Pitching to big business can be an arduous task especially when it comes to conducting your due diligence on the business even before you begin to court them.

Ceo’s don’t have time to tell you what there problems are, they also don’t have time to see if your service suits them.

It either does or it doesn’t.

Detailed research on the company that you’re targeting is essential before making any kind of approach.

How do you conduct this kind of research and what do you look for?

Let’s take a look!

In conducting your research, you are going to look for different enabling factors that will allow your product or service to be well received.

These include understanding;

• Vision and values of the company
• Existing reputation in the industry
• Management priorities – reducing overheads, boosting sales, efficiency, marketing response
• Management techniques and styles

You will then look for different conditions that will enable you to gain access (provide a ligitiment reason for contact them), possibly including;

• Increasing sales
• Reducing overheads
• Outsourcing specific functions
• Re structuring or redefining marketing strategies
• Increasing profitability of specific product lines
• Staff productivity
• Staff turnover/retention

Not all of this information is easily accessible so you are going to need to get creative as to where you look for it.

You will be able to source this information from various sources, including;

• Google Alerts – set up an alert to receive any new posts or blog entries about this specific company
• Company Website – seek out any public reports that may be available for download from their website
• Key Contacts – Do you know anyone who works in the company and can find this information out for you
• Press Releases – Watch the media for any press releases or notices of re-shuffling

The information you collect from the research on your specific companies will be utilised in your marketing material, voice mail messages and sales processes to create a tailored solution.