Landing the Large Account

Landing the large account is a step by step procedure that many of you have honed to a fine art. Today I'm going to give you the way I like to approach the process.

My first step is to put a tray of brownies together that I will be giving away as a door opener. The company I work for is one of the larger companies in the US and our catering side of the business buys a frozen brownie that is to die for.

I deliver the brownies to the receptionist and along with the brownies I give her a pocket folder that has literature about our company. I ask her to give them to the person in charge of the vending service.

Once she takes them from me I tell her I like to follow up with a phone call in a week or so to see if the person she is going to give the brownies to is interested in talking with me.

Within a week I follow up with a phone call to the contact and tell them I would enjoy being able to stop by and visit with them about some of the positive things that are going on with our company.

You would be surprised at how many will say yes if you approach it as I have stated. Another thing I like to do is to give them choices of when they would like to meet with me; say next week or the week after and just keep dialing in on a date by narrowing the choices.

At the first face to face meeting what I am after is a second meeting where I will bring my boss along with me and we tour the breakrooms. He does some idle talking while I get a list of what machines we will need to service the account. If I can get the contact to allow me to buy them a meal it really does help.

The next step in the process is to come back with the proposal you have designed for their account. I will normally bring my boss along with me and he likes giving the proposal.

The secret to landing the large account is to make a freind. It is harder for them to turn down a friend than some complete stranger that walks in thinking they are going to land the account the first or second time in the door.

My way is not the only way to get the job done and I would truly enjoy hearing how you approach landing the large account or any account. I like to say you are never too old to learn.