Corporate Clients: The Top Three Tips You Need to Know
When I worked at Cisco Systems, a conversation with HR revealed that companies often spend between $30,000 to $40,000 a day just to bring in specialists for their teams.
You might think that's insane, but when you realize the work and networking that goes into landing these corporate contracts, it starts to make sense.
Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, and in this episode of "The Weeniecast", I'm sharing three secrets you need to know to start winning corporate clients.
Trust me, this is practically a free $20,000 tip, because once you nail these points, you'll be well on your way to securing high-value contracts.
In this episode, I mention the Weeniecast Bingo card.
If you haven't yet, download yours here.
Timestamped summary
00:00 New business owners often struggle landing clients quickly.
04:59 Avoid HR; coaches should directly contact clients.
08:11 Hire expert to improve, alleviate workloads, lead transition.
09:58 Footwork leads to expertise, networking, and referrals.
14:13 Accurate budgeting aids relevancy, memory, and approvals.
19:24 Set follow-up call to avoid perceived rejection.
20:29 Clarify uncertainties to help secure consistent clients.
Your next steps after listening
Want to come and experience a free monthly group session with me one Friday soon?
https://weeniecast.com/brave-biz-labs
Realizing it's time to work with me? Book your free initial strategy call with me - weeniecast.com/strategycall
Or hop straight into my BYOB program -
Get more support in your ADHD entrepreneur life by joining my hyperfocus community! - https://weeniecast.com/hyperfocus
Wanna get this content earlier, and totally unbleeped? Subscribe to the Apple Podcasts premium version of this show - https://weeniecast.com/winners
Want to just buy me a coffee in return for some helpful insight? Thank you! Here's where you can do that - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiethecoach
Honorable mentions
Cisco Systems
Mentioned in this episode:
We'd love it if you'd give us a review
Join the hyperfocus community
Join other Weeniecast listeners just like you who have found their safe space as a business owner with ADHD!
Katie follow message
Here are the three things you need to know to start winning more corporate
Speaker:clients. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money
Speaker:mindset coach. And welcome to the Weeniecast.
Speaker:I want to let you in on a little secret, and this is something that
Speaker:I train in all of my programs to my clients who are going after
Speaker:corporate contracts. So this is really like a
Speaker:$1000 tip that I'm giving you today, and hopefully it helps
Speaker:you land some business that's worth north of $20,000. So really it's
Speaker:a $20,000 tip. Do with it what you will. The
Speaker:golden goose of offering a service is landing corporate
Speaker:clients. But most of the time when new business
Speaker:owners start out, they go about it all wrong and they actually make it
Speaker:take way longer for them to land these clients. And to put it in
Speaker:perspective, if you're working with clients one on one, and your coach say you
Speaker:can charge anywhere from like $3,000 for a
Speaker:six month contract to $30,000 for a six month contract, depending on
Speaker:who your ideal client is. But if you're working in
Speaker:corporate, you're typically not getting paid less than 20 grand,
Speaker:especially if you're working with upper leadership. If you're running a
Speaker:workshop and you're just trying to enroll one off clients into it, you have
Speaker:to hope that enough people sign up to make it worth your while
Speaker:versus landing a corporate workshop. They're going to
Speaker:have a guaranteed audience and they're going to expect to pay a certain amount
Speaker:regardless of how many people show up. When I worked for Cisco
Speaker:Systems, I was talking to one of our HR people, and she shared with me
Speaker:that to bring in a communications coach to work
Speaker:with their engineering team, they typically spent between
Speaker:30 and $40,000 a day, which
Speaker:sounds absolutely insane, until you realize all the work that goes
Speaker:into landing those jobs, all the pre work that is
Speaker:required, and managing the account, because there are
Speaker:a lot of decision makers when you go after corporate clients, and you have to
Speaker:really work with all of them to make sure that you get the job. So
Speaker:there are three things that you need to do to make sure you are getting
Speaker:these clients and that you are moving this sales process
Speaker:along as fast as possible. So we're going to talk through
Speaker:who you want to get in front of to start these conversations,
Speaker:how to set your own expectations that you don't go absolutely insane
Speaker:waiting for an answer back from them, and also how
Speaker:you get them to say yes through your sales process. And
Speaker:I will say right now, if you have a friend or family member who's starting
Speaker:a business, who wants to land corporate contracts, I recommend you send them this
Speaker:episode because this is really valuable information and I do go deeper
Speaker:into it in my build your own business group program. So if you're interested in
