HI THERE,
ok national contracts-- why do companies want to have a national supplier contract for anything, whether it be a product or a service.?
some of the answers?
1.) they have a single point of contact.
2.) they have a guarantee of supply of service
3.) they can use their national size and strength to negotiate better price and better payment terms.
4.) they have none of the hassle of dealing with X-number of individual contractors spread across a region or nationally.
the HSBC's of the world deal with a national contract for instance, its then down to the "supplier account manager" to resource it.
the specsavers of the world are all franchises, they all deal one to one, no national contract.
therefore
to seriously get an organisation together, to survey and tender for the larger contracts will require a level of resource, at least a co-ordinator- account manager person. and lets be honest about this they arent going to do it for nothing.
to get in front of some of these larger prospective customers requires a high level of experience and professionalism, and whilst i totally agree that most of us have that, actually moulding it into a national consortium will take time.
one contractor not turning up to do one job, could be all that it takes to loose a large contract if the customer is having a bad day.
Reliability, Professionalism, Delivered Service and Price are all key to the success of what you are discussing. along with total committment.
the balance of your existing customer base and the supporting of your larger national clients, the balance of resourcing up to all capacity to supply demand.
Clients are aware of services available, and these larger nationals are fully aware of how to buy the service at the right price.
just an opinion
evrybody have a great weekend, looks like its going to be a sunny one
regards
martin