Discretionary Budget: 1st Point of Entry to Key Accounts
By becoming a pre-approved vendor to key accounts, smaller business services firms are more likely to be awarded repeat business.
Owner-managers of business services firms tell me they are on a rollercoaster: too busy delivering client assignments to go after new business or frantically chasing down the next assignment because there is no work.
When you are told “It’s not in the budget”, this usually means not in the annual operating budget. This is the budget which pays for expenses occuring every year: Cost of sales, Advisory services, Cost of Goods Sold.
Annual budgets are recurring expenses and are administered by purchasing departments.
Discretionary budgets are signed off by senior officers, to be spent on special projects outside of normal day-to-day operations.
Discretionary budgets support short-term, critical objectives. Senior executives make commitments to investors and shareholders about these objectives.
The best place to find out about them is quarterly earnings reports. Look for goals which sound like this:
“2% gain in market share this year”
“entry into the China market by 2015”
“move to # 5 position in the industry”
Align your firm’s offering with large, strategic initiatives rather than with general benefits like “we help drive sales” or “we reduce costs”.
Bwana on smoothing out “feast or famine” revenue cycles
