Large Business information
Here’s all you need to know about applying as a large business.
Below you’ll find the questions we ask, fees we charge and you can book a call if you have any questions about the directory or want to chat about how it fits with your objectives.
Jump to the sections below if you’d like more info on:
Our Fees
We are also asking our suppliers to pay a 0.25% fee of any revenue generated through the platform to go to our charities. This will be collected on a quarterly basis.
Application questions - Business
As our directory is called the “CALM” supplier directory, we’re using CALM as our acronym for our application questions, so we’ve organised our questions into the following sections: Customer, Assurance, Legitimate and Moral.
Our first section of questions is Customer, looking at how you work with your customers and deliver your services.
1. What is the company name?
2. What's your job title?
3. Please provide a high-level overview of the business. We'll get into specific services later.
4. Which areas of the UK does the business operate in?
5. Who are your ideal customers (size, industry, location)?
6. How do you ensure you provide exactly what each customer needs?
7. How do you typically respond to customer enquiries?
8. How do you handle communication with customers throughout a project?
9. How do you ensure you meet customer deadlines?
10. What’s the escalation route if things go wrong with a customer project or complaint?
11. Is any intellectual property created during client work? How do you manage this?
12. What is your average customer retention rate?
13. Do you have dedicated account management for key clients?
14. How do you measure and track customer satisfaction?
15. If you have separate departments (e.g., sales, operations, support) how do they coordinate?
16. Do you provide full cost transparency and a clear quote to your suppliers?
17. If you have any rolling contacts with customers are there aware of when costs increases will be applied?
18. Do you ever use sub-contractors, affiliates, associates or partners to deliver your service? If so, how do you ensure they meet your standards?
Our next section is Assurance, looking at your professional standards and industry qualifications
19. Is the business a member of any trade associations or professional bodies?
20. Do you (and your team) have any professional qualifications relevant to your services?
21. What ongoing training or learning do you do to stay current in your field?
22. What, if any, regulatory licenses or accreditations are held by your business?
23. How does your business ensure compliance with GDPR and data protection?
24. Are you registered with the Information Commissioners Office?
25. Do you hold a valid Cyber Essentials Certification?
26. Are you subject to any sector-specific regulations? How do you ensure ongoing compliance?
27. Do you have any ISO certifications or other quality standards? Which ones?
Our next section is Legitimate, looking at your insurance coverage and financial responsibility.
28. What level of public liability insurance do you have?
29. Do you have professional indemnity insurance? What level of insurance do you have?
30. Do you have cyber liability insurance? What level of insurance do you have?
31. What other insurances does your business hold? Please provide a summary of the policy & amount of cover.
32. Do you have any issues being paid by your customers within 30 days? If so, what impact do late payments have on your business?
33. Do you manage to pay your suppliers within 30 days? How often have you had to pay your suppliers late during the last 6 months?
Our next section is Moral, looking at your workplace practices and ethical standards.
34. Do you pay all of your employees at least the Real Living Wage? If not, what roles & how many staff are paid less than this.
35. Do you have any staff on restricted hours or zero hour contracts?
36. Do you offer flexible working arrangements where practical?
37. How do you handle any workplace issues that arise?
38. What's your approximate staff turnover?
39. How do you approach fairness and inclusion in your business?
40. Do you have a formal recruitment and selection policy that promotes equal opportunities?
41. Do you have a process to handle conflicts of interest within your business?
42. Do you have a formal anti-bribery and corruption policy?
43. What steps does your business take to reduce environmental impact?
44. Do you have a formal sustainability or environmental policy?
45. Do you publish an annual sustainability or CSR report?
46. Does your business support any local community activities or charities?
47. Do you track what percentage of your suppliers are local or SME businesses? If so, can you tell us what the numbers are?
Our last section asks about your digital presence and gives you the opportunity to add anything else we should know.
48. What's your business website?
49. What's your business LinkedIn page?
50. Do you have other social media accounts for the business?
51. What's your personal LinkedIn profile?
52. Is there anything else you'd like to add to support your application?
53. Do you have any questions about the application process?
54. Terms & Conditions - Please confirm you have read and agreed to our Terms & Conditions. If you have any questions you can tell us in a minute.
55. Supplier Code of Conduct - Please confirm you have read and agree to our Supplier Code of Conduct. If you have any questions you can tell us in a minute.
56. Complaints Process - Please confirm you have read and agree with our Complaints Process. If you have any questions, you can tell us in a minute.
57. If you have any questions about our Terms & Conditions, Supplier Code of Conduct or our Complaints Process please advise here and we can discuss on our call.
58. What's the best address for us to send your CALM Verified Supplier Certificate?
59. We will send you an invoice for your Application Fee. What's the best email address?
Application questions - Services
S1. What is the service you are applying for?
S2. What percentage of your turnover comes from this service (roughly)?
S3. Please describe this service in detail Explain what you deliver and how it helps business customers
S4. What makes your approach to this service different from competitors?
S5. How do you ensure you're providing the right solution for each customer's needs? Describe your discovery or scoping process
S6. What lead time do customers need before starting work with you? Include time needed for scoping, planning, and any implementation
S7. How do you ensure you meet customer deadlines for this service?
S8. What training (if any) do you offer customers as standard for this service?
S9. What ongoing support do you provide after delivering this service? Include any standard or enhanced SLAs you offer
S10. Is any part of this service outsourced to third parties? If yes, which parties do you use and how do you ensure they meet your standards?
S11. Do you offer innovative ideas to help customers reduce costs or increase efficiencies? Give examples if possible
S12. What is your standard pricing for this service? How do you charge? (e.g., hourly rate, fixed fee, per unit, monthly retainer)
S13. What discount are you offering to our members for this service? State as a percentage or describe your member pricing
Application questions - NDA
1. First of all, can we check if you completed the Application to join our directory or if it was one of your team? It was me - skips to Q4
Just a bit of background before we continue. We're building a directory of verified overhead suppliers to support growth focused SME's. We have your application, completed by one of your team, and now we just need some company details to generate a Non-Disclosure Agreement for you, as a Director of the business, to sign. Okay, just a few questions about you and the business and then we'll send over your NDA to review and sign.
2. What's your job title?
3. And your linkedin profile? (we'll connect and repost interesting content you publish)
To finish off your application, we want to send you a Non-Disclosure Agreement to sign. This NDA is a two-way agreement to ensure mutual confidentiality, as we will share information about both of our businesses during our time working together. Okay, just a few questions about you and the business and then we'll send over your NDA to review and sign.
4. Does the business operate under a Trading Name?
5. What is the Trading Name?
6. What is the registered company name?
7. What is the registered business address (excluding the postcode) at Companies House? We'll ask for the postcode in the next question
8. And the postcode
9. Is the business registered in England & Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?
10. Company Number at Companies House?
While we have you, as one of the company directors, we would like to ask a few more questions about the business. This information will be kept completely confidential, but it will help us better understand your business objectives and how we can support you and your business.
11. We are building a community of top rate suppliers and customers. This means we want to protect our collective reputations. Have there been, or could there be, any detrimental articles about you, any other directors, or your business in the press? Please advise details and timescales if so and we can discuss this on our review call. Additionally, if any such articles come to light please note that your position in our directory may be cancelled.
12. What is your objective for the business in the next 1-2 years?
13. What is your objective for the business in the next 2-5 years?
14. What is your current turnover (approximately)?
15. What level of turnover would you like to be at in 2 years time?
16. Are any of the objectives and turnover questions confidential if our main contact is not a company director?
17. At this stage, do you have any questions about the supplier directory or the sign-up process?