Dealing with and Selling to BIG Companies

We Roll Big

One thing that can be difficult for young professionals to grasp is exactly how BIG corporations work. Maybe you are a start-up company looking to sell a product or service to someone like a P&G or an IBM. Alternatively maybe you’re a young employee looking to distinguish yourself and move up the ranks at a big corporation.

The key to understanding the mindset of a big company is to understand the difference of economics vs. accounting. Small companies and most individuals (you and me) are concerned with accounting costs, i.e. how much something costs. Most decisions you make on a daily basis probably have something to do with cost“ how much you spend on lunch, when your next paycheck is, or how much you might have to cough-up for that date with the cute girl you just asked out.

What people need to understand is that big corporations do not think in terms of costs“ they think in terms of opportunity cost, i.e. efficiency.

The difference is such:

You have 20 minutes for your lunch break. As an individual your concern is getting a quick bite at a reasonable price. A corporation, on the other hand, places much more emphasis on TIME. They would be willing to pay a huge premium (wouldn’t even think twice) if it meant that you had would be willing to take a “working lunch” and continue on those TPS reports.

I bring this up because a friend recently shared his company’s marketing strategy with me. His primary differentiator was extremely low pricing for his service“ BUT he was selling to companies like IBM and Oracle. These guys don’t care about low costs! My friend needs to stress how his service will save IBM time one idea was to create a metric to calculate money saved based on use of his service. That’s what will get him sales.

Likewise, one way to really standout in a company, is to take the opposite approach from most of your peers rather than coming up with new ways to generate revenues, come up with a way to save your firm money. Find a lower cost alternative to a service you use frequently start with shipping/mail costs where most firms spend a ton. You may be surprised to find really simple solutions that make you stand-out as a hero at that killer Holiday party coming up .

***Have a cool idea that could help a fellow 2.0 Grad save money be a standout at work? Do tell…

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