In Enterprise Sales, Be Careful What You Wish For! You Can't Handle Every Type Of Client!

Special Counsel Note/ Enterprise Sales: To my wonderful Enterprise Staffing/MSP/VMS industry pals, supporters and clients- in tough times like these; everybody wants to land a Big Fish. Consider the sales cycle, timeline & costs of acquiring an enterprise size client (with a $10M + in spend or share of wallet)! Sometimes, chasing “The Whale” will cost you between $12K to over $100K in Resources / Salaries / Travel /Marketing Support /Wine & Dine, Etc....and it's a slow/methodical, forward moving sales process, which takes time to build…REMEMBER, you want to position yourself as a trusted counselor. Then you need to be ready to put some heavy implementation and account management resources in place when you win the business. Will your CEO/ Investors / Boss see the long term ROI? Are they patient, supportive and realistic? Or are they looking for “Quick Hits” for the next 1/4 P&L? Be aligned with the targets in your pipeline! Understand how big of an account you can actually serve. Even Adecco/ Manpower/ Randstad/ Kelly OCG / Allegis have failed or wobbled after winning these bigger pieces of business. Also, channel partners and VMS technology alliances can have huge and unanticipated costs factored in- the MSP/ Master Vendor (YOU) usually have to eat these additional sales/ implementation costs (I have seen up to $50K when I was at Adecco) And COST SAVINGS not just ADDED VALUE matter to the clients… it's not just about having the fancier/ better solution- be ready to sharpen your pencil! In 2^nd/ 3^rd generation program targets- who know how to beat you up-  it’s about adding that client logo to your portfolio, capturing the contingent workforce program from the competition and being patient to tweak things to see profits after 12 + months! Are you ready to take this plunge? Small or big company alike, it’s not a Cake Walk. Think about why you really want this client and have other targets/ industries/ business and solution types in the mix!