Ways to Leverage Your WBENC Certification

 Don't waste your WBENC certification.

If you're a woman-owned business in the United States looking to gain corporate clients, getting your official certification as a women's commercial venture is a good move (WBE).

While you can receive a WBENC certification from your local city or state, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the country's biggest certifier of women-owned businesses, is the best alternative.

WBENC certification confirms that your company is at least 51 percent owned, controlled, operated, and managed by women (or by multiple women).

Finally, the value of the WBENC certification to your company is determined by how much work you put into utilizing it. And, because our clients frequently ask us how they should go about doing so, we felt it would be useful to compile this complete list.

Here are 5 ways to put your WBENC certification to work for you.

Include your WBENC certified logo in all of your marketing materials, such as:

Landing pages on a website

Briefing on capabilities

Statement of Capabilities

Case studies are used to illustrate a point.

Template for a proposal

Business cards are used to promote a company.

Brochures

At-event signage

Presentations

Advertisements

Accounts on social media

And just about anything else.

Include your WBENC-certification logo on your product packaging and/or client-facing materials. 

It's even appropriate for use on the outside of shipping goods. Your WBENC logo can be incorporated into your new client welcome kit and other client-facing products if you're a consultant or executive coach.

To be sure, the WBENCLink2.0 tool has a lot of flaws. (It's a dinosaur, after all.) However, anything that makes finding contact information for decision-makers faster and easier is a "win" in my book. Don't forget that after you've figured out one executive's email address, it'll be a lot easier to figure out the email addresses of others.

Get in touch with the directors of supplier diversity at all of your current and previous clients.

Inform the directors of supplier diversity at all of your current and previous clients that you have been certified. They'll be able to add you to their database of certified diversified suppliers and service providers, which will give you more prospective chances in the future.

Submit information about your organization

Submit information about your organization to be included in supplier diversity databases maintained by large corporations. We conducted a study a few years ago and discovered that more than 400 Fortune 500 businesses have a section on their websites where different suppliers may apply to be included in the company's database.

These online WBENC applications were often located on the company's dedicated Supplier Diversity page. Yes, completing these applications can be a time-consuming process. However, if there are specific brands you want to deal with, it's worth it.

Apply to participate in the WBENC Wells Fargo Executive Education Program.

Using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) concept, this program will assist WBEs in maintaining business continuity during these difficult times and developing solid business plans to prepare their firms for the future.

As you can see, there are a plethora of methods to use your WBENC certification to gain a competitive edge.