Speaker:more information about that, then I urge you to go and book a generate income
Speaker:strategy call. You can do so by going to weeniecast.com
Speaker:strategycall and that link is in the show notes. But let's get into the meat
Speaker:and potatoes, shall we? Trying to get
Speaker:corporate contracts is rife with
Speaker:rejection, both perceived and non existent and real. And for
Speaker:folks with ADHD who are sensitive when they think they're being
Speaker:rejected, it can really take a toll on your self
Speaker:esteem. It can really make you lose faith in what you're doing. It can make
Speaker:you doubt that this business is even going to work. Knowing these things
Speaker:about the process to get corporate contracts is really going to help
Speaker:you stay sane and not absolutely lose your
Speaker:mind. These three tips will also help you move the
Speaker:process along faster. You know, one of the things I'm going to talk about
Speaker:is the expectations you need to have around when these deals are going to
Speaker:close. And it's usually like six to twelve months. I don't know about you,
Speaker:but six to twelve months is a really long time for my ADHD. Like out
Speaker:of sight, out of mind. You know, if it's taking someone six to twelve months
Speaker:to make this decision, like there's a really good chance I'm just going to forget
Speaker:that they exist. So it's so important that you
Speaker:implement these changes. You really accept what I'm telling you here because it's
Speaker:going to save your sanity. There's a chance it might
Speaker:not, but you know it. Like, you're in good company. If you are
Speaker:insane. Welcome. You're with really cool people. We're so happy to
Speaker:have you. The thing about sending your resume and your one
Speaker:pager to HR, if you have ADHD, you need
Speaker:consistent feedback. You need positive affirmation
Speaker:that this is good. We're happy. We're excited for what
Speaker:you offer. If HR is way too busy to even acknowledge your
Speaker:email and you're not going to get feedback that's going to give you the
Speaker:dopamine that will allow you to keep working on this, you're not going
Speaker:to be able to continue doing this. You know, there's a reason why
Speaker:people with ADHD get really easily addicted to social media.
Speaker:Because we get addicted to the dopamine we get when we get likes and comments
Speaker:and follows right. You want to be careful about that, but
Speaker:we also have to be realistic with it. Setting yourself up so you'd
Speaker:get positive feedback or at least helpful feedback that helps you get better is
Speaker:going to help you stick with your strategy a lot longer. Squirrel.
Speaker:Squirrel. The number one mistake I see coaches and consultants
Speaker:making when they're going after corporate contracts is
Speaker:they think that the best way to get in front of their
Speaker:ideal client and start that sales process is to reach out to
Speaker:HR. And while yes, this can work,
Speaker:HR usually is the one who has to sign off on
Speaker:anything that's learning and development related, especially if you're in the coaching
Speaker:sphere. I want you to imagine how many emails and
Speaker:letters you get with people's one pager of their work and how
Speaker:they can help the company. HR doesn't just field these
Speaker:outside people that want to land a project with this company. They
Speaker:also have to deal with some internal stuff and usually stuff that's not very fun.
Speaker:So if you're sending them an email saying, hey, so and so, I'm a
Speaker:leadership coach, or I do leadership development, or this or that or
Speaker:the other thing, and here's my one pager, chances are
Speaker:they're seeing that and they're either archiving it or deleting it
Speaker:because they have bigger fish to fry. You're also just one of many who's
Speaker:emailing them. So HR often isn't the
Speaker:best way for you to get in with these clients. Often the best
Speaker:way for you to get in with these clients is to go to the department
Speaker:heads, the actual leaders, the people who are in the business, working on the
Speaker:business and running into some serious problems. Let me set the stage
Speaker:for you. Say you are a sales trainer. You've worked in sales for
Speaker:a really long time. You've developed this incredible methodology and you want to
Speaker:get out there and you want to help corporations really develop a more
Speaker:successful sales process. And that incorporates you doing
Speaker:some consulting on how they set up their sales funnel. You also
Speaker:do sales training with their teams. You give them some scripts that are
Speaker:custom to their business and their type of customer, and
Speaker:you might go and also coach the sales leaders so that they know how to
Speaker:best support their teams to hit their quotas each month. What an amazing
Speaker:program. If anyone out there wants help building that, I would love to help you
Speaker:with that. You can absolutely go to HR. But HR isn't
Speaker:facing those problems every single day. HR isn't having to
Speaker:have really difficult conversations with the chief revenue
Speaker:officer about why so and so on. Their team didn't hit their
Speaker:numbers. They're not having to talk through
Speaker:all the hurdles that they're having to face every single quarter.
