to running a business, selling website templates for example, there is nothing wrong with being quite ambitious and it’s something that should be encouraged.

Indeed, it’s very possible for small businesses to compete with larger ones for big clients. If you are a small business owner, keep in mind that big potential clients are always willing and ready to work with small businesses as long as they get what they want and need.

Here are some effective strategies small business owners can use to land corporate clients.

1. Start a conversation

In most cases, big clients are unlikely to come looking for your product or service, but if it happens, start a conversation and give them satisfactorily reasons to notice you — the more creative you are the better.

You don’t necessarily need to meet with a potential corporate client to start a conversation. With the number of social media platforms out there, starting a conversation is easier than ever.

For instance, you can connect with them through a LinkedIn group, or use your mutual business partners/friends for referrals. You can also consider joining and participating in the same business organizations as your influencers.

2. Be choosy about your prospects

Small businesses are usually convinced by the glitz of large companies and try to pitch every big company they can think of. This strategy is a great mistake when it comes to landing big contracts.

It’s important to target the big clients that you respect, have a good history of working with small businesses, and the ones that reflect the values of your business. You need to read each company’s news releases and annual report in order to effectively weed out prospects.

That is where you will determine whether its commitment and causes to giving is a perfect match for you. Additionally, look at the section of supplier-diversity of the client’s website. This will provide you with more insights about criteria and opportunities for small businesses.

3. Make your introductory message strong and sharp

In most cases, small business owners try to cram a lot of information into their first call or email to a large prospect, hoping that the things they say will resonate.

Don’t do that. Instead, it’s important to talk about what your business does best in as concise a manner as possible.

4. Try to meet every stakeholder possible

Once you are done with your introductory message, and probably get an opportunity to make your in-person pitch, it is quite imperative that you meet everyone involved with your potential orders.

At big companies, hiring a new agency/company to provide products or services can affect a wider swath of individuals than at small businesses.

This means that the more connections you can make with many people, the less you are likely to encounter objections because of fear or change of unknown supplier.

5. Get your small business certified

Certifications of your small business can give your company a competitive edge. Large businesses often like to see such certifications because they are necessary to help companies demonstrate their willingness and commitment to working with eligible small businesses, especially those owned by minorities and women, and even those located in disadvantaged areas.

Actually, getting your business certified can greatly convince a big client that you will be able to deliver the goods or services, literally or figuratively.

6. Learn their process

If you want to land big clients, you must know how they pursue their new business partners.

It’s important to know if they use requests for proposals and if they only want to do business with individuals, they know personally.

You also need to determine how to approach them; for instance, do you need to directly approach a team of executives or a department manager?

If you want to increase your chances of working with big companies, you need to learn their process.

7. Know what makes your business unique

When you conduct business with big clients, being good at what you do isn’t enough. You must articulate why you think you are better than your competitors.

It’s therefore important to have a unique selling proposition that will resonate well with your prospective clients.

With these strategies, landing big clients will no longer be as hard, even if you are a small business owner selling website templates.

By getting the contracts and making sure you can fulfill their orders in a timely manner, you will make sure to keep them in your client roster for a long time, too.

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Originally published at www.bookmark.com on July 18, 2016.