DEALING WITH GIANTS: Dealing With the BIG BOYS, Getting to know you...

Dealing with Giants
with Claudine Halpern

I have received many comments on my articles in the last few months, but one has intrigued me so I will write about that today, the comment was, How do you get to the BIG BOYS to start off with?

Really Really, Really good question, I don’t claim to have all the answers but I have some ideas.

This is networking 101, the same way that you get yourself a good job, or accomplish any of your goals, the rules of networking work here, but slightly more targeted. Here are thirteen important points. I just turned 13 into a lucky number.

1) NO FEAR; I have a sign at my desk in 60 point type, bright red NO FEAR, the only thing that can go wrong is, you don’t get the business, but that’s where you are today

2) Target your company; Research the companies that you think might be a fit

3) Learn the pain points of those companies, it’s not about what your selling it’s about what they need first and want second, solve a problem

4) Calculate the companies cost benefit potential and keep that in your back pocket

5) Be a perfect fit, not a almost perfect fit, but a perfect fit

6) Work your network: the best way in is someone you know, or someone who knows someone in the company that you want to reach

7) Network your a** off, go to anything that might look like it may be sort of close to what your looking for, you may be able to expand your view

8) Prepare for a very long lead time, my experience is that 9-12 month lead cycle for this type of sale is not unusual

9) Become the go to expert, talk to everyone, use all the social networking sites, join groups, write blogs, answer queries

10) Work backwards, look at the web site of the company, see if any names pop out at you, old high school buddies, people you worked with 20 years ago, the guy who rides the train with you and go for it

11) Conference, Conference, Conference, oh and did I say attend conferences

12) DON’T GIVE UP EVER, choose more than one company and experiment with the one that you want the least, you may actually score that business

13) Constantly Recalibrate. Always keep up with issues that come to light. Laws change so quickly that you may be needed one day and obsolete the next, or the other way around

I’m a firm believer in being nice to the people on the way up, because you meet the same people on the way down, so if you’ve always been nice, great, you’ve got a foundation. If not, START NOW, BIG BOYS are people first, and want to work with people they like.

Hope this helps, please let me know…………………

Please send your questions and business situations to chalpern@theychgroup.com.

The YCH Group, Inc.

The YCH Group, Inc. makes things work. We have a proven track record in delivering projects to a successful end state on time and within budget. We work with on site management to improve deliverables and control costs to primary and secondary firms in the financial sector and across a broad span of business sectors, domestically and internationally.

Claudine Y. Halpern, President

Claudine Halpern is a chameleon, she has worked in many different situations during her more that twenty five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern

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DEALING WITH GIANTS: Dealing With the BIG BOYS, Getting to know you...

DEALING WITH GIANTS: Selling to the BIG BOYS - Doing the Job, Managing your Reputation, and GETTING PAID

Dealing With Giants
with Claudine Halpern

WOW, you’re business has it’s biggest customer ever, whether your business is a service or product business, there are some really important things to address now.

If you have a product business, you are probably finding yourself in the unenviable position of needing stock that you don’t have. You either need to purchase the stock or manufacture it. If you are well financed then it’s no problem, you go and buy it or make it.

WAIT, how did you set up your contract with your big customer? Let’s talk about some ways to make sure that you can keep your head above water while you’re getting the goods together.

• I very often suggest that a customer give you a percentage of the money that’s owed on contract signing, usually half, that might not cover all you costs but it should get you along the way to fulfilling your deal.

• Or you can get half up front and deliver incrementally, so that you can satisfy your customer and keep your head above water.

I did logistics work for a publicly held major BIG BOY catalogue retailer, it was Mother’s Day and the BIG BOY ordered squeaky bears that were selling for $5 as a bonus with other purchases. In order to save money, the BIG BOY outsourced the bears to China in January, with every expectation that they would show up in plenty of time for Mother’s Day. Each bear cost $2.50, so the profit margin was there. The BIG BOY had orders for over 1 million bears. They were planning on starting sorting and delivery in late March.

