Jul

16

Help Small Businesses Close a Sale and They Will Love You Forever

July 16, 2006 | Anita Campbell

Perhaps this story will sound familiar. 

A technology entrepreneur leading a tech company wanted to jump start sales, which had fizzled.  New sales were next to non-existent.  A competitor had come out of nowhere and was proving a formidable challenge.

This particular entrepreneur did what many CEOs who are comfortable with technology do:  he spent most of his time focused inside the four walls, on his technology — instead of outside the four walls, on his market and customers.  To him, the answer was always in some new “killer” product feature he and his team was working on.  Every business problem was seen in the light of technology, and a technology solution was always the answer put forward.  The more difficult the sales environment, the more he retreated to his tech comfort zone.  He operated more like a CTO than a CEO.

Sound familiar?  Most of us who work in tech circles probably know someone like that — maybe we have even seen a little of that entrepreneur in ourselves.

The weakest point in most startup tech companies is rarely the technology.  It is almost always … da-da-da-da! … sales. 

But guess what?  Selling is getting harder than ever. 

A recent Harvard Business Review article by Jerome A. Colletti and Mary S. Fiss puts forth the proposition that selling is harder today, calling for new techniques.  I was reminded of this recently by the Northstar Marketing newsletter, which summarized four reasons from the article to explain why selling is harder today: 

  • Customers have gained power. In many industries, supply outstrips demand, giving customers more choices about what they can buy and how they can buy it. The shift in power from sellers to buyers has made customers demand more of their suppliers and the buying experience.
  • Customers have gone global. Buyers now have a global orientation, and thanks to the Internet and offshore suppliers, can buy products and services from anywhere in the world, get it overnight and pay less. Sourcing has taken on a new face and a new language.
  • Channels have proliferated. Most companies go to market today through multiple channels. The sales organization is no longer the only way to sell a buyer; now we have choices of resellers, telesellers, field sales professionals, independent reps and the Internet.
  • More product companies sell services. Services are now wrapped around or embedded in products and require a different mind-set in selling and buying. The end goal being that the buyer stops buying the product and begins buying the strategy.

So, what does all this have to do with selling to small businesses?  A lot.

More and more vendors are following the strategy of providing resources and value-add to their small business customers, by helping them with broader business issues.  It is a way to generate loyalty and goodwill.  Help your small business customers or prospects become better businesspeople, and they will think better of you for it – maybe turn to your company instead of a competitor the next time they are in buying mode.  For instance, the number of vendor websites providing general business advice and  resources to small business owners, is increasing – and the sites are getting better and better.  Vendors are holding seminars and meetings providing free professional development of all kinds to small business owners.

If you are such a vendor, in my view, the most important service you can do for your small business customers and prospective customers, is help them sell.  Selling assistance is what they need the most, especially in today’s tougher sales environment.

The more your small business customers sell, the more successful they become, and the more demand they are likely to have for your products and services – and the more loyal they will be to you for helping them.

How do you help them sell?  Here are some examples, on both a small and large scale: 

Hold an intimate networking event, such as an afternoon tea, where small business owners can hobnob with those who may be prospective customers.  At an intimate event of no more than say two or three dozen attendees, the opportunities to create meaningful, lasting contacts can be considerable.  In essence, it is almost like an endorsement to be one of the personally chosen individuals to attend an intimate event – you  feel more open to one another and more likely to make lasting contact. 

You also could offer to make personal introductions – especially if you can introduce a small business owner to a decision-maker or influencer in a larger company.  I have seen this technique used quite effectively by service providers such as attorneys and bankers in local communities. 

Sponsoring a seminar on selling techniques, or providing a series of sales tips podcasts just for your small business customers, are two other techniques relatively easy to pull off. 

On a larger scale, websites that encourage small business owners to make contact with one another and develop relationships – including a social networking component – can be invaluable aids.  Today it is not enough to provide advice and tips on a website.  I would say you need to go a step further and enable your customers to develop contacts among themselves and engage in networking, which in turn can lead to new business for them.  One example is the recent Micosoft Partner Conference, with its Structured Networking component.

In other words, help your small business customers get better at selling to their customers.  Help your small business customers close a sale and they will love you forever.


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