Salutations, friend! In today's conversation, we are going to discuss the most common corporate objectives that you need to know. It is important for you to understand which objective aligns with your service so you can come up with a better approach and proposal that will serve both you and your client well. So get your notes ready and push that play button!
Salutations, friend! Welcome back to another episode of The Profit Scale podcast. In today’s conversation, we are going to talk about the most common corporate objectives that will help you reposition your service so that it becomes a “need” for your prospects, not just something “nice.”Â
We will focus on helping you to align your service not only as a solution, but one that aligns with the current objectives that your prospects are already pursuing.
We are going to cover six common objectives that most corporations pursue. Today's episode will help you get a better understanding of each one of them and help you identify which aligns best with your service:
6 Common Corporate Objectives
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Salutations, friend! Welcome to an episode of The Profit Scale! It is the podcast for consultants, experts and service providers who are already serving corporate clients or transitioning towards it! Here is the place where you can find tailored solutions to help you close your first or next biggest client.
I’m your host and Income Strategist, RJ Connell. If you are looking for expert strategies to help you build on your existing success, then you, my friend, are in the right place! Turn up the volume and lean in because we are about to get started!
Salutations, friend! Welcome back to The Profit Scale. I’m your Income Strategist, friend and go-to guide for all things corporate, RJ Connell! In today’s conversation, we will discuss how to align your services with the solutions that corporations are already looking for.
In last week’s conversation, we talked about 3 mistakes that might be leading you to a “no” when pitching your business, and one of those was positioning your service as “nice to have” instead of a “need to have.”Â
The topics that we will cover in today’s conversation will help you reposition your service so that it becomes a “need” for your prospects, not just something “nice.”
So let’s jump in!
In case this episode is the first time you have heard the word prospects, it is the short way of referring to prospective clients or in other words potential clients. It is a term used in the corporate world. I want to make sure you are introduced to the corporate language here so that you can better navigate boardrooms and conversations when you are there.Â
Now that we have defined what prospect means before you can reposition your service, you first have to recognize where you are right now. It means understanding where your service fits into your market.Â
Although you are an expert in what you do and how you serve your clients, it is not always clear to your prospects what makes you different from any other company that offers the same or similar service.
As the expert, part of your job is educating your prospects on specifically what problem your service is a solution for. You have to help them understand how your service will remove their pain or add to their pleasure. You have to understand their problem.
One of the simplest ways to understand the problems of your prospects is to speak directly to them. It could be through phone conversations, emails, focus groups, and industry events and more.Â
Whenever you have these conversations, you are essentially conducting research on the pain points of your prospects. This will provide you information to either refine your service to ensure it solves their biggest problem, or if it already does, then position it as the best solution for them.
It is even better when you conduct in-depth preliminary research before you even get on a call—that is a critical step when you are pitching. The more you know about your prospects and the problem they are facing, the easier it will be for you to ask the right questions and navigate the tough ones.
Once you understand their problems and challenges, you can then align your service as a solution to their problems. Not only a solution but one that aligns with the current objectives that they are already pursuing.
There are typically 6 common objectives that corporations are pursuing. While this is not a comprehensive list, at least, one of these six tend to be a frequent focus for growing companies.
At any point in time, it is likely that a corporation is seeking to improve its performance as it relates to one of these objectives.Â
Which specific objective is the focus at a particular time will vary, but it is important for you to understand which objective your service aligns with. You have to make sure that there is alignment between your service and at least one of these objectives because it creates the pathway of least resistance.Â
When a corporation is already pursuing one or more of these objectives, it means that they already recognize the need for a solution in that particular area. It means you do not have to convince them that they have a problem.
It also means that either they have already allotted a budget towards acquiring a solution, or if they have not yet, then they are likely in the process of doing so. It means that you now have a reduced likelihood of running into any budget objections because even if your price is out of their budget, you can always negotiate a proposal that will serve both you and your client well.
If you find yourself pursuing a company that is not currently pursuing one of these objectives, then find out which objective they are currently focused on. The language between companies may change slightly. For example, some companies may use the phrase employee engagement instead of employee retention, or operational efficiency instead of productivity.
The more research you do to understand your particular market and prospects better, the easier it will be for you to identify the right language to use.
When you define the word objective, it refers to the end goal that the company is looking to accomplish, but it does not necessarily speak to the means to do so. That being said, take a closer look at each of these objectives to get a better understanding of each one of them entailÂ
RevenueÂ
When a company is focused on revenue as their objective, they tend to look for solutions that involve sales, marketing and/or advertising.Â
These tend to be some of the most common direct means of increasing revenue, but you can also accomplish the same goals through indirect means such as increasing employee retention.Â
Revenue is foundational to sustaining every company, which is why the remaining 5 objectives all affect this one—directly or indirectly.
