Freelancers: How to Get on Vendor Lists for Corporate and Government Accounts

Some freelancers and creative agencies wonder why it’s so hard to get work from corporate clients.

Why can’t they get into car companies, banks, beverage companies, and various levels of government?

The answer is simple: these organizations have Preferred Vendor Lists, also called Vendor of Record or Approved Vendor lists.

What is a Preferred Vendor List?

A Preferred Vendor List is a list of suppliers who are authorized to offer products or services to a particular organization. It is often used by larger corporations and governments. But it is also becoming very common in medium-sized companies too.

Why Do Organizations Have Preferred Vendor Lists?

It’s a way of pre-qualifying vendors to make sure they meet the organization’s criteria.
It’s a key service offered by internal procurement departments to help the organization get qualified vendors and save them money in the process.
It prevents endless direct pitches to the organization from random vendors. Not on the list? Sorry, can’t talk to you.
From the client’s perspective, a Preferred Vendor List is a sorting mechanism. “If you can make it onto the list, you can probably work with us.”

Why Do You Want to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists?

Many reasons:

These are big or medium-sized organizations, usually with significant marketing budgets. You want a piece of that.
They often have interesting work across all media.
They are professional marketing people. Usually much easier to work with.
Less competition. You’re only competing against others who also made it onto the list.
You can establish long-term relationships.
More and bigger projects, substantial billing.

How Do You Get on a Preferred Vendor List?

There’s no magic way to find out whether a company maintains a preferred vendor list:

You’ll have to dig and do some research.
If you know someone who provides services to one of these companies, you could ask them whether they’re on a list.
If you know someone who works at the company or organization, ask them.

If you’re searching, here are some keywords to look for:

Procurement department + (name of company)
Vendor relations + (name of company)
Vendor of Record + (name of company)
Doing business with (name of company)

If an organization works with preferred vendors, they may have many lists by type of work. You want to find contact information for the person who controls the list for communications or marketing.

Then get in touch with them.

What to Ask the Person in Charge of the Vendor’s List

In my experience, these people are usually quite helpful. Here’s what you want to know:

An understanding of how they define their lists to see where you would best fit (they may have more than one within communications or marketing)
The status of the list that’s of interest to you—is it currently open or closed? Generally, it’s closed and opened periodically, so you may have to be patient.
When does the list open for new applications?
Can you get a copy of the required qualifications in advance?
Can you be notified when applications are open? If you’re on the notification list, then once the Vendor’s List is open, you’ll get a detailed questionnaire to answer.

What Do They Ask for on the Vendor List Questionnaire?

Everything.

They want to know all about you and your company:

Your bio
If you have key staff, their bios
How much you bill annually
Names of your top clients
How you charge
Perhaps a blended billing rate
Your bank
Your insurance coverage
References they can check
A portfolio
And whatever else they feel like asking…

Tips on Answering the Vendor Questionnaire

When you get the questionnaire, they generally want to know whether you’re going to respond to it. Let them know, yes or no.

They’ll give you a date and time when you can ask questions. Usually, this is by email, sometimes by phone. Participate in that even if you don’t have any questions. You’ll get answers to everyone else’s questions. Often enlightening to see what others ask.

Answer the questions thoroughly. Help them understand and evaluate your company.

There will be a deadline for your submission. Companies are strict on this, so if it says March 1, 12:00 P.M., then you’ll be refused at 12:01. Don’t blow it by being late.

Usually, you have to deliver or email your package to a specific person. You’ll get a confirmation as proof of delivery.

Vendor List Questions to Watch For

You should be able to answer most questions on the vendor submission form easily.

Think about who you want for references, and ask them ahead of time to make sure they’re OK with that, and that they will say nice things about you. The organization will very likely contact your references.

You may want clarification on the various types of insurance they may ask about. Up to this point, you may not have liability or cyber insurance if none of your clients have asked for it.

Vendors may ask for $5 million or more in various types of insurance. That means you have to find an insurance broker who will provide it (not all do) and pay for it out of pocket.

If you don’t have that type of insurance or don’t have enough coverage, you’ll want to clarify whether you can promise to get it if you make it onto the list. In most cases, that will be acceptable.

If you do get on the list, you’ll have to get the insurance and show proof of your coverage.

A Tip on Your Portfolio with the Vendor Submission

The application may also ask for a portfolio in PDF form. If you’re accepted, your submission, including your portfolio PDF, will go into a database that the organization’s internal staff will refer to when they’re looking to choose a vendor for an assignment.

Knowing that staff will look at it on a monitor, we formatted our portfolio in landscape orientation to match the screens. We also customized our portfolio for each submission with work that was relevant to the potential client. Don’t get lazy and submit the same generic portfolio every time.

Ahead of the actual portfolio samples, we would include pages such as a brief company profile and how we work. We created a series of message pages that allowed us to insert the ones we thought were appropriate for a particular submission.

Getting on the List Doesn’t Guarantee Business

A few weeks after the submission date, they will notify you whether you made it onto the list. If you were accepted, congratulations!

Now, the organization’s internal communications staff can refer to your submission when they’re looking for vendors. But in the meantime, they probably don’t want you calling them to make presentations or pitch for work. You just have to wait until they call you.

Sometimes, they may choose more than one vendor and ask for presentations. But often, they just select one and initiate the project.

Once you get your first job from one of these clients, you have to work hard to establish a relationship with the person or group you’re working with.

This project is your foot in the door. You want them to call you for their next project, and you want others in the department to become aware of you. Make word-of-mouth within the client work for you. It did for us.

That may take some time but can result in an ongoing flow of significant projects.

How Being a Vendor of Record Leads to Steady Clients

Let’s assume you get chosen for a project. You do a great job and you and the client get along well.

When that client has another job that you’re suited for, they can usually just contact you.

Once you’ve built a solid relationship, the client can let the procurement department know that you are the one they want to work with on all suitable projects. That avoids any necessity of having to compete internally. And now you have a steady client.

This worked exceptionally well for us. It can work for you too.

Make New Friends. Bring Business Cards

In our case, we had face-to-face meetings with our clients. Sometimes we were surprised that there were more people in the room than we expected. Who were these people?

Often they were project managers who wanted to sit in on the meeting because our project was part of a bigger initiative. So they wanted to understand who was handling this project, and what the deadlines were.

We made sure these people got our business cards, and that we got theirs.

We soon learned that project managers participated in many projects, ones that we had no idea about. They were the link, the glue, that held many initiatives together.

If you work with clients who have professional project managers, make a point of getting to know them. They’re often the ones who spread your name throughout the organization.

Getting Onto a Vendor List Takes Patience, But It’s Worth It

Here, you’re in the big leagues. You’re working with substantial clients and high-profile projects.

One thing tends to lead to another. For example, let’s say you’re on the vendor list for your state or province.

That gives you instant credibility when you apply to be on another list. You’ll also get many of the same questions, so the questionnaire becomes easier.

This was one of the secrets that doubled and then tripled our business.

Learn more about getting on vendor lists for corporate and government accounts in my book How to Start a Successful Creative Agency.

It’s the essential business guide for graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.

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The book is packed with useful information to help creatives start and grow their business.

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