When you run a business, there are thousands of decisions you have to make: How do you market your business? How will you price your products and services? Where do you find more clients? Which clients should you target? Getting multi-million dollar contracts from large corporations can be a ticket to success, or it can be the demise of your business. We will discuss how to know if a contract is the right fit for you in a later post but for now, let’s assume that you have determined that you do want to go after the mega contract. You have to be good at what you do, your core business, but there are additional factors that weigh-into the decision. Here are the top 3 additional factors corporations are considering when vetting new suppliers:
- Have a Website Presence – This may seem like standard fare but many businesses still don’t have a website. If you are one of those businesses, know that you’re not alone. According to a recent GoDaddy survey, 60% of businesses with 1-5 employees don’t have a website. When a corporation can’t find you online, it makes it that much harder for them to asses if you are capable of handling their business. Yes, creating your own website can be a daunting task for those who did not come out of their mother’s womb with an iPad in their hands but there are easier options. Listing your business on the Avisare marketplace means that you don’t have to worry about creating a site from scratch (big relief) and you have a built in audience. Our template makes it very easy for you to fill out all relevant information on your business so you don’t have to sweat the small details. And voila, instant website presence!
- Enhance your business with Data – One of the great things about the digital revolution is the ability to understand what’s happening with your business with almost laser-like accuracy. Daily reports for what products your customers are buying can help you identify and react quickly to trends while allowing you to better manage inventory. Market surveys, aggregate purchasing reports and customer reviews help service-based businesses refine and enhance their offerings. Collecting and appropriately using data can give your company a big competitive advantage. Data only tells a good story if you ask the right questions so be sure to prepare questions and understand what intel you hope to gather from your data before embarking on data collection.
- Provide Security Measures – The biggest trend that we hear from corporate clients is the need to make sure their suppliers have security protocols in place. Organizations are relying more and more heavily on computers to store sensitive corporate and customer information. They need to be certain that you as a supplier would take preventive measures to ensure the safety of their information. Information security protocols is a massive topic that we will cover in later posts but to get started, look at all of the places where potentially sensitive data is currently transmitted (email, file storage, website, payment systems) and make sure they are protected against internet threats like computer viruses, malware, spam and spyware. For more information, download this Cisco primer on small business security measures.
Being aware of trends and preparing your business for the future is important to any corporation when reviewing their supply chain. Having a plan for each of these factors will get you much closer to winning those all-important contracts.