How to get business

Suppose I have a product that will probably help out a company. What is the best method to approach that company to discuss the product and find out information. Are there formal methods or can one really just call them up and request a metting?

What I really need is some information from the company about there requirements for such a product and some specifics to implement the product. In fact, I do know that the company already has a contractor for such a product but they just started and AFAIK it is not a full contract. I do believe I can do a better product at a lower cost(maybe, need more info to determine) but really don't have a lot of time to waste. I do know the company needs the product and its really just a matter of creating a better product. (there are some issues involved like servicing and maintenance though)

The product itself is relatively simple and is just thermal monitoring with the real blulk of it being the "features" it supports. I do believe I could probably add more features than the other product but maybe not.

In any case, how does one approach such large corporations for such things? Is it bush-league to call them up and request information and/or propose such a product or is that generally what happens?

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter
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I don't believe it's necessarily "bush-league" to make a cold call to offer your services, but you should put yourself in the position of your target customer. Are there any good reasons for them to destroy a relationship with an established supplier to take a chance on you? Do you have a history of delivering reliable goods on time and within budget? What are these servicing and maintenance issues you mentioned?

-- Joe

Reply to
J.A. Legris

Better product and lower cost are usually attention-getters. I'd e-mail somebody there with a brief description (not much more than you've expressed above) and indicate that you'll follow up with a phone call. You'll want that to develop into a meeting at their facility but do ensure that you each execute a non-disclosure agreement.

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

On Mar 26, 7:37=EF=BF=BDpm, "Jon Slaughter" wrot= e:

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It would help if we knew a little bit more about the size of the Company, and how competitive they must be in the market. Are they niche, or competing in a very mature industry, for example?

Personally, I don't see any reason NOT to call. What do you have to lose? I would get things crystal-clear in your mind, then find the VP- Operations and shoot one, "maybe" two levels down from that. No further, or it's probably a waste of time (yours and theirs), plus if someone else is already in there, you've got to step up quickly. Besides, nothing quashes innovation like corporate bureacracy. (You can quote me on that. -that is, if I spelled it right. Ha!)

If you're squeamish about cold-calling, visit

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and get a quick refresher. The goal should be to get a sit-down, face- to-face meeting with the client*. DO NOT TRY TO SELL IT OVER THE PHONE. Big waste of time. Once you identify the right contact, the call should be no more than about 3 minutes, unless your client engages you.

  • - or a WebEx meeting, Trade Show, or similar if it's completely impractical to meet face-to-face. But if all else fails, you can certainly sell remotely.

Have an Introduction, optional Positioning Statement and VALUE statement ready before you call. Speak to their needs, not your solution's unique features, etc... That will all wash out anyway if you are successful. In other words, people could care less how great your widget is - they want to know how it can help them. It's a pretty important difference. Don't get bogged down in details unless they ask.

Even then, you might better save your gunpowder for the face-to- face. That's my two-cents. (I was formerly VP-Ops for a $800M Public Company, if that helps.)

Good luck.

-mpm

Reply to
mpm

I don't believe it's necessarily "bush-league" to make a cold call to offer your services, but you should put yourself in the position of your target customer. Are there any good reasons for them to destroy a relationship with an established supplier to take a chance on you? Do you have a history of delivering reliable goods on time and within budget? What are these servicing and maintenance issues you mentioned?

Well, I do not know that relationship with the other company. Actually my father is services them and mentioned something they did and I figured that the process could be automated and drastically improved. It turns out that they supposedly have another company doing this but AFAIK they do not have a full contract(I do not know the extent though).

You are correct in some sense but again, I know very little except that chances are the product could be done at a signficantly lower cost and I feel I can probably do just as a good a job.

The services part is basically installation and maintenance/warranty. It is a large company with several stores in the state and traveling would be an issue because there are no employee's in my company. (Although hiring them is not necessary an issue my business partner does not really want to go that route if at all possible)

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

OK, I'll try that. My business partner is really the business guy and will handle that but I want to make sure we go about it the right way as this is our first business venture. (he has much more business experience than I do from his day job but still doesn't know much)

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

Its pretty mature but the company is still a bit behind in technology and this is where we come in. They have maybe 300-500 stores and AFAIK the other company is only putting there product in the newer stores. I imagine this is because of cost else they would have done them all already. I do believe we can get the older stores because we can do a cheap project(even if it cuts into profits I'm fine with that cause we really need to get our foot in the door) and I think we can do it to solve there problem.