Productivity
Addressing this objective can happen through employee training, executive coaching, implementation of new systems and more.Â
These avenues affect the internal team’s ability to increase either the quantity of their work or the quality of it.
Reduced efficiency within a company means that the money being spent to attract and retain talent is producing low or not even producing any return on investment (ROI), which increases the cost for the company. This is why productivity has an indirect effect on revenue.
Cost Change
Objectives involving cost changes are more specifically about decreasing the cost associated with running the company and there are several ways that can happen.
This could involve negotiating current contracts with suppliers, finding new suppliers to decrease the cost of goods sold, decreasing attrition rates within the company so less money is spent on training new employees or more.
Assuming your revenue does not decrease as well, a decrease in costs will result in increased gross profit margins and possibly net profit margins too, depending on where the costs were reduced.
Employee retention
This objective tends to involve training on or establishing the company culture.Â
Internal culture is a key component of both employee retention and engagement. In other words, where you work affects how you work.Â
You will also see companies adjusting their hiring practices, opportunities for advancement, and improving their knowledge of their teams by introducing personality assessments so that employees are placed in positions where they can thrive.
Employee retention deals with interpersonal relations. There are a lot of different approaches companies can take to improve their performance under this objective.
Increased Consumers
Similarly to revenue, increasing consumers will often involve sales and marketing, but it can also involve customer support and retention.
One of the ways that companies can ensure an ROI on their sales and marketing efforts is by keeping more of the clients they attract. Most commonly, that job falls to the customer support and customer retention since they tend to deal directly with the customers.
Good Public Relations
A company that is pursuing this objective typically has a team, or dedicated contractors that handle their public relations (PR).
Public relations deals with how the public perceives a company that can either support or work against the previous 5 objectives.
Think about Olivia Pope from Scandal. She was the fixer that came in when something went wrong and worked with her gladiators to make problems go away.Â
PR tends to be the step before an Olivia Pope is needed, and the better they do in this department, the less likely they are to ever need Olivia and her team.
As we have gone through each objective, you have probably noticed that no one objective is mutually exclusive – they can each affect the other which is beneficial for you as the service provider. It means that even if your service best aligns with objective #2 productivity, you could use your service to also improve revenue or decrease costs if that is your prospects’ current focus.
I said this earlier, but I will say it again for good measure, the better you understand your prospects, your market and the problem you are trying to solve, the easier it will be for you to align your services with the objectives of your prospect. It also makes it easier for you to pitch your price and close a contract.
Once you identify the objective that aligns the most with your particular service, stick to it! Do not try to become a jack of all trades and solve every problem. To corporate clients, a jack of all trade means a master none and that is not what they are looking for.
Your service might have secondary benefits as it relates to other objectives, but become known for solving one problem, it will make it easier for you to become the go-to person for prospects.
Let’s recap our conversation today.
First, we talked about the importance of researching your prospects to understand their problem and the market you are entering or operating in. This will give you a foundation for the language that they use to define their problems and the common objective your prospects are usually pursuing.
Then we covered the six most common corporate objectives so that you can more easily identify which of these six your service best aligns with. The following are:
Each objective can indirectly affect others. Therefore, with some strategy research, you can use each of these as entry points to pitch for your service, regardless of the companies’ current focus.
I would love to know which of these objectives your service aligns with the most. If you have other objectives that we did not discuss here today, feel free to mention them on our Instagram feed.
As you dive into the research to start applying the information we discussed here today, I want to tell you about The Systems That Scale Experience. This 12-week consulting program is designed specifically for entrepreneurs who are already serving corporate clients, or who are transitioning to do so. It will cover the following 3 unique areas.
This program will make sure that you are not leaving any coins on the table, no matter the contract or the client. It will help you develop both the confidence and skills to negotiate and close contracts, no matter how big or small.
It will help you to get out of the feast or famine cycle of clients in your business and turn your trickle of clients into a consistent flow of income.Â
The Systems That Scale experience will be accepting clients one final time for the remainder of 2020. If you need help to land your first or next biggest corporate contract yet, then friend, I would love to support you in doing so.
Head over to rjcconsulting.com/sts to submit an application – I can’t wait to work with you!
Friend, I am so grateful to have spent this time here with you this week, and truly would love to hear your feedback on how this week’s episode was helpful for you. So before we go, can I ask you to do me a favour? It would help propel our community forward if you would leave a review and a 5-star rating for the podcast on Itunes.
It is hard to find podcasts and communities that teach entrepreneurs like us how to enter and thrive in the corporate world, so I need your help to make sure we reach as many people as possible. Please click the link in the show notes to leave a review and a 5-star rating in Itunes for us. Two minutes of your time can help us add 2 more people to our community!
I will see you at the same time and place next week. Until then, I wish you coins, confidence and all the bags. Bye for now!