Contributory Article: ​​3 ways in which small IT services companies can develop large customer relationships

Be onsite__:_ These things just can’t be done on email, phone. Face time is critical. One has to “show” one’s face many times. If you are hanging about in the right places, chances of serendipity are much higher. New York, London, San Fran, you get the picture. Not Noida, Gurgaon and Bengaluru.

​​Network, Network, Network_: Look up your college alumni network, your wife’s college alumni network, all your past personal and professional acquaintances, reach out to people, attend some not-so-useful events, pro-actively reach out. Bottom line, make things happen. It’s not going to happen automatically.

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Hire Sales_: Many companies try to engage with middlemen and I just haven’t seen it working. Hiring a sales person in the US is a $200K punt, but sometimes there is no other way. If you don’t have the ability to develop your own networks, you have to buy networks. The right sales people come with at least a few relationships that can be developed and can get you a foot in the door.

The end result of all these exercises is that you have a senior enough “sponsor” in this company, an insider who wants you to win.

Develop a thin wedge: Assuming you have gotten inside the premises and developed a sponsor, it is quite unlikely that you are going to beat Infosys at their own sales game. You don’t want to pitch against them. You need a “thin” wedge; something specialized that you can do better than others. Answers typically lie in lifecycle specialization (testing, maintenance, UI, R&D etc.) or domain specialization – the founders come from a domain and know it very well. This thin wedge helps you win the first pilot and helps your sponsor position you well. You can always mine the account later for other things.

​Be patient and willing ​​ to invest $: Elephant hunting is a slow and patient process. Sometimes breaking into a large customer with a pilot can take 12-18
months and you are $300K-$400K down by that time. Hence, you also need to have multiple balls in the air. If you can get 3-4 clients to a pilot stage in 12-18 months and keep turning that flywheel, your chances of success are high. Many companies give up too soon. This does not require a full time of a person but requires management mind share and resolve.
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Bottom line is that the process is long and can be expensive – the lure of an additional FD or buying your very own office space is always beckoning. Remind yourself of why you got into entrepreneurship. Was it to secure your future and buy FDs? I hope the answer is no. I hope you want to take the moon shot and in services businesses, this is the path. CCI Newswire