Tony Signorelli

The Painful Cost of Not Knowing the Corporate Code

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Sep 172015

by Anthony Signorelli

In this post, I want to illustrate for you, briefly, the real cost of not knowing the corporate code. I know it personally because it cost me a lot. I am going to share with you a failure of mine, directly linked to not knowing the code, and show you how my naivete on this issue completely changed my life.

This goes back to about 1993-4. My wife and I lived on a small organic farm north of Duluth, Minnesota. Yes, we lived the whole “chop wood, carry water” lifestyle–or at least, I did. My wife, Lynn, had been carrying us financially in her job as a physical therapist. I was building the foundation of our farm on a simple homestead, and loving the work.

In the fall of 1993, Lynn became pregnant with our first child. After long talks and decisions to be made, we decided that she would stop working so she could be home with our new baby, and I would go out to get work as a freelance writer. And so, I did. I set out, got a job here and there, and brought in a little money. But it wasn’t enough, and Duluth was proving to be a very difficult market for someone who did not have the connections of a lifetime of being raised in the city.

Then, I got a break. I actually got in with a large PR firm downtown. It was a beautiful place in one of the old downtown buildings. I met with one guy and he agreed that they had projects for me, but before getting started, he wanted to introduce me to his VP and two other company leaders. I agreed, and Lynn and I were very excited.

I went to the meeting, and it was me with four other people. I gave pretty much the same presentation of myself as I had previously, and all the heads were nodding positively. People were pleased. It was looking very good.

Then, a crucial question came out: “What’s your rate?”

My answer: “Thirty five dollars an hour.”

The room went silent. Eyes went down. The conversation was over.

My price was too low.

I knew it instantly in my gut, but I needed to confirm it. It turned out that the market for the work I was proposing at the time was $75-100 an hour, and my quoting of $35 an hour branded me as a naive beginner, not the person with experience which I had portrayed. In fact, all my experience was real. I had a lot to bring to the table. But I didn’t understand the code.

You can probably imagine what was going through my mind on that 30 minute drive back to the farm. I would have to tell Lynn. I would tell her I failed. We would not have that income. We would need to start talking about relocating our family.

Not only did I not receive any work, I never even had another call answered from that company. The best chance I had in a year to get an income for my family was lost because I did not know the code. And, much to my pain still today, it meant the end of our homesteading dream. We left that farm six months later, dead broke, to return to the big city–Minneapolis-St. Paul–where there was more opportunity to provide for my family. And we never returned to that farm.

Today, I recognize the incredible cost of my naivete and lack of knowledge about the corporate code. I still feel the loss. I write this blog to hopefully help others avoid the same costly error.

What Do Corporate Buyers Want?

Sales Meetings No Responses »

Sep 102015

Sales professionals often teach that “sales is sales,” and that everyone wants the same thing—more money and more time. But in reality, you can’t appeal to those needs with corporate clients. Here’s why:

Your client has a full time job—there is nothing in this world that you as a vendor can do to actually make him or her work less; the job will remain full time.
Your client has a salary—there is nothing in this world that you can do to get your client more money; she’s on a fixed salary

This doesn’t mean that you can’t appeal to the needs, problems, and concerns of corporate buyers. It just means that you need to start by understanding those needs as they really are. Here are three concerns that you probably never thought about before.

The Corporate Buyer: Business Concerns

Most people realize that corporate buyers buy goods and services to meet business needs. What they don’t realize is that there are only four such needs. Believe it or not, training is not a business need. A successful event is not a business need. Current technology is not a business need. Such needs are relevant only when they serve a true business need. As for true business needs, there are only four, and every project must be attached to one of these four. Highlight these and commit them to memory. The four business needs are:

Increase sales
Cut costs
Improve productivity
Meet compliance requirements

These are the only four defensible business reasons for buying anything in a corporate environment. Any vendor who wants to sell successfully in the corporate environment must be able to identify which of these business concerns his or her project is addressing. It can be more than one, but it must be at least one. Most corporate buyers are going to be held accountable, at one point or another, to how they perform against one or more of these goals. You must never forget that, because they won’t.