Speaker:Who is usually the director of sales or the
Speaker:president of sales, that is the person that you want to get in front of.
Speaker:That is the person who is going to be hungry enough
Speaker:for help that they are going to start the conversation with
Speaker:you. And when they realize that you hold the
Speaker:key to their life being easier, to their work being easier, and to
Speaker:them hitting and exceeding their goals as a team,
Speaker:they're the ones that are going to go and make the case to HR. Why
Speaker:HR needs to create budget for you. And in this scenario, you're
Speaker:extra lucky because this person is in sales and they can sell pretty
Speaker:much anything, including working with you. So you have a really
Speaker:good chance of getting the business. But this works across departments. So
Speaker:if you have an engineering director who is really facing
Speaker:creativity problems on his team, or maybe his team isn't collecting, collaborating really
Speaker:well, you know, it makes a lot of sense. They would want to bring in
Speaker:someone who could train them to do that better because it makes their life and
Speaker:work so much easier, and it helps them stand up from the crowd because
Speaker:they were the leader that took this team from not so great
Speaker:to amazing. You were a piece of that puzzle. If systems are
Speaker:breaking, if the IT department has all these antiquated
Speaker:systems and they're just too busy fixing bugs that they can't update to something
Speaker:better, it makes so much sense for them to bring in a
Speaker:consultant who can do all that for them and help them
Speaker:transition over gradually without loading
Speaker:up everyone who's already in the business, already overwhelmed
Speaker:with more work to do. So you want to get in front of those
Speaker:people who are in charge of these kinds of things because they have the
Speaker:most painful problems that they face every single day that you just
Speaker:so happen to solve.
Speaker:Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. So there are a few ways you can get in front
Speaker:of these people. You really have to pick what works best for
Speaker:you, for your business model, and for your personality. You can
Speaker:absolutely start a social media campaign. I recommend doing this on LinkedIn because
Speaker:that's where these people are hanging out and looking for talent
Speaker:to bring in. If they're already going to LinkedIn,
Speaker:scanning for potential talent, when they see you talking
Speaker:about their problems in particular, you're going to get their attention. They're going to start
Speaker:following you. They're going to start taking advice from you. They may not
Speaker:comment on your content, but like I say to all my
Speaker:clients, the money is in the lurkers. Often the people who become our
Speaker:clients are not our most avid, engaged followers.
Speaker:They're the people lurking in the shadows who never out themselves until they book a
Speaker:sales call with you. You can become a spouse speaker and speak at
Speaker:industry conferences. Now, this one takes a lot of
Speaker:footwork to do, but once you do it, you become
Speaker:the ipso facto expert in front of whatever
Speaker:crowd you're speaking to. And what's even better is if you're at an
Speaker:event in person and you're speaking to a crowd, you get
Speaker:immediate networking after the fact because folks who really need your
Speaker:help are going to come seek you out. They're going to try to stalk you
Speaker:at the bar and ask if they, they can pick your brain about something and
Speaker:you're going to set a call with them. And of course, there's always networking and
Speaker:asking for referrals. If you've been a professional for 15
Speaker:years, you know, people who work at companies, and those people who work at companies
Speaker:probably need know someone on the sales team, and that person on the sales team
Speaker:probably knows their manager, right? It'd be very weird if they didn't.
Speaker:And so asking your own network to help you get introductions
Speaker:to these folks is going to be incredibly helpful. If you have no idea how
Speaker:to do any of this. Like I said, these are all things that I cover
Speaker:in my BYOB. Build your own business program. So again, if you're curious and want
Speaker:some guidance, go and book that strategy call. And really, when you're marketing to
Speaker:them, you want to remember two things. Follow the money and follow the ego.
