Cisco Bolsters SMB Efforts

Cisco Systems has announced a new channel partner program to promote its Linksys division products to small businesses. Most of the technical equipment buying decisions for the SMB market are made through outside consultants which forces the Ciscos of the world to sell through a network of partners. The company that does the best job convincing parters to push their products wins.

To encourage its partners, Linksys will be offering a new program that offers lead-generation support and market development funds. Cisco will also be trying to convince their resellers to take its higher priced competitors like HP, 3Com, Netgear and D-Link off their roster and focus solely on Linksys. How the company plans on executing this strategy is still unclear.

A challenge facing Cisco is that Linksys is seen more as a consumer or SOHO play. Despite having a full roster of products, Linksys solutions are not usually considered as options for SMBs. It will be an uphill battle to get SMBs to look at Linksys as a viable alternative to the more entrenched players. By the same token, the Cisco brand is seen as being for big business only. Can Cisco narrow the gap and get some SMB market penetration?

The answer will lie in an effective partnership strategy. Their new channel program is scheduled to be announced on June 5th at their Connected Office Day event. Time will tell if they new incentives are good enough to propel them forward.

How HP Is Targeting The Hispanic Market

Denise Marcilio, marketing director for small and medium business (personal systems group), was the keynote speaker at the 14th annual DMA Directo Days conference.

In her speech, Marcilio discussed how to effectively target the two million Hispanic-owned SMBs which generate $270 billion in annual sales. Here is some of her advice:

• You have to have a genuine and long-term commitment to the Hispanic community
  
  
• In 10 years there will be eight million Hispanic-owned SMBs
  
  
• The growth will be driven by women business owners
  
  
• According to HP surveys, Hispanic business owners prefer doing business in English
  
  
• Closing a deal, however, is done in Spanish
  
  
• Build a Spanish language website to highlight your products and services
  
  
• Use a Spanish language direct mail piece to drive people to the website - "Direct mail is just the tip of the iceberg. At HP, the direct mail pieces have to drive people to the Web. The mail pieces have be so strong, so compelling and so perfect that it drives the person to the Web. The Web is where you can tell your entire story. Call volume and lead generation is most likely to happen through the Web."
  
  
• An English catalogs with a one page Spanish insert generated more results than a catalog written entirely in Spanish
  
  
• The median age of the Hispanic market is 27 versus 41 for the general population
  
  
• > 50% of Hispanics have white-collar jobs, are middle class or higher, own their own homes and are married

Selling to Small Business Links for 2007-04-10

• HP's Small Business Products Good for Corporate - On March 28th, HP released a batch of new products aimed specifically at small businesses with 1 to 99 employees. But the label on the ads doesn't keep smart enterprises from buying the products. Most interesting and appropriate are the new laptops and the new small server.
  
  
• Newtek Business Services Enters Into Web Linking Agreement with AIG Small Business(R) to Provide the Full Suite of Newtek Business Services - Both companies hope this agreement will allow them to grow their respective presence and leadership in providing business services, financial products and insurance to their respective existing and future clients.
  
  
• What is SMB - Small Business? - When I first heard the term "small business," I was a bit confused. "Small" doesn't always mean small - because a group with hundreds of individuals could be considered small in respect to larger organizations. I'm not a small business, I'm dinky.