The Corporate Buyer: First Personal Concern

Corporate buyers also have personal concerns. It is easy to think that these might be similar to those of the small business owner. Easy, but wrong. Painfully wrong. Ultimately, corporate buyers have two personal concerns, which they think about nearly all the time. Here’s the first one:

Will I have a job tomorrow?

Write that one down. Will I have a job tomorrow? Burn this into your mind. You must always understand this. You must always address it. And you must NEVER say it, even if they do.

This concern translates into thoughts and questions that are quite different from the question itself. Whether or not a person has a job tomorrow is ultimately uncontrollable. However, the question drives what the corporate buyer is thinking. The following questions are roaming through their minds, and whether they share them with you or not, here’s what the buyer is thinking…

Will my boss approve?
Will my colleagues approve?
Will my team implement this?
Will there be results to show in case I am criticized?
How can I defend the decision no matter what?

Do you see how different this is from the small business client? The small business customer wants more time, more money, more freedom, and fewer problems. If you are selling like you do to small business, you will have a problem because when the dust settles, you can’t deliver those things to the corporate client.

But you CAN help them increase the likelihood that they will have a job, and more importantly, you can easily cost them their job. They are painfully aware of this, and they think about it all the time.

Corporate Buyer: Second Personal Concern

That first question focuses the buyer on the personal risk they undertake in hiring an outside vendor. This second one focuses on the opportunity. Here’s the second personal concern:

How can this advance my career?

Several years ago, a client and I were out to happy hour. Perhaps he was a little looser than usual, but he asked and answered an interesting question: “Signorelli, you know why I do so much business with you?” I stammered a little and started to talk about the value we added, the excellence of our work, my great team. He shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “It’s because everything you do helps to advance my career.”

My jaw dropped. But I knew instantly it was true. Right there, he revealed the true nature of a corporate buyer’s interest. They are not entrepreneurs; they are corporate career people. And what’s in their interest is that career.

Notice that from this angle, the questions they are asking themselves internally are a little bit different:

Will this help me appear to be innovative?
Will this make me look effective?
Will this help me surpass my numbers?
Is there a better use of budget?
How can I reduce the risk of any failure?

…and so on.

Implications

Knowing these concerns and interests will not guarantee your success, but not knowing them will virtually assure your failure in this market. Once you understand these needs, keep these things in mind:

Connect everything you do to the business needs that apply to your project
Maintain the highest levels of professionalism, and remember that you can never take anything they do or say personally
Never get defensive
Focus on how you can make your client successful and advance his or her career
Realize that your professionalism, the likelihood of success, and their confidence in you is far more important than price

Your client is acutely aware of the fact that one wrong hire can cost them their job. Mitigating that risk is at the top of their agenda—more than meeting their need, more than getting the best price, more than your cool features and benefits. This is what is really meant by the old saying that people buy from people they like emotionally, then justify it rationally. People they like are people they trust to come through in a pinch and make each project as important as if their own job were on the line. These are the people they “like,” and they are the people they buy from.

How do I handle the first meeting with a new prospect?

Sales Meetings No Responses »

Mar 272013

To answer the question, perhaps I can illustrate with a little story. I walked into a meeting with a prospective project sponsor. When we sat down, he asked me a question, which I answered very briefly. He then went on to talk about his problem and his business so quickly and so fast and so intently, it was all I could do to keep up in my notes. I didn’t get a single word in for the rest of the meeting.

When he finished, he stood up and said: “Well, that was the most interesting meeting I had all day! When can you get a proposal to us?”

So, how do you handle the first meeting? Let them talk about themselves. Nine times out of ten, they will walk away thinking you are a genius. And you are, because you listened to their problems. Ask substantive questions that reflect a detailed knowledge of your area of expertise, and otherwise, try to keep quiet. Let them talk. That’s the best strategy on your first call.

Ways to Get Clients: Your Existing Network

Ways to Get Clients No Responses »

Aug 202012

When looking for ways to get clients, don’t exclude your existing network. Reach out to them, tell them what you are doing, offer to help them, and ask for a little help in return. Whenever I have tried to go into a new area, I turned to my existing network because they always know people I didn’t know they knew. References were provided, recommendations made, and new business found. You can do this too.

