MasterCard Delivers Critical Sales Insight to Small Businesses

MasterCard International has reinforced its commitment to small businesses by releasing the MasterCard Procurement Opportunities Guide: An Entrepreneurs Guide to Selling to Governments and Corporations. This resource is the latest enhancement to MasterCard Working for Small Business, a comprehensive global program that provides small businesses with payment cards, online tools and other resources that deliver financial control, data management, analysis and reporting, along with rewards and benefits. The guide provides small businesses in the United States with detailed information that assists them in marketing products and services to large corporations and state, federal and foreign governments. With this tool, entrepreneurs will gain insights on developing strategies that foster profitable relationships within these key markets. Government and corporate procurement offer lucrative sales and business growth opportunities to small businesses in the United States. In the U.S. alone, government purchases are worth almost $250 billion each year, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration - this makes the U.S. government the worlds largest procurement organization. The MasterCard Procurement Opportunities Guide will help U.S. small businesses advance their sales and marketing functions to meet the needs of major procurement organizations worldwide. This resource also provides information regarding how small businesses can become prominently featured in the accounts payable databases of governments and large corporations, and explains the process for registering with the accounts payable vendor databases within public sector purchasing organizations. The guide provides a variety of resources for small businesses, with intelligence covering legal/accounting issues, sales process management and worldwide procurement programs. This tool also offers specialized information geared toward women-, minority- and veteran-owned businesses. In addition, the guide outlines various training programs that small businesses may utilize to develop government and corporate sales expertise. Topics covered in the MasterCard Procurement Opportunities Guide include: - Selling to the Federal Government - Selling to State Governments - Selling to Large Corporations - Selling to Foreign Governments and International Organizations MasterCard worked closely with a variety of organizations to develop the guide. Input from the following organizations helped MasterCard to create a comprehensive tool that delivers valuable content to small businesses: - U.S. Chamber of Commerce - U.S. General Services Administration - U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce - U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce - U.S. Small Business Administration - Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers - Association of Small Business Development Centers - Center for Veterans Enterprise - National Black Chamber of Commerce - National Association of Women Business Owners - National Small Business Association The MasterCard Procurement Opportunities Guide is now available online in the MasterCard Working Small Business Resource Center at www.mastercardworking.com/procurementguide. In addition, the resources are being distributed by the following organizations: - U.S. Commercial Service - U.S. Small Business Administration - Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization - Minority Business Development Administration - Small Business Liaison Officers