It happens every year.

You start reviewing your company numbers and notice the disconnect between the projected and the actual sales estimates. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, a game of “passing the buck” starts. Instead of approaching a lackluster performance in sales in such a negative away, it would be more productive to take this as an opportunity to consider new strategies to attract new contracts.

Here is a review of three strategies to increase your awareness and credibility among potential clients.

1. Position Yourself as a Thought Leader

Whether it is through the publication of useful white papers or the organization of brown bag seminars, you company can create opportunities in which potential clients don’t feel as targets. By creating opportunities for clients and industry peers to interact one another, you create a non-threatening environment that leads to collaboration.

This makes your company stand from the pack as a knowledgeable entity, which not only increases the company’s chances of recall in the mind of potential clients, but also positions the company as a thought leader. And who doesn’t want to work with an expert in a specific field? For example, if your company is a member of the IACCM, you could consider contributing a case study to its Contracting Excellence Magazine or an article to the Commitment Matters Blog.

Additionally, if you’re considering to start or tweak your content marketing strategy, here are five useful ideas to jumpstart it.

2. Become a Connector for Qualified Subcontractors

First popularized by author Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point, the idea of a connector goes beyond just somebody that knows a lot of people.  Connectors make things happen through people. These are individuals that during conversations, they start thinking in the back of their minds theses three questions:

• Who do I know that knows about this?
• Who do I know that has tackled or complete a similar challenge?
• Who do I know that needs to connect with you?

Becoming a connector within your field is a great way to become part of contract negotiations more often. Unlike a thought leader, a connector knows that he or she doesn’t hold all the answers. However, a connector knows who might have those answers. From a survey of 300 corporations, it was concluded that contracts act as connectors, drawing together the views and interests of a wide variety of stakeholders. You can view the contract lifecycle as a powerful way to build value.

To improve the connector skills of your organization, you need to have key company representatives, not just salespeople, attend more networking and industry events. Providing the opportunity to learn from other thought leaders is a great incentive for employees and exposes your company to more than just the leads from your sales staff.

3. Have Scalable Resources

Everybody wants to get more leads and more clients. However, getting more than you can chew is just as bad as not getting enough leads in your sales funnel. Not being prepared for a few projects with a bigger scope than usual may put your company in a compromising position.

To avoid this scenario, there are two main solutions. First, you want to invest the time in developing a network of freelancers and temp workers that you can rely in this type of situations. The last thing that you want to do is to try to rush a recruiting process when you’re already spread too thin. By keeping an updated portfolio of freelancers and temps, you create realistic budgets and are more likely not to underestimate labor costs.

Second, you need to have a reliable contract management system that you can upgrade as necessary. The rise in the use of temp workers highlights the importance of contract management software. Given the fast pace of hiring a temp, it becomes more and more essential for enterprises to have a pre-approved contract template at their fingertips. Employees cannot rely on paper-based systems because those systems don’t guarantee that employees have the most up-to-date templates and clauses. It is estimated that poor contract management leads to 5% to 9% losses in sales. An automated and scalable contract management system addresses both of these challenges.

Takeaway

To attract new contracts your company needs to position a thought leader in your industry,to become a connector for qualified subcontractors, and to maintain scalable resources.