Understand SMBs By Reading Related Forums

One of the biggest challenges that large corporations have selling into the SMB market is that they do not have a sales force that understands what it is like to be an entrepreneur. I have discussed on a number of occasions in this blog the benefits of hiring sales staff who have either run their own businesses in the past or have been involved in some way in the SMB community. Entrepreneurs are very much relationship oriented buyers and appreciate someone who understands their problems.

So what can you do if you want to get a better handle on what entrepreneurs are thinking about? Join a few entrepreneur forums. Many business owners turn online when they have a question they are looking for an answer to and join an online community.

In our own Entrepreneur Forums, for example, we cover topics from starting up a new business to sales and marketing to franchising to women entrepreneurs. With 11 different categories there is something for everyone here.

Browsing around the forums will give you a sense of the hot topics for entrepreneurs today. Some of our popular topics include: Facebook: $3,200 in new revenue, Blogging For Promotion,
and Finding Good People.

By better understanding what small business owners care about you can better target your pitch to them to maximize the chance of closing the sale.

Note: There can often be a strong desire to sign up for an account and promote yourself in these types of forums. This is typically frowned upon by the entrepreneur community. You should be there to ask questions or propose solutions - not to promote yourself. Self-promotional forum campaigns often backfire and will generate negative opinions of your firm.

Evan Carmichael

Get Involved In The Community To Build Trust Instead Of Selling

On Tuesday morning I am running an event for my Mastermind Group members. The typical member is between $100,000 and $1.5 million in sales and are looking to get their companies to the next step. I have set up an intimate event with Frank Cianciulli who is one of the most celebrated up and coming young entrepreneurs in Canada. Frank is going to share his secrets to success with the Mastermind Group members and it promises to be a fantastic event.

Having a group of growing small business owners attracts a lot of attention from people who want to sell to them. I have received calls from insurance companies, bankers, real estate brokers, and countless other B2B vendors who want to sell their products and pitch to my groups.

They are taking the entirely wrong approach. Entrepreneurs do not want to be sold to and therefore nobody is allowed into the groups to pitch their products. Very few account managers realize this and stumble back to their offices wondering why they cannot break into the SMB market.

Then I was contacted by Jordan from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). The BDC has a number of small business financing options and Jordan was interested in discussing how we might be able to work together. Jordan is a young guy but understands the importance of relationship building - he wanted to meet and get to know the members instead of handing out literature and promoting his products right off the bat.

Because of Jordan's approach, he is going to get in to meet the groups where many other companies have failed. For the event on Tuesday, Jordan is sponsoring the food and will be the only non-business owner in the room. He will have a captive audience and no competitors to worry about because he is there for the right reasons. I am sure the members of my groups will take well to his approach, making him the default supplier they turn to when it comes time to financing their businesses.

The message is a simple one: Get involved in the small business community and build trust with entrepreneurs instead of trying to come in and sell your products. By doing so you will not only be more successful and surpass your quotas but have a lot more fun in the process.