Catherine McQuaid

Wouldn’t it be great to NOT spend an average of 30% of billings acquiring that trophy? 

Ask Big Game Hunting how.

This is usually what is required:

When a large trade association asked Chris LaBossiere and his team to make a presentation overseas on four days’ notice, it finally dawned on him just how much effort can go into winning a giant client.

The CEO of Yardstick Software Inc., an Edmonton-based provider of web-based employee testing and training services, was almost 18 months into a campaign to ink a major deal with the large international industry association. After making four trips and more than 100 phone calls to the association’s Montreal headquarters, pitching his case to multiple decision-makers at escalating stages in the procurement process and accruing about $100,000 in sales expenses—a major sum for a company with revenue of $6 million—he believed he was on the brink of a deal....

 Acquiring major accounts takes more than a traditional sales process.  

And it takes more than getting to talk to senior executives because they’re in your “rolodex”". 

If your firm has never done business with a global brand, to them you are a contender. A critical step  in winning a first assignment  is understanding that the easiest way to get a project funded will be out of a discretionary budget.

 Members of the executive committee have discretionary budgets for mission-critical, short-term initiatives. In other words, discretionary budgets are used to fix immediate problems affecting investor behaviour.

Annual operating budgets, on the other hand, are admistered by department heads and are used to fund...

In order to become a pre-approved vendor within a large company, it is best to reach out to the senior executive heading up each division or business unit. 

This is how I get a “green light” and referrals:

1. Contact the executive’s support person.

2. Acknowledge that you haven’t spoken before & offer to send an executive briefing by email.

3. Call back a week later and ask to arrange a 45-minute telephone conversation, even if you’re in the same city.

4. An optimum outcome from that conversation is being sent to a member of their team. 

This is called getting a “green light” referral.

Try the approach;  ...

You have your binoculars trained on the King of the Jungle.

You’ve Googled the executive you want to reach. You’ve made notes on charities and schools you have in common.

You’ve planned a concise 60-second commercial. Your business coach has helped you craft knock-'em-dead responses to the most likely questions you’ll be asked.

Now, this is the big day. You've pre-arranged a call for today.
The assistant picks up phone, you introduce yourself and you hear,

“Our company isn't interested at this time”.
big game hunting

This is not the end of the trail.

There are 3 ways to pick up the trail again:

1. Go to the heads of each...