A storm hit the South China Sea, and the ship, carrying the squeaky bears, was delayed by three months. Oooooops, 1 million customers were not going to be happy, and the BIG BOY needed to do something fast.

In March, the BIG BOY ordered 1 million squeaky bears, from a local manufacturer, for $5.00 each. So the bears cost $2.50 +$5.00 or $7.50 each, and sold for $5 each. That created a loss of $2.5 million for that quarter, not happy shareholders.

1million bears showed up in July, decorated for Mother’s Day. What to do with 1 million Mother’s Day bears in July? The BIG BOY hired a local firm to redecorate the bears for Thanksgiving at $3.50 each and sold them in the catalogue for, you got it, $5. Total Profit ZERO, Total Loss well you figure it out.

So if you are producing goods for one of the BIG BOYS, Be smart, be careful, price intelligently and have a contingency plan, to keep your reputation intact you need to deliver quality merchandise on time and in budget.

If you have a service business, you may have a little more flexibility in pricing. I always recommend incremental pricing based on milestones. What does that mean? That means that you get paid for getting to the milestone, not for finishing the job. Here’s how you create the incremental milestones plan:

· clearly establish and document the BIG BOYS goals

· break down the deliverable into obvious, smaller pieces

· clearly establish and document what tasks belong to you and what belong to the BIG BOY

· clearly establish and document what the BIG BOY must provide (information, support, office space, technology, coffee, raw materials etc,) and when

· clearly establish and document change control procedures, that means that there are no changes unless all agree and the scope and dates are renegotiated

· clearly establish what you will get paid when you hit each milestones

I had a small software client who got a multi million dollar contract with one of the BIG BOYS. We wrote the contract following the rules above. We always got paid on time, even though we did not always hit the milestones, we could always prove that we didn’t hit the milestone because of something the BIG BOY promised and didn’t deliver.

When working with the BIG BOYS, Be Smart, Be Effective, Be Thrifty, Have Contingency Plans, Be Realistic, Be True to Yourself and Your Company, good ideas for business and good ideas for life.

Next Time; Building on current BIG BOY business to get more BIG BOY business.

About Claudine Halpern

Claudine Halpern is a chameleon; she has worked in many different situations during her more than twenty-five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

EMAIL chalpern@theychgroup.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern

For more information, please visit Claudine's TNNW Bio.

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DEALING WITH GIANTS: Selling to the BIG BOYS - Doing the Job, Managing your Reputation, and GETTING PAID

DEALING WITH GIANTS: More on...Making it Legal

Dealing With Giants
with Claudine Halpern

I have received many comments on last months article, Making it Legal, so I will take this opportunity to dig deeper into some of the issues that I spoke about:

• First, I am not a lawyer; I never claim to be a lawyer.

• Second, I use the services of lawyers when I need them.

• Third, I have no compunctions about going into court to collect monies owed to me.

That being said, let’s get to the nitty gritty of legalities and business as I’ve experienced it.

I believe that counting on lawyers and legal arguments to get paid is not the type of business that I want to be in or participate in.

There are firms that are built on the premise of lawsuits, mostly legal firms. I know a legal firm that buys unexecuted patents from inventors who have not been able to execute their ideas. They then scrounge the Internet to see if any firm is using anything that even has a whiff of their “Owned Patents”. They will then sue those firms, sometimes justifiably, and sometimes less than justifiably. The small firm has no choice but settle with the “Owner” be it in a single payment or ongoing upside. Large firms can fight and they have legal staff to cover these contingencies.

If you are a small business, you want to spend your time growing your business, in positive pursuit of more business, and better relationships. If you count on legal remedies to getting paid all the time, then good luck.

Now back to contracts and other agreements, a contract is only as solid as the contract signers’ willingness to pursue legal recourse. What does that mean, it means that if you can’t or won’t go through the legal recourse associated with a contract, it’s not worth much.

