| Do you ever stop to think if you could be doing | | | | hard to get this contract but was unsuccessful. |
| business with your clients? | | | | The reason, his $700 a year inspection contract |
| If you have a choice between doing business with | | | | was $200 higher than the local competitor. For |
| a clients company and a non-clients company, it's | | | | most people this would be the end of the story |
| your obligation to work with your client. They help | | | | and they would move on, but this sales |
| pay your salary and keep your company going. | | | | representative, it wasn't the end. |
| They help pay for your administrative help, they | | | | This representative knew that our company was |
| put | | | | one of their top 50 accounts and spent millions of |
| I have had the chance on numerous occasions to | | | | dollars with this company every year. He also |
| do business with my clients. In fact, I worked for | | | | found out that time and time again, the other |
| a company that specified that we were to use | | | | company would award contracts to local firms in |
| airline that I didn't do business with (they were a | | | | different cities and typically it was based on price. |
| client of the firm though). I went to the higher | | | | Long story short, our company asked the |
| ups and told them that I would be using an | | | | prospect to reconsider, which they didn't, so we |
| alternate airline as they were one of my accounts | | | | switched suppliers. This cost the prospects |
| and my company was in full agreement. I didn't | | | | company millions of dollars in revenue each year |
| give them a lot of business, but I gave them | | | | and one of their largest accounts. |
| 100% of my airline business, which helped them | | | | If you do the math on this, even at $1,000,000, |
| out. | | | | that would meant that for every $1 that the |
| I once worked for a large multinational company | | | | prospect thought they were saving, it cost them |
| that did building heating and air conditioning | | | | $5,000. In fact the math is significantly higher if |
| maintenance. One of the Sales Representatives | | | | you use the real number. |
| that I worked with was trying to get a contract | | | | So remember if you can, do business with your |
| with a large company in Canada (name withheld) | | | | clients. You never know how much it may make |
| on a facility in the city we worked in. He worked | | | | you or actually cost you. |