I agree. Mainly its my business partner that is a bit reluctant or so and he's suppose to handle the business side. Main issue with us is that we have no real experience with comming in like that and we have no real business. Its an EE but does ME and business at his company. He has much more business experience than I do but he still is a bit foggy on what to do. We definitely don't want to screw it up or miss the opportunity(I think its there from what info I have).

Cool, I'll look over that site. Do you have any idea what one should do if they are a bit reluctant? Obviously if we can't sell it over the phone then it will be hard cause they already have a contract. The only benefit our product has is cost(I believe, I really have no idea what the other product is costing them but I imagine we can do it cheaper).

I'm sure if we get past the first call we can set up a face to face metting and get more info.

There need is simple: To save money. I think we can easily fulfill that need because the device is very simple and from my experience with my father that services them in other areas they easily will end up paying 10-50x the cost of the product.

Thanks. We are trying to get everything situated and get contacts by next week because we want to move fast. My gap in knowledge about business is tremendous(allthough I'm trying to learn about it) and my business partner is a bit unsure how we can pull it off. (In fact we don't loose much if we fail but can learn a lot so it's no loss)

Main thing I'm trying to accomplish at this point is to get our foot in the door. I think once we can present the product then we have a shot. (although there is still a lot of unfamiliar territory for me I think as long as we can put it together professionally then it will be ok)

Thanks for the info, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

In message , Jon Slaughter writes

Finding the name of someone in the organisation at the right level to make a decision on it or at least make a recommendation to someone who can. Company website, financial reports, in-house magazine, patents anything like that may get you a possible first contact name.

So a retail sales operation then rather than a manufacturer ? But from what you have said here implies the other company already has an established business relationship with them and is shipping kit.

Are you *sure* that you can really do it cheaper *and* install, support the product over a potentially wide geographical area.

You do realise that Usenet is a public access archived medium and easily searchable with Google. It isn't a good idea to give away any pricing info or disclose family connections. I hope your are not using your own name.

A BBC investigative reporter came unstuck recently whilst wired for sound and vision and working in a boilerhouse dodgy broker selling operation. His new boss Googled his name and he had to leave very very quickly.

You need to think about it from their perspective to figure out in advance what they need to know about your solution to sell it (and without giving away so many details as to hand your solution to them on a plate).

The latter is a tricky one. It is all too easy in the early stages through inexperience to end up giving away free consultancy by accident.

Good luck!

--
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

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Does your father's service have anything to do with your proposed product?

-- Joe

Reply to
J.A. Legris

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Well, first - cost can be a big consideration! So don't take that lightly. That said, there are also situations where performance or timliness of delivery/installation are more important that cost. If you're going in on cost only, try to put some limits on the assumptions you must make about what they are spending now, and whether or not those costs are significant to them.

For example, let's say they've spent 12 months researching products and vendors and arrived at their current provider through a dozen or so meetings, with upper managment buy-in. To now switch to some relatively unknown vendor, with no hisory of performance could very well be a risk they will not take REGARDLESS of the price. (Even if free.)

Then again, money's tight these days. You guys are young? (new anyway), agressive, and can focus your energies on solving their problems - unlike the other guy who may have dozens of similar contracts and must therefore dilute his efforts to some extent.

In other words, your ambition is another selling point. You're not just dealing with price.

And just so you know, 10x-50x cost savings will get you a sit-down meeting. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

You may not get the stores already under contract (which the other guy seems to have). But maybe, at lower cost, you can pick up all the older stores....? And that's another benefit to them.

Good luck. -mpm

Reply to
mpm

Do you currently have the product ready for sale? A website? Is this the only company you plan to do business with, or could their competitors benefit also, if things don't go well with this first meeting?

Is the product packaging professional-grade? (Not sure what the VP would think of a breadboard with wires sticking out.)

Michael

Reply to
mrdarrett

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Reply to
mpm

Does your father's service have anything to do with your proposed product?

No, Not really.

-- Joe

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

Yeah.

Yes, they might. I am not sure. All I have really is 2nd and 3rd hand information. Most of what I know is really speculation ;/ This is really why I want to contact someone and get more info.

I don't know. Information is the key and I have very little. I know the product itself is relatively inexpensive and this is what I'm basing everything on. I have not yet estimated the other costs.