The key is to be specific and systematic in what you are seeking. Don’t let anyone in your network off the hook. Reach out and ask. It is worth it.

How to Get Clients: Trade Shows as You’ve Never Seen Them

Ways to Get Clients No Responses »

Aug 092012

If you think trade shows means finding a show and setting up a booth, think again. There’s a time and place for that activity, but it is probably not at the point where you are looking for ways to get clients.

If you are an instructional designer, technical writer, or marketing consultant, there’s a good chance that your customers look for you when they have a need, and a lot of that need is driven by product launches. Where do they go when they are launching products? Your customers go to trade shows where their customers are.

You should attend these shows and hang out afterwards.

This is where real networking is done in the corporate space. If a company is in medical devices, don’t you think their marketing staff attend the cardiac surgeons and brain stimulation implant conventions? If a company sells technology to law firms, don’t they have a presence at ILTA—International Legal Technology Association? Of course. And since all of their customers go there, so do the marketing and sales staff from your target company—that is, the people responsible for the success of the launch—the very people you want to connect with.

This strategy requires two things:

1) Introduce yourself briefly around the show floor (remember, they are there to see and visit their customers, not you)

2) Be where they might be—hang out in the bars to talk more later.

And remember, do NOT sell at these events. Meet, greet, and socialize, but do not sell. You are simply making connections.

Finding Corporate Client Prospects

Ways to Get Clients No Responses »

Aug 032012

In truth, there is only one way to clients:

Get access to them
Find out about a need they have
Provide a solution that meets that need

That’s it. So when most people ask about new ways to get clients, they are really asking one of these three questions:

How do I get access to clients?
How do I find out about potential client needs?
How do I propose solutions that meet those needs so they will buy from me?

KEY POINT: One of the reasons most people get small clients is because they spend their time hanging out in places where small clients gather.

In other words, they go “networking” at the local Chamber of Commerce, at “events” where they are told to expect CEOs and decision makers to be in attendance, or with professional colleagues in their professional organization chapter meetings. All of these attract, for the most part, other local business people—NOT corporate clients. As one of my friends described it recently: “It’s a lot of broke people selling to other broke people.” If you enjoy these meetings, keep going to them. But don’t expect them to ever produce good corporate clients.

KEY QUESTION: Where do your big, target clients gather?

The way to get clients, especially big clients, is to go hang out with them. But for that, you have to start by asking: Where do these people hang out? Every industry will have its own particulars to some degree, but you need to pay attention to this:

They hang out on LinkedIn because they care about their career
They hang out at trade shows that attract their customers
A few probably hang out in your existing network (and you don’t even know it)
They hang out in their offices actively looking for relevant information to their business

In my next posts, I will talk about each of these, because they are crucial ways to get clients.

Ways to Get Clients

Ways to Get Clients No Responses »

Aug 022012

When it comes right down to it, there’s really only one way to get clients: You have to sell them your service. But for that little statement to happen, a lot things need to fall into place. And the common problem is that just one small piece isn’t happening. Here’s what I hear some consultants, technical writers, and instructional designer say:

“I know I can get the project, if I could just get in to present myself.”
“I know so many people, but I can’t ever seem to get a project.”
“The doors always seem locked when I start calling corporate headquarters.”
“If I knew more ways to get clients, I could really grow my business.”

The truth is that there aren’t any successful tricky ways to get clients, especially big clients. Big clients are big because they are sophisticated, savvy, and smart. They buy when they have a need in their business. And the buying process is frequently long and complicated.

Rather, you need a strategy. You need a method. You need to be able to find those clients, know where to look, and know what to do when you get there. That’s a huge part of what hittingamillion.com is all about. Watch here for more on corporate buyers, corporate clients, sales methods, getting in, ways to get clients, and so much more.

On the other hand, once you have a client and good relationships, there is no better way to sell your services over and over and over again as with your big client. That’s why selling to corporate clients is so lucrative.