Onboarding an Enterprise account is more than a process—it’s the start of a long-term partnership built on trust, collaboration and shared goals. RK Industries’ Enterprise Partner Program (EPP) guides clients through every step, ensuring we understand their needs, build the right team and deliver solutions that exceed expectations. Here’s how we do it.
1. Identify Needs and Build Understanding
Every great partnership starts with discovery. Sometimes our customers know exactly what they want—other times, they just know they have a challenge and a need to solve it. We dive deeper to understand not just what our customer wants or thinks they need, but what they’re trying to achieve. Through open dialogue and thoughtful questions based on our extensive experience, RK’s Enterprise team helps uncover those critical needs or “pain points.” During this stage our team introduces our customers to RK Industries—our values, our capabilities and our full suite of services – so they can see the depth of what we bring to the table.
2. Create Meaningful Connections
After that first conversation, we focus on trust and credibility. The Enterprise team coordinates tours of RK’s facilities, where clients meet our senior managers, production leaders and quality experts. We also visit our customers’ sites, when possible—whether it’s existing facilities or new construction. In fast-moving environments, these site visits happen quickly and are often led by RK’s executive manager for the Enterprise Partner Program and the business unit president or vice president. These face-to-face interactions help establish trust early and lay the groundwork for a true partnership.
3. Develop Tailored Solutions
With alignment in place, we move into solution development. Here’s where collaboration grows even further. The Enterprise Partner Program team…
– Meets internally to determine which RK business units should be part of solution development and delivery.
– Introduces the customer to the RK team that will fulfill their needs. RK’s Enterprise team stays involved for long-term customer relationship management.
– Builds and presents a conceptual solution.
– Presents a proposed Responsibility (or Scope) Matrix that clarifies responsibility and accountability across all stakeholders, including the end-user, general contractor and fabricator. This typically includes design, materials (i.e., who furnishes the equipment) and installation.
The EPP team also encourages and coordinates multiple discussions between RK and the customer’s delivery team to establish a strong framework up-front that aligns expectations. These topics include, but are not limited to:
– Product design
– Engineering
– Manufacturing capacity and backlog constraints
– Ramp-up timing and schedule
– Supply chain strategy
– Risk assessment and mitigation
These structured discussions align every detail before execution begins. This proactive communication minimizes risk and sets the project up for success.
4. Establish Value Beyond Price
By this point, the project is about more than just price—our prospective customer has seen the value in our partnership, our organization and our ability to deliver. In some cases, RK has been verbally awarded significant projects before pricing was even shared…a testament to the strength of our Enterprise Partner Program onboarding approach.
The Keys to Success
Onboarding an Enterprise account takes more than process—it takes discipline and intent. Our approach centers on:
– Building rapport and establishing trust.
– Understanding the customer’s needs and goals.
– Acting decisively and proactively.
– Building the right team with all the needed skill sets for each customer’s unique project.
– Delivering on promises and meeting deadlines.
– Being organized and persistent.
– Demonstrating executive buy-in and involvement.
– Early, frequent and accurate communications.
RK doesn’t just onboard clients by leading with trust and demonstrating value every step of the way—we build partnerships that last.
Interested in learning more about our Enterprise Partner Program or starting a conversation? Visit our Enterprise Partner Program website or contact Matt Schreier, Senior Enterprise Program Manager, at matt.schreier@rkindustries.com.