Description:
I'm back with Shoumo Ganguly in a valuable episode for small businesses looking to compete and reel in larger clients. Shoumo's experience having worked inside larger corporations and organizations and understanding how they operate provides a lot of insights. His experience as a consultant and mentor to small businesses shines through as well — it's always good to talk to someone in the trenches and work through these issues with others.
There is a range of challenges for small businesses when trying to become providers or sell services to larger businesses. Learn how to navigate these larger organizations and set yourself apart. What is the best way to learn more about the stakeholders and decision-makers? How do you prepare? How do you deal with the complexity? What can you do that brings value? All these questions are answered in this densely packed, actionable episode! I hope you join us!
Saumya Ganguly
Shoumo (Saumya Ganguly) has a vision of a world where all small businesses prosper. In that world all startups succeed and all social enterprises create an impact. He does his part by creating strong business foundations for long-term growth that can absorb short-term shocks. Shoumo brings to the table a perspective acquired over years of solving business problems. A lot of those were for global brand clients of PwC, IBM Business Consulting, and Cognizant.
Shoumo brought years of experience in consulting, financial accounting, and program management experience into Obligent Consulting. Through the firm, he helps business owners with startup, growth & marketing strategies. He is a business counselor at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Rutgers. Shoumo also mentors at a Rutgers graduate tech commercialization entrepreneurship program. His perspective has been shaped over three decades of experience that encompasses global Fortune 100 to Main Street businesses, over multiple industries, in multiple roles, and across multiple countries.
If you would want to connect with him on LinkedIn, be sure to tell him you listened to this podcast (so that he knows it is not a random connection invite.) You may also check out the Obligent Consulting business profile on Alignable.
THE MEAT OF IT!
- Intro
- Business Consulting
- Mentors Startups & Small Businesses
- Background working with large Corps.
- Todays topic
- Winning Bigger Clients for Small Businesses
- Examples and why this topic.
- A lot of people involved in negotiation or evaluation.
- Things fizzle out without knowing why..
- Reasons why things don’t work ..
- Battles that can’t be won.
- Stakeholders ..
- Who are they.
- Their involvement.
- The grid to visualize a stakeholders position.
- Who will help you.
- The best way to find out more about the stakeholders.
- Bringing something of value to the table.
- Large organizations (his example at IBM)
- Being prepared for complexity ..
- Not having experience inside a larger corporation
- They are different .. and it is helpful to have experience there.
- Having methodology and replicable processes.
- Being prepared / Using SOPs (standard operating procedures)
- Documenting & Communicating your process.
- Sharing with your prospect.
- You have some power in the process as a small business.
- Table of contents for your deliverables.
- Can be simple.
- Avoiding bottlenecks
- Finding ways to show your whole team.
- Not the owner only.
- Companies like to see a larger team.
- Even if that’s simply not including your name.. your companies name.
- COMING to use for a consultation.
- Transferring that knowledge through your social media tools.
- Looking for people in the organization, the ‘title’s
- Establish connections.
- Map their pains, what they need etc..
- The ability to short cut and get to the person you need to talk to in the organization with social media.
- LinkedIn – great place for building one on one ..
- Showing people on your business page. Your team.
- Looking for people in the organization, the ‘title’s
- About Alignable.
- Partnering opportunities.
- Their evolution..
- Alliances.
- Good for small businesses.
- Using social media to get the right persons attention in larger companies.
Check out these related Episodes:
- Episode 19: Get to Know Shoumo (Saumya Ganguly), Business Consultant | Business Models
- Episode 33: Wilson Mattos – Biz Lessons, Climbing the Corporate Ladder to Becoming an Entrepreneur
- Episode 17: How to Expand & Contract Depending on Your Volume of Business
