Look like an established business

Everyone likes to back a winner. Do you look like a winner?

Procurement departments at many companies will look at how long you’ve been in business, testimonials from other clients, the size of work undertaken, number of employees, etc.

To procurement a winner is a company that has established itself in the services or products they wish to buy. They don’t want to go through the learning curve with you, unless your price is cheap enough.

Tips are:

• Your address should be in a business or industrial district – and you can rent virtual addresses. You can be as successful as anyone else, but if they see your home address as your office you will be judged.
• Logo/branding should be professional – don’t go cheap in establishing this.
• Have a great website that at a minimum offers much of the same information as your larger/established competitors.
• Use your company email address – not Gmail or the like.
• Have brochures, testimonials, etc. ready to hand out.
• Have all the sales material/ordering information ready at hand.
• Have contracts, confidentiality agreements, etc. prepared and reformat to your  branding if required.
• Do accept electronic payment of funds.
• Have prepared forms to fill in when visiting clients.
• Develop procedures as necessary and refer to them.
• Last but not least, always mention your company’s ability to deliver, not your ability to deliver.