Catering to Small Businesses
by Steve Strauss on March 25th, 2008
Q: Steve - I am a manager for a fairly large company. My section has been tasked with increasing our sales to small business and I was wondering whether you had any insights to share as to how to reach that market. Thanks.
Brian
A: There is no doubt that selling to small business is quite different than selling to large corporations. Having sold to both in my business, I’m not sure whether it is any easier selling to one versus another; both present challenges in their own way.
First the commonalities:
Both require patience: Selling to a large business can really take a lot of time, for various reasons. Whether it is a matter of finding the right department that needs what you are selling, or the right manager, or the person who can pull the trigger, or getting the necessary buy-in from everyone required, navigating the corporate maze can sometimes be a challenge for the uninitiated.
Patience is also required when selling to the small business owner, but for different reasons. Often, the small business owner does not want to make a decision, or would rather string it out as long as possible so as to retain scare resources (i.e., money), or is simply too busy to worry about whatever it is you are selling.
Whatever the case, both only buy only when they are good and ready.
Both have limited budgets: It is often hard for the small business owner to appreciate this, given that their respective budgets are so different. But even so, the fact is that corporate managers and entrepreneurs alike both have budgetary constraints that amount to the same issue, namely, if they buy one thing that means they are not buying something else.
But really, the similarities pale in comparison to the differences.
What corporate people usually don’t get is how small business owners think and why they act and decide as they do. So let’s look at the reasons.
The biggest difference to appreciate is that when you work for a big business, you have a lot of help. Whether it is assistants or co-workers or the legal department or whatever, there are plenty of other hands around to help you accomplish what needs to get done.
That simply is not true for small businesses, the vast majority of whom are one-person shops. Small business owners are often the president, director of marketing, receptionist, and accountant, all rolled into one. As a result, they are a harried bunch with too much to think about and do. Master jugglers, they are.
It is no accident that one of the most famous pieces of advice ever given to the small business owner is to spend more time working on their business and less working in it. That is not something anyone would ever think to advise a corporate manager.
The second big difference is that most small business owners have budgetary constraints that are qualitatively different than that of the corporate manager.
* We don’t get a paycheck every two weeks.
* If we don’t continually drum up new business, the mortgage may not get paid
* If we have a bad month, our employees will probably feel the pinch too.
* As such, cash-flow is a big issue.
If you want to sell to the small business owner, then these are the two pain points you have to appreciate and overcome: A lack of time and a lack of money. Often we will avoid buying until one or the other gets too acute.
Thus, the key to selling to small business is to show small business owners how the product in question saves time, saves money, makes them money, are frees them up. Of course there are other selling points that work, but these are usually big ones.
To learn more, I suggest reading a good book, Outfoxing the Small Business Owner, by Gene Marks.
Today’s Tip: To help corporations better understand how to sell to small business, my company, The Strauss Group, developed a great experiential seminar entitled The Small Business Game. (c)
The idea is to put the salespeople in the shoes of the small business owner. By giving them the experience of being an entrepreneur and seeing how we make decisions, the salespeople can better understand their small business clients. This in turn helps create that most important of all things necessary for the sale - rapport. To learn more, you can shoot me an email.
Steven D. Strauss is one of the world’s leading small business experts. His latest book is the Small Business Bible . A lawyer, author, and public speaker, Steve has spoken around the world about entrepreneurship, including at the United Nations, and he has been on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, The O’Reilly Factor, and many other television and radio shows. If you would like Steve to speak to your group, help your business grow, or if you would like to sign up for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" please visit his website � www.MrAllBiz.com .