Many years ago, I was a Vice President at one of the BIG BOYS of the time. They announced a merger and asked me to stay on with the new firm and signed a contract with my new job duties, title, salary etc.

At the same time they requested that some people stay on through the merger and leave afterward, those people received contracts with guaranteed small bonuses at the end of the period.

After the merger was complete they terminated my employment, along with about 15 other people that I knew, without any reason. I felt that I was entitled to the guaranteed bonus, as I had stayed through the merger.

I contacted a lawyer with the intention of suing, after a single consultation I realized that pursuing the lawsuit may be great publicity for my lawyer, but bad for me, let me explain why:

1) I could not look for work while the lawsuit was pending as no one would hire me

2) I had to pay the lawyer up front

3) The BIG BOY had internal legal staff and had not lost a lawsuit yet

4) There was no guarantee that I would win

In the end, my decision was the right one; I founded my consulting firm and found business within 90 days. Three of the other people sued, it took two and half years, they each won $20,000. They all left the business, as no one would hire them. Yes they won, but lost more.

So, always have your legal ducks in a row, but work with people whose reputations you know and trust, if you can. If you don’t know or trust the reputation of the firm that you are working with, create a payment structure that mitigates your losses in a worst-case scenario.

Next Time: Selling to the BIG BOYS; Doing the Job, Managing your Reputation

and GETTING PAID

About Claudine Halpern

Claudine Halpern is a chameleon; she has worked in many different situations during her more than twenty-five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

email chalpern@theychgroup.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern

For more information, please visit Claudine's TNNW Bio.

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DEALING WITH GIANTS: More on...Making it Legal

DEALING WITH GIANTS: Making it Legal

Dealing With Giants

with Claudine Halpern

Making it Legal, Handshake Commitments, Letters of intent, Contract Negotiation

So you think you have a sale, before you celebrate, crack open the champagne and call all your friends and colleagues, make it legal, GET IT ON PAPER.

Uh oh, does that mean that you need to engage a lawyer now, not really. What you need to do is make sure that you are going to get paid for the work that you do and product that you sell.

I am a service provider, and I get paid for thinking, talking and figuring things out for the BIG BOYS. Other firms are product providers; they sell real things that you can hold in your hand. Either way you need to get paid, lets talk about how you make sure that you get what’s yours, I always tell clients don’t start to work unless the paperwork is signed, that does not necessarily mean that the entire legal work must be done before you start but you need to have a confidence level that you will get paid.

I have one long term client who I have worked with many times over the last fifteen years, we have never put anything on paper or signed a contract and I have always gotten paid in a timely manner. I know him and his firm, and when we work together I know that he will pay.

I have other clients, who have detailed contracts that we sign every time we work together, and some of them just treat the contract like toilet paper, I am bound by the terms as an honest person, but they are not. I could sue, but it brings negative energy into my life and impacts my business reputation, even if I am right.

LAWYERS COST A LOT OF MONEY….my recommendation is don’t count on the courts to get you paid, count on your understanding of the people that you are dealing with and your trust of them, and do the paperwork.

How do you decide how much paperwork you need with each customer? Good question, in politics it’s called trust but verify.

Closing the DEAL with the BIG BOYS

This one is tough THERE IS NO SINGLE SUCCESSFUL WAY TO CLOSE A DEAL, you will have to wing it, we all do, and it’s different every time. Some people will give you tricks to close a deal, but we know that’s not the way it works,

When the BIG BOY wants and needs what you’re selling and trusts you, he will buy. Make sure to ask for the business, give the BIG BOY a schedule (make sure the schedule starts tomorrow) and get to work.

Handshake Commitments

If you know and trust the people that you are dealing with, then this can work. With the BIG BOYS it’s a risk as people change jobs, get fired, the direction of the firm changes, and you are left with no one to go to. Use sparingly, I do not work on handshakes with BIG BOYS.

