A few years ago, I was working with a client who was a coach. We’d been working together for a few months, laying the ground work.
She’d got her new improved messaging and it was starting to land with her potential clients. People were echoing it back to her. She was becoming known for this fun phrase she’d come up with.
Then all of a sudden she told me that she wanted to sell to corporates instead because she thought it’d be easier.
AGH!
All that work on her offer, her messaging and her sales approach. Washed away. None of it applied to a corporate buyer.
There’s a myth that selling your services into corporates is a magic bullet that’ll turn your business around.
It’s a fallacy.
BUT there are loads of people doing really well at it!
So what’s their secret? Is there a type of person who’ll naturally do better at selling to corporates than others?
This article is inspired by that client and by all the other people I hear wondering out loud whether it might be a smoother and more lucrative path for them to go in.
Is selling to corporates the right thing for you?
That’s what this article aims to help you figure out!
Side bar: I’ve been working on this blog post for months. I’ve interviewed ten experts. I have hours of call recordings and transcriptions. Long story short- this article is the tip of the iceberg! If you like this one and want more of the same, get on my email list here.
Let’s kick off with possibly the most important question on this topic:
What do you mean by ‘selling to corporates’?
Lots of people consider ‘selling to corporates’ but what does that mean to you?
Are you talking about selling:
- Leadership training programmes into Proctor and Gamble?
- Menopause lunch ‘n’ learns for 50 engineers at a local company?
- Coaching the CEO of a start up?
“The amount of people who’ve said to me, ‘I want corporate.’ Says Alex Coward, coach and consultant to service-based entrepreneurs. “I’m thinking Unilever, HSBC, NHS but they’re thinking anyone that’s not an online business.”
I know you’re going to groan when I say this, but getting clear on your ideal client is crucial.
Ayo Abbas, is a strategic marketing consultant who works with construction firms, engineers and architects including companies that carry out billion pound infrastructure projects.
“There’s nothing to stop us small companies from selling into these organisations. It’s the same tactics…it’s just understanding how they work. What’s their procurement process? Who are they? Who do you need to be speaking to? Who’s the budget holder? Who’s the influencer?” advises Ayo.
In short, how will you know how to make it work if you don’t know who you’re selling to? That clarity on who you’re actually selling to is crucial.
To be clear, I’ve written this article from the point of view of ‘corporate’ being much bigger businesses with thousands of employees. A lot of the consideration points and pieces of advice apply when selling to smaller businesses though.
Now we’ve got that box ticked, let’s get into the meaty bit,
Who’s most likely to succeed in selling to corporates?
There are several themes that popped out at me from the interviews I did. It feels most natural to present them as a list of questions for you to ponder upon.
You’ll then have a really grounded sense of whether selling to corporates is a good idea for you or not!
1. Are you prepared to play the long game when selling to corporates?
Do you sit sighing, deep in daydream thinking about how, if you just pressed ‘publish’ on that LinkedIn post, big fat juicy corporate leads could be plopping into your inbox tomorrow?
And they might! I don’t want to p*ss on your parade.
But absolutely everyone I spoke to said that you have to be prepared to play the long game when it comes to selling to corporates.
Some things to consider:
Long-term nurture and its importance with corporate clients
Some potential clients won’t be ready to buy yet, so you might be keeping in contact for years before they take the plunge with you.
Dominique Stillman, Leadership Coach says “The corporates only need you when the corporates need you. So you need to gently keep in touch. Checking in on their strategy. Checking in on what their pain points are.”
An example of a big piece of work Dominique landed was as a result of doing this gentle checking in for six years with a client she’d done some coaching with a while ago. Six years later and they’d bought the company!
“I just touched base with them now and again and said ‘how you getting on? What’s changed for you?’ …Keeping them warm. Staying in people’s minds. You have to do that all the time. So when they need you, they’ll find you.”
Longer and more complicated sales processes when selling to corporates
Bigger companies tend to have more convoluted purchasing processes including a rigorous process for you to be officially approved as a supplier.
There’s also there are the various stakeholders to consider. It’s rare that you’ll speak to someone who’s the gatekeeper, decision maker, budget holder and person who actually pays the invoice. Arguably, if that’s the case then you’re not dealing with a corporate!
Dominique Stillman told me about the long lead times and purchasing processes: “That ‘will we, won’t we’ could be very frustrating for people that aren’t ready for that kind of thing.”
Alex Coward said that ‘people come to me…very focused on how they would sell it to the individual. And when you sell it to a corporate, you have to sell it to the boss and not the individual that gets the benefit, which means the boss needs to see a follow on benefit.”
Alex shared a really good example of this adaptation of what you’re selling when considering differing points of view; “say you want to teach yoga in corporates [so] they get less stressed employees. [The corporates] don’t give a f**k about less stressed employees, because the stressed employees are still going to show up [and] do their job. Them being stressed doesn’t really bother them. So the benefit [for the employer is] that their employees are going to be more productive…There’s always got to be that return on investment angle.”
