Major Accounts: No More One-Time Assignments
If you are a business services firms and you want out of the “feast or 
famine” treadmill, pursuing major acccounts is the best way out of one-time assignments.
This will require investing in “discovery” conversations with people across all lines of business simultaneously. In other words, major accounts need all stakeholders around the decision to hire your firm to be in agreement.
Third-party stakeholders such as user groups and subject matter experts have more influence than the executive signing the cheque.
Here is how we pursue major accounts: we start with the senior executive and, trickling down the organization by means of referrals, each conversation is therefore permission-based.
Isn’t it enough to reach the senior exective?
Isn’t there just one cheque-signer?
Sales, which often focus on a single point of entry, assumes that you can win additional projects just because you got the first one.
We shorten development time by negotiating a preferred vendor agreement at the same time as the first project contract is being signed.
Once the first assignment is secured and a company-wide vendor agreement is in place, an investment in multiple points of entry begins to pay off. Smaller companies cannot afford long sales cycles.
Once your firm has been awarded an assignment by the first business unit in a company, you can go back and brag about it to other business units who may be taking a “wait and see attitude.
It would be faulty logic to wait until the first assignment is secured before approaching the other lines of business.
New business development is therefore a circle rather than a straight line.
Make A Comment: ( 5 so far )
5 Responses to “Major Accounts: No More One-Time Assignments”
catherine mcquaid
August 11th, 2009
Catherine- I agree. In order to connect and engage Big Businesses, you need to really influence, communicate and engage through social media, network and collaborate across line of business managers apart from acquring a key contact with Sr executive. India offers a whole lot of opportunities for a service driven business model.
Krishnamurthy
August 14th, 2009
i like your blog! although we are in a different type of sales and servise busines (for profit social entrepreneurship) , your direction is very relevant. thanks! @jdbasketball
jd
August 20th, 2009
i like your blog! although we are in a different type of sales and service business (for profit social entrepreneurship) , your direction is very relevant. thanks! @jdbasketball
jd
August 20th, 2009
If you were looking for this type of service, what words would you Google?
Catherine McQuaid
December 5th, 2009
Does the lion metaphor work?
Catherine McQuaid
Big Game Hunting