Letters of Intent

Letters of intent are quasi-legal documents, these are usually used when contract negotiations are protracted and the product or work is required on a short schedule. I use these often, especially for large deals. This way we can start getting paid before the contract is complete.

Contracts and Contract Negotiations

This is an art all it’s own, many people use standard contracts that are easily understood, no problem there. Make sure that you understand the legalese and every section. Don’t assume anything.

Complex contracts need more work, I have seen contracts that have chargeback clauses where a small firm can provide everything as required and still never get paid, legally, so be careful and be smart. Get advisors to help you, and no, not your brother in law, unless he’s a lawyer or experienced businessman.

Protracted contract negotiations are very common among the big boys, so be prepared and be smart.

I once represented a small firm in a contract negotiation with one of the BIG BOYS. After many months of getting nowhere, and over a hundred pages of contract, I started getting tired of the run around. I filled two sealed boxes, each held two versions of the contract, ours and the BIG BOYS. I then put a signature page outside the box and insisted that both parties sign on the outside, they did not know what I put in the boxes. They though it was funny and signed, contract negotiations over and done. These partners never referred to the contract again, the small firm has a satisfied customer and the BIG BOY has a great product and service provider.

Congratulations, You’ve got the business……….

Next Article; Selling to the BIG BOYS; Doing the Job, Managing your Reputation and Getting Paid

About Claudine Halpern

Claudine Halpern is a chameleon; she has worked in many different situations during her more than twenty-five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

email chalpern@theychgroup.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern

For more information, please see Claudine's TNNW Bio.

*******
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DEALING WITH GIANTS: Making it Legal

DEALING WITH GIANTS: Getting closer to the Close

Dealing With Giants

with Claudine Halpern

Next steps, Getting closer to the Close….Following Up, working smart, getting what you want

Remember, the Sales process BELONGS TO YOU, so take over and get the job done. Let’s go back though what you’ve done to date:

1) You’ve prepared for the first sales call

2) You’ve given a bang up presentation

3) You’ve overcome adversity by understanding your customers

4) You’ve determined that the prospect will be a good customer

Now you want to make sure that they want you. I’m sure that you remember that during our presentations we collected everyone’s email address and phone numbers. Now is the time to use them, 24-48 hours after your presentation, send a thank you email to everyone who attended along with a copy of the presentation.

Start the ongoing dialogue that will result in sale, you’ve set up the next meeting with the BIG BOYS during the initial presentation, now is the time to create a model that they will understand that you can work together. If you give the BIG BOYS a reason to bring you in they will, don’t let anything get in the way, YOU OWN THE SALES PROCESS.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW; EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES

BIG BOYS (Like almost everyone else) want something for nothing

I NEED A PROPOSAL: Remember that you are looking for the BIG SALE, sometimes it takes a small sale to get to a big sale. My clients often ask me; When do I start changing the client? When is a proposal an actual piece of work and when is it a sales tool?

Remember that the BIG BOYS want to get as much out of you without paying you, and you want to start to get paid, NOW IS THE TIME TO START CHARGING.

Create a small proposal that answers an important problem. I very often sell tiny pieces of work before I sell a big piece of work. Get the BIG BOY used to paying for you and your advice.

I was asked by a client to create a proposal for a VERY VERY BIG BOY. We were able to get the client to commit to pay for five days worth of work, the result of which was an analysis with recommendations. Guess what the recommendation was? Very good guess, our expert recommendation was a solution that only our company could address. This turned into a multi-million dollar relationship that is ongoing.

In your mind you need to understand the difference between product and services, and learn how to sell each of them. If you and your team are experts in something, then the advice and recommendations that you give are products, worthy of payment.

WE ONLY WORK WITH PREFFERED VENDORS: Many BIG BOYS won’t work with you unless you are a PREFFERED VENDOR. This is an onerous process that you and your company may or may not be able to accomplish. IT IS NOT ALWAYS NEEDED BEFORE YOU START WORK, there are many ways to get over, under, around or through this requirement. Every BIG BOY has their own rules, but most include the ability to work with a variance, so don’t let this stop you from moving ahead.

