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Can a home-based business go out and land impressive, household-name accounts? Absolutely! A lavish budget is not essential, but you do need persistence, ingenuity, determination, and, most important, marketing techniques that entire corporate giants to award their business to you--no matter how small your company or how big their corporation.

In formulating an effective marketing strategy, you must have a keen sense of what you have to offer and exactly why a corporation would want it. The method you choose for letting companies know about your services has to fit both your budget and your personality. If you're miserable making cold calls, for example, you probably won't be very good at it, so consider directmail or print advertising instead.

I recently landed my largest account ever, the Private Industry Council, after I sent them and 3,000 other potential clients a large, humurous black-and-white postcard on which I had collaborated with a desktop publisher and a cartoonist. The card shows a cartoon of a worried businessman sitting in his cobwebbed office. The tag line reads: "Are things a little slow around your office? We'll help you pick up your prospects." On the back of the card I list my services, ranging from producing newsletters to writing sales letters. Though the card bears my company's name, it also promotes the talents of the cartoonist and desktop publisher. Whenever I receive requests for their services, I refer prospects to them. Since we shared the expenses, the entire mailing cost us each only $300.

In my 13 years of working with small businesses, I've encountered many entrepreneurs who have landed enviable clients with techniques that are just as simple. As they'll agree, there are no magic formulas for winning big accounts; they just use smart marketing techniques that make them stand out ahead of their competition. Here are strategies that any sole proprietor or small-business owner can use. The entrepreneurs featured here found an outreach approach that felt natural, allowing them to show their abilities in the best possible context. You can, too.

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In 1988, my firm helped launch Vertical Systems Analysis, a consulting company that works with property owners and managers on improving and evaluating their evaluator service. Because many elevators are located in high-rise buildings, the company's founder, Ed Voll, wanted to tap the high-rise commercial and residential building markets right away. So I adapted charts and forms Voll used in his work and created an inexpensive 14-page booklet we named "Owner's Guide to Better Elevator Service." I sent a brief press release announcing the free handbook to every real estate trade publication in Voll's target markets--residential and commercial property managers, plus co-op and condominium board members; most printed the news release.

Voll stacked the handbooks at his tradeshow booths, gave them out at his talks, and mailed them to anyone who called in response to the publicity. The handbook blitz brought Voll a handsome list of heavy-hitting clients such as IBM, New York University, and Westinghouse Elevator. His strategies also helped him add many metropolitan-area real estate powerhouses to his client list, such as William B. May, Millstein Properties, and Newmark & Co.

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Susan Winer, president of Stratenomics, a strategic-planning firm in Chicago, started out in 1975 convinced that she could garner corporate clients. Stratenomics helps companies develop plans and organizational capabilities so they can become more efficient and more profitable. Winer also assists companies by defining their marketing needs, steering them toward capital, and helping them implement their plans for growth. Winer scouts out midsize to large national corporations that are in a growth phase.

When she was starting out, she went through the Sunday Chicago Tribune, looking for companies with new positions to fill. "I viewed those classified ads as new business opportunities. In one case there was a company looking to hire a lot of senior-level people. That indicated that they were in a growth mode. So I called up, got the names of key decision makers in the expanding departments, and contacted them. I suggested that it may be more cost- and time-efficient to use Stratenomics to implement new programs rather than hire senior-level employees."

By looking for corporate needs that she could fill. Winer carefully positioned her firm as innovative and experienced, rather than small or new. Using this forthright approach, she has, over the years, cultivated an impressive client lineup that includes Coopers & Lybrand, Wick Homes, and RCF Information Systems.

EXHIBIT AT TRADE SHOWS

Attending trade shows is one way to get business, but becoming a regular trade-show exhibitor tells prospects what you can offer them, keeps your company name in the minds of potential clients, and opens the door for repeat business from existing clients.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:02 AM