Client Magnets Blog

So, you want the big corporate clients, but they don’t want you.  Or so you think.  Big corporations can be the ‘cash cows’ of our world.  Along with their big size, they have big training budgets and that’s what we like and what we need.  But since they’re big, aren’t they only looking for big companies to provide their training?  Not necessarily.  You need to convince them that small is good.  Turn it to your advantage.  Make it a negotiating factor.

Your first obstacle to overcome in getting large corporate clients is their preferred provider list.  If you’re not on it, you can’t provide services.  Or can you?

One of my longstanding clients is the department head of a multinational corporation with over 150,000 employees.  They have the dreaded preferred provider list.  He shared with me two important pieces of information.  First, there are many instances in which he can overturn the preferred provider listing when choosing external consultants.  Second, he prefers using smaller companies.

The reasons he gave me for preferring smaller organizations are ones that you can use to help sell yourself:
• Smaller organizations value your business more and will give you better service.
• Smaller organizations understand the client’s needs better.
• Smaller organizations can provide a more personalized service.

So, use your small size to your advantage.  Let that big corporate client know that even if you’re a ‘one man band’, that’s a good thing, as it allows you to better serve their needs.

Another important point to remember in overcoming the ‘bigger is better’ mindset is the basic business concept of supply and demand.  There are only so many clients looking for training services, therefore, your service is a commodity with limited demand.  Any trainer can provide a commodity, right?  Wrong!  You need to prove that your service is scarce and valuable, not a commodity.

How can you prove to a client that you have a valuable service?  You need to believe it yourself.  It’s an attitude that you need to carry with you at all times, it’s an attitude around which you need to structure your business and it’s an attitude that will set you up for success.

But, it’s not about overconfidence – it goes back to the basic concept of supply and demand.  As a one-person show, you have only so many hours in the day.  Your time, therefore, is valuable.  Your goal in selling yourself is to provide more demand for your limited supply of time.

You need to put yourself in the power position.  Put yourself in the position where you have more prospects than you can handle.  When you can look a potential client in the eye and say with all honesty “If you want to work with me next month, these are the two days that are available.  And you need to let me know by the end of the week whether you’re going to take these two days because I have two other clients that are interested”, you are creating a sense of urgency.  When you create that sense of urgency, you are putting yourself in the power position.

I’m not suggesting that you should pretend you have a full dance card when you don’t.  People can see right through that.  I’m saying that creating more demand for your limited supply of time is part of the cycle that will create the sense of urgency which in turn puts you in the power position.

Use your small size to your advantage. Overcome the “bigger is better” mindset and you will be able to get your client to overcome it as well.