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How To Sell To Large Corporations When You are a One-Person Business

Written by: James Chan

Article Overview: Know what you can and cannot do for a large corporation.

How To Sell To Large Corporations When You are a One-Person Business

When I first set up my business in 1983, I concentrated on promoting my services to the largest corporations that were involved in the most ambitious, best-publicized business operations in Asia. What I~{!/~}d often find was that these companies had in-house managers who were jealous of their turf and not likely to use a consultant, or that they used huge, multinational consulting firms whose bureaucratic structures mirror those of the large corporations for which they work.

Thus, I thought that I had scored a breakthrough when an important manager of a large pharmaceutical corporation called me in for an interview. He told me that the firm was thinking of becoming active in the China market, but wasn~{!/~}t sure how to begin. We talked for about 90 minutes, long enough for me to conclude that he was interested in what I had to offer. He concluded the meeting by asking for a proposal. This was a very encouraging sign.

I agonized over the proposal~{!*~}especially the fee, of course. Then I sent it in and heard nothing for several weeks. I then called to follow up. The executive with whom I had spoken was very amiable, and he thanked me for spending time and writing the proposal. Then he told me, essentially, that I had been wasting my time from the very beginning.

~{!0~}We are a large, multinational company,~{!1~} he said. ~{!0~}If we were to hire a consultant, we would have to find a large consulting company. We couldn~{!/~}t even consider a one-man firm.~{!1~} I told him that I thought I could assemble a team of people with the specialties necessary to serve his account more effectively and efficiently than the consulting behemoths. ~{!0~}Then all you would be is a string quartet,~{!1~} he said. ~{!0~}We wouldn~{!/~}t handle a string quartet.~{!1~}

He said this without rancor, without any note of criticism, as if it were simply the way of the world. And, in a sense, it is. ~{!0~}Nobody gets fired for buying IBM,~{!1~} as the saying used to go. You hire a consultant for brand name advice. Mine might have been better, but I was nobody.

A short time later, the company was swallowed up by an even larger international firm. Presumably they would now need the combined forces of the Vienna Philharmonic, La Scala and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to produce a nugget of wisdom that such a behemoth could digest.

~{!0~}He was stupid,~{!1~} said a friend to whom I recently told this story. ~{!0~}The Rolling Stones are a sort of string quartet, but they~{!/~}ve been filling arenas for decades. And the Three Tenors are, let~{!/~}s face it, only three tenors. What you have to do is amplify yourself, present yourself as someone who~{!/~}s so special you deserve to be listened to.~{!1~}

My friend is right, in at least one respect. My proposal, and perhaps especially my fees, were too modest to be taken seriously. But while I may actually be the Mick Jagger of China trade consultants, I have not yet been accepted by the corporate world as a superstar.

I have, however, worked for several companies considerably larger than the one that said it couldn~{!/~}t use me. In one such case, an executive who had heard me speak brought me in to train all the people in the company who deal regularly with China. Then the same company called me back to be on hand when the chairman of the company met with his Chinese counterpart in a joint venture. I wasn~{!/~}t there as a translator or as a policy maker. They had called me in to do what I do best, which is to make things work.

I have also found that many large firms behave like a huge agglomeration of much smaller firms. Often, executives of such smaller units have problems I can help solve, along with budgets that permit them to hire me. In these cases, it~{!/~}s an advantage for me to be small. Hiring me does not involve the kinds of administrative hassles that are required to obtain the services of my full-service symphonic competitors.

Over time, I~{!/~}ve understood that there is some wisdom in what the executive told me. A small firm like mine, or even a slightly larger one, will never have the institutional credibility to tell a huge multinational what its policy should be. But as a talented, imaginative, creative individual I can figure out plenty of ways to serve big clients~{!*~}and small ones~{!*~}and make a decent living for myself as I do so.

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Article Tags: asia, behemoths, breakthrough, bureaucratic structures, business operations, china market, consulting company, consulting firms, house managers, large corporations, man firm, multinational company, pharmaceutical corporation, proposal, rancor, spending time, string quartet, turf, wasting my time, way of the world



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