WE”VE PUT THE PROGRAM ON HOLD: This may or may not be true, if it is true, ask permission to reconnect in 90 days and work on another deal.

There are many more excuses; your job is to judge if the excuse is a challenge that you need to overcome, a request for free services or a kiss off.

FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP AND FOLLOW UP AGAIN

Always stay in touch with people that you’ve presented to, they will become your business partners at some point in life, choose people that feel right for you and your firm and keep the conversation going. Now is the time to meet for a casual lunch, for drinks, or just keep in contact. The BIG BOYS sometimes make instant decisions and sometimes take forever, each case is different. I cannot tell you what to do in the case of long lead times but here are some things to watch for:

o Every meeting is the same group of people and they always ask the same questions

o You never see any of the same people, and no one remembers what you said

Neither one of these is a good sign, what you want to see is one or two decision makers championing your company and introducing you to other, relevant player at the BIG BOYS.

ASK FOR THE BUSINESS: This is one of the hardest things to do, ask for the business, give them a start date, give them a dollar value, tell them what you’ll accomplish together and get it going. Don’t wait for the BIG BOY to initiate this conversation, they won’t, you need to. It’s ugly and scary but you get over it after you’ve done it a few times.

Next Article; Next steps, Getting closer to the Close…. Making it Legal, Handshake Commitments, Letters of intent, Contract Negotiation

Claudine Y. Halpern, President, The YCH Group, Inc.

Claudine Halpern is a chameleon; she has worked in many different situations during her more than twenty-five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

email chalpern@theychgroup.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern

******

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DEALING WITH GIANTS: Getting closer to the Close

DEALING WITH GIANTS: When to Hold and When to Fold

Dealing With Giants

with Claudine Halpern

Next Steps
Getting closer to the Close...When to Hold and When to Fold

It’s time to think about what to do next, you’ve planned the meeting, and executed the meeting plan, is it in your company's best interest to proceed?

Remember, YOU OWN THE SALES PROCESS, you have an absolute RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to make the smart decisions about going forward with the BIG BOY prospect. Not every prospect is good for the company, every sales encounter, whether it comes to fruition or not, costs you time and by default costs you money, and that money adds up.

Like every other decision that you make for your business now is a good time to do your first Risk/Reward assessment. We will do more of these as we move forward but lets do the first one together.

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How do you know if you should continue with this BIG BOY prospect? You don’t. Though by now you will be able to tell if you should stop here. DON’T CHASE A DUD CUSTOMER, they will drive you crazy and bleed you dry.

Let’s talk about some signs that point toward the exit.

1) Rudeness; Your BIG BOY prospect is rude, I mean really rude. Some people are rude to children and small cute animals. If a prospect is particularly rude, to you or to anyone else, think about the cost to your company. Rudeness is strange behavior; sometimes people will use rudeness as a cover for self-loathing, boredom, lack of motivation or any other possible negative feelings. Some business sectors actually expect certain amount of rudeness, if that’s the case then watch and see if the rudeness is cultural or personal.

I was a consultant on a major financial firm’s equity trading floor ten years ago. I had a client who was not only rude to me, he was rude to his junior staff, the people who cleaned the floors, the people who made the coffee and anyone else who got in his way. He also had the misfortune of having toilet mouth, which embarrassed the young people who worked for him and everyone else. He was a big money maker for the firm and they gave him too much leeway.

I told him that when he saw me coming he should picture his mother, and if he wouldn’t say or behave that way in front of his mother, it was unacceptable to me as well. Well I’m a tall woman, I used to watch him open his mouth, stop, look for me, and if he saw me he started behaving properly, if not his toilet mouth returned. About a year later I saw a picture of this guy in a perp walk, he was accused of aggravated sexual harassment and went to jail. Karma comes around.

Long story short, if a BIG BOY is so rude that he makes you, or any of your people feel uncomfortable, walk away, fold.

