Selling services to businesses
Trading with businesses may already be an activity that your organisation is engaging in but if you are looking to develop into this area or expand your market, Corporate Social Responsibility can provide you with a competitve advantage:
- Organisations that are rooted in the community are close to potential customers. By working with your organisation, a company may be able to reach new customers through a trusted intermediary.
- Using a local supplier reduces travel (environmentally friendly) and keeps money circulating in the local economy (community orientated).
- By purchasing from your organisation, the company helps to sustain an organisation serving the community and helps keep people in jobs.
- Using a voluntary organisation as a supplier can reduce risk and provide positive publicity.
Ideas for income generation
Organisations which are not in a position to trade can still benefit from this relationship and profit from the drive towards social responsibility - it just requires a dash of creativity and business prowess:
- Your closeness to the community means that you might help a company with market research by convening a focus group for them from your membership (and charging accordingly).
- You may have facilities that are of interest to local companies – meeting space for example. The Broxbourne and East Herts CVS make money by renting out their parking spaces.
- If you have a good quality mailing list, you could charge commercial rates for inserts into your mail-outs to the people on the list. You should make sure that the product or service on offer is appropriate. Note: this is not selling the mailing list – you retain control at all times.
- One charity working with older people takes paid advertising in their newsletter from carefully vetted companies offering products and services to this age group.
- Your organisation might have a training role in companies. A self-advocacy group for adults with learning disabilities charges £750 a day to train staff in service industries. The trainers are themselves learning disabled.
Sustainability
For many voluntary sector organsiations, competition with other service providers should be based on quality and your unique selling points, rather than on price.
Under-valuing your product or service or price cutting is not sustainable and income generation needs to contribute to your financial security - not undermine it!
Selling Services Toolkit
