Top 5 ways to lose a small business sale

Guest Contributor: Albert Luk

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Let's face it, in a downturn, a small business will find any excuse to close the door on you. It is hard enough creating relationships and proving value in this climate, why hurt yourself by committing one of the following sins when selling to small business.

1. Forgetting the speak English (or whatever the local business dialect is). Nothing turns people off more than jargon who are not in the industry. Small business owners want to understand you. Tell them how your good or service helps them in plain English, stripped of all the industry jargon.

2. Being a time-waster. Entrepreneurs are impatient people. They have so much to do during the day. Be very clear why you are meeting with them and how long the meeting will take. Don't take longer and don't get off purpose unless you have been granted permission.

3. Overly aggressive up-selling. Tolerated in good times. Hated in down times. Big businesses consider how small their profit will be in down times. Small businesses wonder if they will make rent next month. Measure a small businesses' needs carefully and avoid the upsell or you could be talking your way out of a sale.

4. You have every solution to their pain. "We have a software to solve your book-keeping issue and hardware to manage your operations and consultants to increase your revenue..." It may be true but the dialogue sounds all about you. Listen to their pain and empathize but don't try to take advantage of it by trying to sell all the time.

5. Disappearing when times are tough. People are judged by how they react in bad times not in good times. If you run for the hills when your client struggles, they will remember. All small business is personal. As I wrote in November, small businesses don't die, they just morph into other businesses so you could be losing a future customer as well.

Best of luck.