Major Leagues

Part of that hard work involves planning. Walk into a large corporation with big promises--but little preparation--and you'll quickly be shown the door. Here are some basic guidelines to help determine whether you are ready to sell to the big guys.

• Look at your track record. It should be at least five years long because it's tough for a start-up to walk in the door of a Fortune 100 company and sell them something. Your experience should also show a gradual scaling up of the companies you sell to.

Gary Engebretson, president of the Contract Services Association of America, which represents government service contractors, says credentials--a background or track record in the industry--are critical. It's also important that you really are capable of fulfilling the bigger firm's needs at the volume required. If you mess up once, you won't get a second chance--and you could ruin your reputation.

• Establish a sound financial background. A weak financial structure diminishes your ability to get business as a new supplier, says Blue.

• Determine what product or service you will provide. Many small companies falter by finding out what big companies need and then trying to fit their abilities to those needs. A better approach, Blue says, is to figure out where you excel and then find a company that needs what you are best at. Once you sell them what you're good at, they may consider buying your other products or services.

• Gather references. "Do you have clients who will vouch for you?" asks Blue. "The more similar they are to the big company you're approaching, the better." An ideal reference would be a subsidiary of the target corporation, a customer of a subsidiary, or even a business that networks with the purchasing department in your target corporation.

• Be professional. Don't expect to go into a meeting, pass out your brochures, then wait for questions. Be ready to control the presentation and answer all the questions before they are even asked. Concisely tell the prospect about your areas of expertise.

This article was originally published in the January 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Major Leagues.