Speaker:Businesses care about the bottom line. So if this person is
Speaker:either going over budget or not hitting quota, they're not getting
Speaker:the accolades they would if they were doing those things. You coming in
Speaker:and saying, hey, I can help you do these things better for, you
Speaker:know, less money in less time, with less effort,
Speaker:they're going to connect the dots that, okay, cool. This is going to help the
Speaker:business immeasurably, which means I will get attention
Speaker:for this. I'm probably going to get more attention for that next promotion
Speaker:that I want. The thing that we forget about when we're going after corporate clients
Speaker:is, honestly that we think this is a business and it's going to be
Speaker:really formal and professional and
Speaker:they're going to want you to be the blandest version of yourself. Right? We
Speaker:forget that every purchase that we make is an
Speaker:emotional purchase. There's a person behind that
Speaker:decision who wants things for themselves. If you
Speaker:don't acknowledge how working with you is going to make their life better, make their
Speaker:work better. You're probably not going to get the sale. They're probably going to go
Speaker:with someone who understands the greater impact that
Speaker:that doing this work will have because it connects with them. It makes this
Speaker:a much more urgent decision because they see it as something that'll make their life
Speaker:better. Okay, so that's, number one, find your decision makers and get in front
Speaker:of them any way you know how. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. Number
Speaker:two, you're probably gonna wanna punch me. No one likes hearing this.
Speaker:And thankfully, like, you can't punch me through the podcast.
Speaker:Damn. Damn. When you're going after corporate clients,
Speaker:it's really important to have patience.
Speaker:I know that's the most annoying advice ever. I know you don't want to hear
Speaker:it, but the reality about corporate contracts is
Speaker:that they can take anywhere from six to twelve months to close,
Speaker:and sometimes longer. There are a few factors that go into this,
Speaker:you know, number one, you have a lot of decision makers. You know, the one
Speaker:person who is the head of the department, who really wants to bring you in,
Speaker:they have to make the case to their C suite, to HR,
Speaker:to other people who are going to be impacted by bringing you in. They have
Speaker:to get all these people on board. I don't know if you've ever worked in
Speaker:corporate, but do you know how hard that is? Sometimes
Speaker:people like having opinions and they like
Speaker:sharing their opinions, and if something confronts those opinions,
Speaker:they're going to slow it down, even if it makes perfect sense. So you have
Speaker:a lot of decision makers that you have to bring on board. Now, of course,
Speaker:this is something I train all my clients on. How do you get them to
Speaker:be part of the conversation so they feel like a collaborator and not
Speaker:like someone who's threatened by you coming in? That takes time.
Speaker:For my clients with ADHD, six to twelve months is a long time to try
Speaker:to like, follow up with someone. So to help you manage it, what
Speaker:I recommend you do is set up calls with this individual.
Speaker:If you know that the decision making process is going to take several months.
Speaker:Set up calls just to touch base on where they're at and
Speaker:if they need more information, and if they need to make any changes based on
Speaker:new developments within their company. It feels really pushy to do that,
Speaker:but what it actually is, is amazing. Account management.
Speaker:You're making sure that the proposal you sent to them in February is still going
Speaker:to be relevant to them in December. So that way when they get to the
Speaker:budget conversation, that they need to do in November, December, they're
Speaker:going to be able to accurately gauge how much money they
Speaker:need to put aside to work with you, and they'll do so knowing that what
Speaker:they're going to be doing with you is absolutely relevant to what the company is
Speaker:going through. Right then how much easier is it going to be for them to
Speaker:sell it to their boss when they can say, yeah, we got this initial proposal
Speaker:back in February, touch base with them in September. After this thing happened within the
Speaker:company, they updated the proposal. Here's the new pricing. It hits
Speaker:everything that we need. It also makes sure that you don't forget about
Speaker:them, which is key because we know it's
Speaker:really easy to forget about things that are out of sight, out of mind. Now
Speaker:that you know who you need to get in front of to get these contracts,
Speaker:you understand the timeline and what it's going to take, patients wise and
Speaker:faith wise, to get to actually bring these to a yes.