2) Excessive Neediness; There are people who can never see the positive side of anything, they whine, complain, constantly vent and call you all the time to talk about their terrible lives. Think about this person as a customer, is there any way that you will be able to satisfy this person with your goods or service, or will you get a small sale and have a huge customer service problem, walk away, fold.

3) Totally Unqualified: This BIG BOY is unqualified to make the purchase and won’t introduce you to his boss’s boss who may or may not be qualified. This BIG BOY likes the attention, make sure that you are dealing with a potentially qualified prospect. This does not mean that you don’t talk to the lower people to get to the higher ones, but when the lower person is a blocker but not a facilitator, you will not get past him, walk away, fold.

In this case you want to get the name of the qualified person, walk away for a bit, and try to find a way to get directly to the qualified BIG BOY.

4) Fails the Smell Test: Something smells, I mean something really smells. You have a very bad feeling about it. You are uncomfortable because the BIG BOY is not behaving in a legal or ethical manner, for example if he asks you for up front money or favors.

I used to be the person who interviewed the trainee technical people at a firm that I worked for many years ago. We made a habit of hiring second career people who had retrained as they had life experience that very often made them more motivated employees. I was asked to interview a second cousin twice removed of one of the senior managers for an open position that I had. As with most technical spots, I did a technical interview and this guy did not answer one question correctly, needless to say this was going to be a short interview. I was about to show him out. He pulled a roll of hundreds from his pocket and told me he would make it worth my while and started counting the benjamins. I stepped out, called security and had him removed from the building. He was lucky I didn’t call the cops.

Anything illegal, unlawful or unethical will affect your company negatively, walk away, fold.

Next Articles: Next steps, Getting closer to the Close, How to Follow Up, Moving Forward, Getting a Handshake Agreement

Claudine Y. Halpern, President, The YCH Group, Inc.

Claudine Halpern is a chameleon; she has worked in many different situations during her more than twenty-five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

email chalpern@theychgroup.com

http://ychmagicclaudinehalpern.blogspot.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern

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DEALING WITH GIANTS: When to Hold and When to Fold

DEALING WITH GIANTS: Looking for Trouble

Dealing With Giants

with Claudine Halpern

Looking for Trouble
How to spot pitfalls, sinkholes and trouble and fix it.

In my last few articles I spoke about how to get a meeting with the BIG BOYS, prepare for a meeting with the BIG BOYS, and manage a meeting with the BIG BOYS. Today’s article will begin to itemize trouble spots, pitfalls, sinkholes, things to watch out for, things that you hope will never happen but will. Every one of these things really happened to clients, colleagues, or me. HIS IS NOT FICTION. Be prepared and know how to deal with the issues that are coming at you, OWN THE PROCESS, OWN THE SALE.

1) No one shows up to your meeting, and I mean no one; you confirmed, you sent out an agenda, you created a presentation, and did everything right, and no one showed up, not only are they not where they supposed to be you cannot find your contact anywhere. What could have gone wrong?

o Your BIG BOY counterparty made a mistake on his calendar and will be waiting for you tomorrow (or next week), but tough luck; he’s climbing the Himalayas today. This is an easy one to turn around, you have wasted your travel time but the meeting will still happen, all of the work that you have done will come to fruition, just not today. BE NICE AND UNDERSTANDING, DO NOT PUT YOUR FIST THROUGH THE WALL.
You’ve gained brownie points, the next encounter starts with the BIG BOY apologizing, and you can’t beat that. The BIG BOY owes you before you start.

o You’re meeting with a team from major investment bank’s mortgage group in September 2008 in the evening. For those who can’t remember that far back that was the day that this economic mess really became public. I had a meeting scheduled that evening, I showed up with the hope that I could get past the bust-up. My BIG BOY was no longer at the firm as of that afternoon, needless to say attendance was very sparse, just him and I. We ended up in a very nice bar with me buying. I listened and listened; he is now a potential client on a much bigger deal with a firm that he created. Understand that you are dealing with people first, when a BIG BOY is down he will remember that you were there for him, good karma always comes around.

