小公司如何吸引大客戶

1. 幫大公司分憂

1. Lighten the load

????有些工作大公司不方便開展，或者需要較高的勞動力成本，而且沒有利潤，而小公司恰好可以以此為切入點。美國納什維爾市標準保健食品集團（Standard Functional Foods Group）CEO吉米?斯普拉德利便是很好的典范。他通過為客戶生產即食麥片等新型或小品牌食品，幫助客戶減少小規模的生產運營，進而獲得了許多食品行業巨頭的青睞。通過整合多家企業的訂單，他的公司實現了盈利，今年銷售額預計將達到1.5億美元。

2. 弄清楚對方的采購流程

????Tackle unsexy jobs that big companies find inconvenient or, if they face high labor costs, unprofitable to manage. At Standard Functional Foods Group in Nashville, CEO Jimmy Spradley (right) attracts food conglomerates by offering to make new or smaller brands of foods like granola bars, helping clients avoid small production runs. By consolidating orders from multiple firms, he's built a profitable business and expects sales of $150 million this year.

2. Understand how they buy

????舊金山科技公司Aria Systems便有過這樣的教訓。最初，由于銷售團隊并不清楚與目標公司交易必須獲得其三個部門的批準，結果丟失了訂單。該公司創始人愛德華?沙利文表示，為目標公司每一個“有影響力”的團隊單獨準備營銷材料，通過這種方式，公司成為了迪斯尼（Disney）和英格索蘭公司（Ingersoll-Rand）的合作伙伴。目前，沙利文在最新創辦的公司G2Link中也采用了這種方式。G2Link的主要業務是監控客戶的信用狀況。

3. 打造自身差異化優勢

????如果你是一家由少數族裔擁有的小公司，大公司會主動告訴你如何與它們打交道。波士頓非營利組織“創建富有競爭力的城市中心區”（Initiative for a Competitive Inner City，ICIC）董事會成員喬治?蓋德倫表示：“大公司不僅幫助我們找到大客戶，還會確保我們有能力滿足大客戶的需求?！盜CIC副董事長史蒂芬?派迪格認為，對小公司來說，如果大公司青睞你，那么它還會為你提供免費咨詢服務，幫助你發展。

4. 讓自己脫穎而出

????Aria Systems, a San Francisco tech company, lost an early deal because its sales team didn't know that three departments of the target firm had to sign off. Founder Edward Sullivan (right) says that once his company created separate marketing materials for each group of "influencers" in prospective firms, it won deals from Disney and Ingersoll-Rand. Sullivan is using this approach at his latest startup, G2Link, which monitors customer creditworthiness.

3. Tap supplier diversity programs

????If you're a minority-owned business, big companies will teach you how to work with them. Says George Gendron, a board member at Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a Boston nonprofit: "They don't just help you find large customers but also help you make sure you have the capacity to deliver to them." A corporation that likes doing business with you may help you expand, offering free consulting services, says ICIC vice president Steven Pedigo.

4. Stand out

??? Dyn是一家135人的科技公司，位于新罕布什爾州曼徹斯特市。該公司意識到，許多大公司會在推特（Twitter）等網站上查看網民對公司的評論，于是，公司在推特上向六家公司發布了幾個搞怪視頻來推銷自己，其中一個是名為“Dyn愛上艾派迪（Expedia）”的音樂短片。目前，這些潛在客戶中，有四家正在與Dyn接洽。公司業務開發團隊負責人賴安?奧哈拉表示：“這種做法可以提高公司對我們的了認識，幫助我們打開局面，建立與潛在客戶的溝通?！?/p>

?

????Aware that big companies keep track of what's said about them on sites like Twitter, Dyn, a 135-person tech company in Manchester, N.H., tweeted out wacky videos, like a musical pitch called "Dyn Loves Expedia," to that firm and five others. It's now talking with four of those potential customers. "It raised awareness about what we do and helped us get a conversation started," says Ryan O'Hara, business development team lead.