Speaker:Let's talk about the number one most impactful thing that
Speaker:I teach my clients that I'm giving to you for free. In this
Speaker:episode,
Speaker:let's talk about the number one most impactful thing that
Speaker:I teach my clients that I'm giving to you for free. So number
Speaker:three, people share proposals all wrong. The
Speaker:typical way to do a sales process that most people do, because this is
Speaker:what they learned, is to have a meeting with someone, get the information of what
Speaker:they're looking for, and say, okay, great, love to work with. You can absolutely cover
Speaker:all this. Let me do this. I'm going to go and create a proposal, and
Speaker:I'll send it over to you, and you just let me know what you think.
Speaker:And so then they go away, they write up the proposal. They probably spend, you
Speaker:know, a good couple hours writing it, if not more, because they really
Speaker:want it to sell this person on saying yes, then they send it
Speaker:over, and then they wait. It's the worst because you're just refreshing
Speaker:your email, like, hoping that they're gonna get back to you, and then you get
Speaker:weird because you're like, well, I haven't heard back from them in a while. Should
Speaker:I follow up? And then you follow up and you don't hear back immediately,
Speaker:like, oh, my God, was that weird? Was I too pushy? Did I not make
Speaker:sense? Was there something I did in the sales call that made them hate
Speaker:me? Maybe they hate me. Maybe they don't want to ever work with me.
Speaker:And then before you know it, it's six months later. You've never heard back from
Speaker:them. You're probably not going to hear back from them, and
Speaker:you feel like garbage because you think you did something wrong,
Speaker:when in reality, if we were to go over to their side, they have
Speaker:the sales call with you. They're really excited about what working with
Speaker:you could look like and what it could do for them and for their company.
Speaker:You say you're going to send the proposal. They're like, amazing. I can't wait to
Speaker:look at this. You send the proposal over, they get
Speaker:it in between a few meetings. They have, like, ten minutes in between meetings, and
Speaker:they're like, oh, my God, this is the proposal. They open it. They kind of
Speaker:scan it. Cool. Looks great. I'm gonna come back to this. They go to their
Speaker:meeting. In the meeting, they're given a few to dos
Speaker:and a few more deadlines, and then they have another meeting, and more stuff is
Speaker:piled on their plate. One of their team members comes to them to complain about
Speaker:something or say that they need help with something, and their week just
Speaker:gets completed out of control. Oh, sh. I still have to review that
Speaker:proposal. Great. Okay, I'm gonna do that. Mental note. And then the next
Speaker:week comes, and more stuff gets piled on in the back of their mind. They're
Speaker:like, I have to get to that proposal after a while. It's
Speaker:been so long that they haven't gotten back to you about the proposal.
Speaker:They're gonna start getting weird. They're gonna start wondering, oh, my
Speaker:God, I'm so irresponsible and rude. I didn't get back to this person
Speaker:in time. They probably think I'm an, they probably don't want to work
Speaker:with me. If I get back to them now, they're probably so
Speaker:annoyed with me that they spent all this time with me and I didn't give
Speaker:them an answer. God, I can't go back to them. Or I should, what should
Speaker:I say? Oh, God. Like, this is gonna be weird. And then they're gonna get
Speaker:a follow up message from you, and then they're gonna feel even worse, because
Speaker:here you are following up with them, and they're the, and
Speaker:people don't like being the. There's a reason why. There's a whole bunch of Reddit
Speaker:threads. Am I the asshole? Because people want to be reassured that they're not
Speaker:the asshole, but our brains are not very kind to us.
Speaker:You know, in a lot of scenarios, we make ourselves the
Speaker:ass. We assume a whole bunch of stuff about
Speaker:what the other person's thinking, and so they get really weird. And then
Speaker:six months later, they're like, I can't work with this person because they probably hate
Speaker:me because I completely dropped the ball in this. And then they start the process
Speaker:with someone else all over again. So here's the critical mistake
Speaker:that the business owner made. They
Speaker:didn't make sure the ball stayed in their court. And yes, that was a
Speaker:sports metaphor. If you're playing our bingo game, you can
Speaker:cross that one off. And if you don't know about the bingo game, there is
Speaker:actually a bingo card for the Weenie cast. One of our listeners made it up.
Speaker:It's hysterical. You can go and play bingo. If you want to check out the
Speaker:bingo card, you can go to weeniecast.com bingo.