What do you mean? I am not saying my father charges them that much if thats what you think. My father doesn't supply a product. I am simply saying that from my experience in that side of the business I know how inflated some products are. I'm guessing that chances are the same thing is happening with the other companies product.

I do not think I've said anything that would be harmful to myself, my business, or my family. I guess the really the only thing is that if someone looked it up they would see my inexperience.

What specifically have I said that you think looks bad? (So I'll know for future reference)

True. I suppose if we tell them some of our features they could simply get the other company to support it. I suppose thats what a NDA is for?

I think are real selling point is simply the the cost. I do believe we can do it cheaper, at least the product itself. Now of course when you start factoring in services such as installation and maintenance then the price will skyrocket but theres a chance we can get out of that. (it should be simple enough anyone can install and replace the unit(almost anyways))

We'll have to put something together though and see what we can do. If we fail at least we tried and I'd rather try and fail then not try at all. (and we at least have a product that we can approach other companies with)

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

No, the product is not ready. Although main part of the hardware could be done in a weekend the software side of it is going to be the hardest part. But to know what needs to be done I need more information. Do they want the product to interface with some central control/operations station(which means I need to know the software they are running and if its possible to tie into that software, etc..) or what?

I am actually going to design the bulk of the product once a get a few samples in and finish a few other things I'm working on. Maybe by next weekend I'll have the "prototype" finished.

To do it cheep I will probably etch the the circuit myself(a few dollars each instead of sending them off for 10's of dollars or more). Not sure about the container we will use if any. (its not necessary and actually might interfer with the process) but we have talked about it a little. If at all we might make a container ourself using injection molding if we can and can't find them cheep.

We will get it done decently. It might not look fancy but it will do its job. We'll make it look as professional as we can without wasting a lot of money on form as we believe function is the most important. (in this case form really has nothing to do with it except psychologically)

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

Hehe, yeah. But I think we can't worry about that. We just can try our best and hope for the best. If they will not take a chance on us then nothing we can really do. I think we have a shot though and that is whats important IMO. Its not life or death if we fail but definitely will lead us to bigger and better things if we succeed.

Yes. And we are definitely willing to work with them and do what we need to do. For them, I imagine, is mainly if they believe we are capable.

Well, as I probably know, that could be grossly over estimated ;/ (I tend to do that) I imagine though that we can save them some money though. Of course we want to get as much out of it as we can but don't want ask for too much and loose out because of being greedy.

Thats what I'm hoping. I think we want to do is a "trial" period type of thing(well maybe thats what they will want). We will install a few in stores, maybe for free, and if they like it then they can sign a contract for some or all of there other stores that need it.

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

This is difficult. It takes an experienced sales person to win a contract in these sort of situations.

--
Programmeren in Almere?
E-mail naar nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
Reply to
Nico Coesel

From experience I can only suggest to start with smaller companies. Large companies have outside sources coordinators and such and IME they usually decline. Also, you often find that decision makers in large corporations are at times very job-security oriented and that can make them risk-averse.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Cost isn't the driving factor. Like Joerg mentioned, other factors like politics, job security, single mindedness, etc are in play. Trust is the key word here. If you want to sell something to a person, that person must be able to trust you.

The best chance you have is to find a retailer (franchiser or store manager) with an open mind and install your product there. A few more may follow and then you may get in if you play your cars right.

--
Programmeren in Almere?
E-mail naar nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
Reply to
Nico Coesel
[...]

Regarding the foot in the door: If it turns out to be impossible to get a sit-down meeting you can also politely ask if it's ok to send them a brief presentation, by mail and followed up with PDF so they can share it easier. A huge imperative is that it is concise, to the point and clearly culminates in what it can do for your customer. Try hard to find out what the other product costs, what warranty overhead it causes, common end user complaints and so on. This is going to be your punch line. "Our product could save you $xx." Or what biz folks call the bottom line.

It has to be brief. I ran a division of a company a while ago and received many such solicitations. But I hardly had any time so I would rarely wade through dozens of PowerPoint sheets or hold meetings, even in cases where our S&M guys pushed me. However, when someone presented their idea, service or product briefly and efficiently they were usually heard. Coincidentally that's also how I got that job, by sending a technical proposal to the CEO on how to do an ultrasound machine differently and at much lower cost. Six pages long. Just polishing it took almost a whole week but it ended up being worth every single minute.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

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