Longer payment terms
When you’re selling services to individuals, payment terms are usually no longer than 30 days after you’ve completed your end of the deal. Personally, when I’m doing consulting work, I ask for payment in advance. This is less common in corporates! Especially since you’re a minnow and they’re the whale.
Twenty thousand pounds might be a big deal to you but it’s a drop in the ocean for a big organisation and they might not see any urgency in getting that size of invoice paid.
Kyla Skinner, a strategic copywriter says “It can take ages to get through the gatekeeper. You turn yourself inside out to prove yourself. Then you do some work with many rounds of reviews. And don’t get paid for 90-120 days.”
Ayo Abbas says “People think it’s a quick win to get to bigger money. But it’s not, it’s usually slower and a lot harder to get in if you don’t know how.”
There’s no doubt that the rewards can be worth the wait. As Jessica Fearnley, business coach for women B2B consultants told me, if you’re a consultant and you want to get to your a six figure turnover in your first year of business, that six-figure sum could be just one client.
2. Do you know people who work in corporates?
Before starting to research this article, I thought that having worked in corporates yourself was an absolute must if you wanted to sell to them.
Case in point- my husband Rich Coombes, he’s the COO and co-founder of Digishare. Clients include Philips, Panasonic and Nespresso amongst many others. He used to work for Amazon and when he left he had his pockets full of business cards.
Rich Coombes is COO and co-founder of Digishare. They’ve created software platform to enable big consumer brands to spend less time and money creating product content in the online retail space. Clients include Philips, Panasonic and Nespresso amongst many others.
He told me “I left [Amazon] with a bunch of business cards of people I knew. All of whom I would call up every week, week after week, until I got the opportunity to go and pitch to some of them. Some of them I had a really good, friendly relationships with.”
Dominique Stillman’s another example of someone who’s experience of working in corporates earlier in her career has been an advantage. “I used to do the role of the person that I’m trying to talk to, so I can easily empathise with them” she said. She has those insights so knows what to say and can build trust easily!
Ayo Abbas has lived and breathed corporates her whole career, which has undoubtedly helped the success of her own business; “I worked in-house for a lot of large construction companies with 10,000 employees and helped them to sell to other corporates, government bodies and local authorities. I now help firms sell to governments, local authorities, and FTSE 500 companies… The ones with the large construction budgets.” So her corporate-facing consultancy makes total sense.
But having worked in corporates yourself isn’t a must-have.
I asked Nicky J Davies who specialises in helping coaches and consultants sell to corporates about this. She said: “No, it’s not a disadvantage [if you’ve never worked in corporate] you’ll still have a network that includes people who work in corporates. It’s not so much about your background, it’s about being good at what you do.”
And Jessica Fearnley, explained the power of referrals; “It takes time to crack the door open with new corporate organisations when you’re approaching as a cold supplier. An introduction or referral is often a much quicker path. And here’s the upside: once you’re in, there’s huge potential for repeat high-ticket sales and longer client engagements.”
Also, something to keep in mind; if you had a corporate career but it ended more than five years ago, the insights that you think you have about what they value and what they need might be out of date! So don’t make assumptions around these key areas. You’ll need to do some research.
3. Can you demonstrate results?
Everyone I spoke to agreed on this point; if you’re selling to corporates (or anyone for that matter!) you need to be able demonstrate that you’re a credible service provider and that you can deliver.
Nicky J Davies has been selling coaching, consultancy and training services to corporates since 2004. She’s worked with 132 organisations in 28 countries, including well known names like Vodafone, Engie, Atkins, Maersk & G4S. So she knows a thing or two about what big companies are looking for!
In fact, chapter 2 in Nicky’s book is called ‘Visibility is not enough you need trust and influence.’ (The Corporate Success Pathway by Nicky J Davies)
She told me coaches who have done a one day online course and hope that they can then land corporate clients are likely to be disappointed.
And it’s more than just having case studies and testimonials.
It’s about showing that you know what results they’re looking for. Which is going back to the point about knowing who you’re selling to.
A good example of someone who absolutely nailed this is Bev Thorogood.
Bev’s a (mostly) retired menopause trainer and she made sure she did her research when she first set up her consulting and training business.
She said ‘there were a lot [of trainers] going into organisations and working with health and wellbeing teams to support the women who were going through the menopause…. But that’s not the angle that I took. I was very much about, ‘What’s the impact on the business if they don’t do something to support the women in their employ?’” Very similar to the Alex’s yoga example, earlier on in this blog post.
And that my friends, is called positioning!
How you frame what you’re doing so it makes sense to the buyer and/or decision maker. It’s different to how the ultimate ‘consumer’ of your service needs to hear about it. You need to ‘position’ what you’re offering in the right way so your ideal client knows that it’s what they need.
