When One Small Business Sells to Another

Those selling to small businesses include huge multinationals and the Fortune 500.  They also include other small businesses – even one-person shops. 

IT services, in particular, are one of those areas where both the vendor and the customer may be small businesses.  Small IT consultants and integrators help other small businesses install and support new hardware, software and networks.  

A typical IT service provider might have under 10 employees. They may be solo consultants, or operate with with a virtual staff of independent contractors they bring in as needed.

These small sellers face a special kind of problem:  keeping up with the growing amount of information  they need to know. 

One of those IT providers talks on his blog about how best to serve small businesses:

“The biggest problem facing the small IT shops is a combination of pride & fear.  Too many small providers are too proud to ask for help from others.  Let’s face it – there’s way too much information out there for us to know it all.  If a client has a problem that isn’t your strong point — don’t make the client suffer while you hack and try to figure it out yourself.  Finding someone who has the knowledge and experience in the problem area who can help will be much more rewarding in the end –- and the customer will be much better served by having their issue resolved as quickly as possible.”