Speaker:We have yet to have anyone message us that they got bingo. But I cannot
Speaker:wait for that day. What do you do if that whole process that you've been
Speaker:taught or that you've figured out and you've been doing for a while, if
Speaker:that's not actually the best way to get clients, what do you change?
Speaker:And it's really simple. Instead of saying,
Speaker:I'm going to send you a proposal and you just get back to me, you
Speaker:set a follow up call. The
Speaker:beautiful thing about setting this proposal presentation
Speaker:call and making sure that you're both blocking off time
Speaker:to sit down and look through it is you're not just saving yourself
Speaker:from that perceived rejection, that that rejection sensitivity
Speaker:dysphoria getting activated, you're actually protecting them
Speaker:too, because they're going to start perceiving or making up the story
Speaker:that you hate them. They're going to start thinking that you're going to reject them.
Speaker:If they come back to you, you're actually being so
Speaker:kind in helping them go through this,
Speaker:be accountable to it, and have more structure around when they need
Speaker:to give you an answer. There's also that element that there may actually be
Speaker:something in your proposal that they do not understand. And I want you to think
Speaker:about any corporate situation. Are people in corporate
Speaker:situations likely to feel comfortable admitting they don't know something?
Speaker:No. So even if they do set aside time to go through your
Speaker:proposal. If there's stuff in there that they're like, oh, I don't know what that
Speaker:word means, or I'm not sure what they're talking about here, there's a
Speaker:big chance they're actually not going to ask about it. They're just going to like,
Speaker:say, okay, cool, I'll get to this later. But then the idea of
Speaker:admitting that they don't know the thing can be like, too shame
Speaker:inducing. So you get to protect them from that. You get to hold their
Speaker:hand and say, is there anything in here that doesn't make sense? You want more
Speaker:clarity on? And they have full permission in that moment to admit
Speaker:they need more clarity. The number one thing I want you to know is that
Speaker:this is possible for you. If you're consistent, if you have
Speaker:an actual sales process that works, then you
Speaker:can absolutely get consistent corporate clients. And you say,
Speaker:cool, you know, I'm going to go. I'm going to go and set up this
Speaker:proposal. Why don't we do this? I want to make sure this proposal
Speaker:covers absolutely everything that you need and that there's no questions you
Speaker:have when you get it. So let's book a time for a proposal
Speaker:presentation call. On this call, we'll go through
Speaker:line by line all the parts of the proposal. If there's anything missing, I can
Speaker:add them in. If you have any questions, I can answer them then. And also
Speaker:if there's anyone else who's involved in this project who needs to be on that
Speaker:call, bring them in so they can see what we're talking about. You're holding them
Speaker:accountable. You're making them actually block off time in their
Speaker:calendar where they're going to sit down, look
Speaker:over the proposal with you holding their hand and explaining every
Speaker:bit. They're going to be able to ask questions. They're going to be able to
Speaker:process the information, and if any changes need to be made, they're
Speaker:going to feel like you are super responsive. Because, you know, if they're like, oh,
Speaker:well, we actually wanted there to be a workshop included in the company retreat that
Speaker:we have in February. Can you add that you're going to be like, oh,
Speaker:yeah, absolutely. I'll add in here. Do you have dates? Because I can go and
Speaker:block those off right now. Because also that's another thing. If you're blocking
Speaker:off time in the future, they're going to feel extra responsible to get back
Speaker:to you and it gives you a reason to follow up with them because
Speaker:you have the time blocked off and you can create some urgency around that. I've
Speaker:had people make this one change and double their yes
Speaker:rate. Just scheduling a proposal presentation
Speaker:call now. Of course, you have to have a proposal that's worth
Speaker:presenting if you don't know how to do that. That's one of the things I
Speaker:train in my programs. Happy to talk to you about what those look
Speaker:like to help you really create proposals that convert.
Speaker:I love that saying meat and potatoes, because it completely jumps over
Speaker:vegetables. It's like whoever made that
Speaker:saying was like, yes, meat. And I love potatoes.
Speaker:And that is what we should be focusing on. They didn't bring up
Speaker:dessert, so that's kind of disappointing. I appreciate their appreciation
Speaker:of potatoes, and maybe they're considering potatoes vegetables, which technically,
Speaker:they are. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel,
Speaker:squirrel.