Jessica Fearnley agrees. She told me that the consultants who win the most corporate work often have specific expertise that solves an expensive problem. “They need to position themselves as the strategic partner, not the extra pair of hands” she said.
Have a read more about crafting a service offer in this article called How to put together and price a high ticket coaching programme…properly.
4. Are you a people person?
Another misunderstanding about selling to corporates is that it’s devoid of emotion. That people who work in big businesses all have their rational hat on the whole time.
If you just appeal to logic then you’ve made the sale, right?
Wrong.
Humans are humans, wherever they be!
You can’t expect them to buy just because you think you’ve made a sound logical case. You still need to understand their motivations and what they value.
And yes, what they value is more likely than ever to be about ‘will this add zeros to the bottom line’ but people still need empathy and understanding.
Dominique Stillman has built a thriving business based on exactly that.
She’s able to put herself in the decision maker’s shoes. She takes time to listen to them. She’s not offended or dispirited when they take ages to make a decision or decide not to go ahead after all.
Dominique’s approach is so human.
It’s about patience, empathy and genuine connection. I’m sure there are people who do okay by running through a ‘keeping in touch checklist’ with a hard-nosed eye on potential profits. (Can you have a hard-nosed eye..?)
But Dominique keeps in contact with prospects and previous clients out of genuine care. Without any expectations of a return. Seriously!
She said ‘If they want you, they want you. I might say, ‘Oh, I’ve just developed this new thing. I don’t know if it’s of any use to you, but here you go and if not don’t worry.’ and then I’ll back away. Make it easy for them to say no. And easy for them to say yes.”
As with all selling, people don’t respond well to an approach from someone who they don’t feel they have a connection with or shared values. So don’t underestimate the human aspect when considering selling your services to corporates
5. Are you confident in your abilities and in stating high prices?
One of the biggest benefits of selling to corporates has to be that it’s likely that you’ll be able to charge much, much more. Hurray!
But lo, here cometh the mindset gremlins… Booo!
You not only need to know (or find out) the ballpark prices that you should be charging but you need to be able to say them out loud without flinching.
Know that your services are worth it and be able to hold your ground.
Nick J Davies said “if you go into those conversations feeling that you’re inferior in some way to the decision makers, that will show. But that’s something that you can improve at. It’s not a permanent situation.”
Jessica Fearnley agrees, “pricing based on your time[line] instead of their transformation will keep you stuck in reactive (and usually lower paid) work instead of premium, strategic partnerships.”
In short, it’s not all about the price. We’re back to positioning again. When you’ve nailed your positioning, the higher prices make more sense and you’re likely to feel more confident about them too.
6. Will you find the work enjoyable and satisfying?
Here’s a final sense-check for you!
Are you considering selling to corporates because it’s what you really want to do or is it what you think you should do?
Going back to my client who inspired this article, she chose to swap over to selling to corporates because she thought it’d be easier and a better way to grow her business. Her heart wasn’t in it. And it was long after when she decided to close her business.
In a similar vein, Alex Coward did a spell of offering her services to corporates and really disliked it. “It was awful. I spent months doing outreach and creating proposals only for them for them to come back with ‘I’m not sure…’” Hearing Alex speak about helping SMEs and scaling solopreneurs is a whole different kettle of fish. You can hear the passion! She really cares about them and her skills shine the most when working with those clients.
Conversely Bev Thorogood knew from the start that she’d love her work. Her first lead was a lucky break.
Having worked in the Royal Air Force (RAF) for decades, she’d left after a terrible experience going through menopause and retrained as a menopause support practitioner.
Her intention was to help women on a one-to-one basis. But an old colleague who was still in the RAF reached out to her to ask if she’d do some training.
As it happens her background is in training, so she put together her first proposal and ended up with an amazing case study that she could leverage for more high profile training clients in future.
So, is selling to corporates a viable option for you?
If you’ve got a clear idea of who you want to work with, you know that you have services that they’d value and you feel like you’ll enjoy the work then it’s probably a yes!
Shaky on any of the points I’ve mentioned here or just want a more personalised view of whether you can make a go of selling your services into corporates?
Fill out Nicky’s Corporate Success Pathway Scorecard by clicking here* and find out where you’re strong and where your gaps are. She’s designed it especially for coaches, consultants and trainers who want to be able to consistently land corporate clients.
Hi! I’m Janine Coombes. I’m a consultant helping coach-shaped-people to position their offers for easier sales. I also love creating helpful content that helps business owners make better purchase decisions. To do that I often feature carefully selected partners who I think you might like to know about and possibly work with. I only highlight good people. And sometimes I’ll get a monetary thank you if you end up buying form them. Any affiliate links like that are marked with an asterisk.*