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o No one shows because they intended to stand you up. If this is the behavior of a BIG BOY, YOU DON’T WANT THEM. You should be very thankful that you found out about their rudeness and lack of courtesy and commitment before they wasted a whole bunch of your time, and by default a whole bunch of your money. DO NOT GOSSIP OR BADMOUTH the BIG BOYS, everyone gets theirs eventually, no need to do anything, again karma comes around. This happened to me and I watched from the sidelines while the people who did this went down, I didn’t do or say anything, I had plenty of help and ended up looking squeaky clean.

2) Everyone shows up, but they are expecting something completely different than what you prepared. I went to talk to a BIG BOY about some business, when I showed and took out the agenda I got that look that you get from a kid who insists he didn’t do it while his mouth is covered in chocolate. They thought that reading the agenda and your emails was someone else’s job.

This is a tough one, can you speak to the issues that they are asking about, by the seat of your pants or not? If you feel you can, then by all means take the risk, if not, DON’T. You are not required to look like an idiot because other people don’t follow up. Ask them what they thought you would discuss, ask open-ended questions, in essence interview the BIG BOYs to find out what they thought you would be talking about.

Admit the miscommunication, DON’T BE DEFENSIVE. Get the questions and maybe the answers that they are looking for, THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Set up another meeting with them in a few days or a week. Make sure to get the phone numbers and email addresses. Start over, follow the instructions in my two previous articles.

http://thenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/2009/02/dealing-with-giants-preparing-for-first.html

http://thenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/2009/02/dealing-with-giants-you-only-have-one.html



3) You have a full house, but they are absolutely, positively not the decision makers and never will be. The BIG BOYS love meetings; they will meet with anyone anywhere as long as they don’t have to produce anything.

I have a colleague who has a really great product; he has a small business and was selling to one of the largest international conglomerates. There was a lot of synergy in the product set and it was known in the marketplace that the BIG BOYS were looking to purchase like products, sounds like a match made in heaven?

Well not really, my colleague was hooked into the geek end of the business, and the people he needed to talk to were in the acquisitions department, BIG BOYS DON’T TALK TO EACH OTHER. The geeks were actually trying to find out how the products’ guts worked, they had no interest in doing any business, even if they wanted to they did not have the authority to do business. This went on for over a year. If it’s taking too long it’s not going to happen. We will talk in my next article about when to hold and when to fold, my recommendation was fold, he was wasting his time, and by default his money, with every meeting and conversation.

4) You mess it up, totally and completely. In my first term of college I was asked to make a speech. I was eighteen years old and had never met anyone outside of my neighborhood. I was taking summer courses to get a jump on the term. My fellow students were all over thirty and professionals returning to school for second degrees. I still don’t remember what I said or did, I do remember the look of pity and the F that I got. It can happen to anyone, use the opportunity to NEVER DO IT AGAIN.

Take the time to deconstruct what did and didn’t happen don’t let embarrassment get the best of you. Sit with your team going through each turning point and figure out what you would do differently. If you are friendly with any of the BIG BOYS, ask them to help you deconstruct the meeting and reconstruct it the way it should have happened. If you really have guts, ask for a redo, you may actually get it. I worked for a BIG BOY once, who fired me for a mistake that I made. I contacted him 6 months later and restarted the friendship, I was able to get quite a lot of work from him during the next ten years. He is now one of my biggest fans, I’ve used him as a personal reference more that once.

Next Articles: Next steps, Getting closer to the Close, How to Follow Up, Moving Forward, When To Hold and When To Fold

Claudine Y. Halpern, President, The YCH Group, Inc. Claudine Halpern is a chameleon; she has worked in many different situations during her more than twenty-five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

email chalpern@theychgroup.com

http://ychmagicclaudinehalpern.blogspot.com/


http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern






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DEALING WITH GIANTS: Looking for Trouble