小公司如何吸引大客户

1. 帮大公司分忧

1. Lighten the load

    有些工作大公司不方便开展，或者需要较高的劳动力成本，而且没有利润，而小公司恰好可以以此为切入点。美国纳什维尔市标准保健食品集团（Standard Functional Foods Group）CEO吉米•斯普拉德利便是很好的典范。他通过为客户生产即食麦片等新型或小品牌食品，帮助客户减少小规模的生产运营，进而获得了许多食品行业巨头的青睐。通过整合多家企业的订单，他的公司实现了盈利，今年销售额预计将达到1.5亿美元。

2. 弄清楚对方的采购流程

    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

    旧金山科技公司Aria Systems便有过这样的教训。最初，由于销售团队并不清楚与目标公司交易必须获得其三个部门的批准，结果丢失了订单。该公司创始人爱德华•沙利文表示，为目标公司每一个“有影响力”的团队单独准备营销材料，通过这种方式，公司成为了迪斯尼（Disney）和英格索兰公司（Ingersoll-Rand）的合作伙伴。目前，沙利文在最新创办的公司G2Link中也采用了这种方式。G2Link的主要业务是监控客户的信用状况。

3. 打造自身差异化优势

    如果你是一家由少数族裔拥有的小公司，大公司会主动告诉你如何与它们打交道。波士顿非营利组织“创建富有竞争力的城市中心区”（Initiative for a Competitive Inner City，ICIC）董事会成员乔治•盖德伦表示：“大公司不仅帮助我们找到大客户，还会确保我们有能力满足大客户的需求。”ICIC副董事长史蒂芬•派迪格认为，对小公司来说，如果大公司青睐你，那么它还会为你提供免费咨询服务，帮助你发展。

4. 让自己脱颖而出

    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，位于新罕布什尔州曼彻斯特市。该公司意识到，许多大公司会在推特（Twitter）等网站上查看网民对公司的评论，于是，公司在推特上向六家公司发布了几个搞怪视频来推销自己，其中一个是名为“Dyn爱上艾派迪（Expedia）”的音乐短片。目前，这些潜在客户中，有四家正在与Dyn接洽。公司业务开发团队负责人赖安•奥哈拉表示：“这种做法可以提高公司对我们的了认识，帮助我们打开局面，建立与潜在客户的沟通。”

    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.