There is often a large disconnect between big business and small business. SMB owners do not think they are important enough to the big businesses so they go with someone who they feel they can have a personal relationship with and who will be attentive to their needs. The thinking is "Why would a Fortune 500 company care about me when they have all these huge companies as customers? I am going with someone who will treat me like I am important to them."
How can you show SMBs that you care about them and remove the disconnect?
1) Actually Care This might sound obvious but there is often a disconnect within an organization about how small business sales and service should be handled. While the CEO or VP Sales might be on board with creating the vision it is up to the front line workers to execute that vision. Make sure your people are taking the time and effort to actually care about their small business customers and offer the outstanding service that you are preaching.
2) Hire People Who Understand Small Business Small business owners like to deal with other small business owners. Many sales are lost because the entrepreneurs do not feel like the salespeople understand their situation. The salespeople are thinking too much like a "big business". You need people who speak the same language and understand the SMB mindset. Hire people who have either run their own businesses in the past or have been exposed to SMBs prior to joining your company or they will have a steep learning curve and you will lose many potential opportunities. You cannot fake it.
3) Show That You Are A Small Business Just because you are working at Microsoft or Xerox it does not mean that you are not entrepreneurial. Chances are you have a small team that you are working with, have a budget to operate within, and are trying to make the most with the resources that are available to you. Show your SMB clients that you are running a lean machine, just like they are, and that their business is important to you.
In early February I was invited as a guest to Xerox's Ignite Small Business Conference. One of my key recommendations was to share their best practices with entrepreneurs. Small businesses are always looking up to the big companies to gain insights as to how to run a growing company and put the proper systems and procedures in place.
As a follow up on February 18th I wrote a post on exactly this strategy:
Small companies are always looking to their bigger counterparts to get best practices and learn how to grow their business. How does Xerox get positive press coverage? How does Microsoft hire the best people? How does Bell prepare its business plan?
Well I am pleased to announce that Xerox is listening and I received an email this morning from VP Paul Gleason. Xerox just released a section on their website that discusses how to get press coverage. They included background information and two downloadable word document templates for small business owners to use.
It is a step in the right direction. I have given Paul a few more suggestions and am looking forward to seeing more detailed resources covering an array of SMB best practice topics in the near future.
Xerox today announced that it was acquiring Global Imaging Systems for $1.5 billion dollars. Global Imaging Systems is a provider of office technology products and Xerox made the acquisition to better reach the small business market.
This is Xerox's third acquisition in the past year as they try to improve their distribution network. "Our biggest barrier to growth was distribution," said Xerox chairman and chief executive, Anne M. Mulcah.
Global Imaging Systems' core product lines have traditionally been printers and copiers for small and mid sized businesses. It will now begin selling Xerox document management products.
The acquisition is expected to increase Xerox's distribution by 50 % to the small and medium businesses which is an estimated $16 billion market.
Paul Gleason, Vice President of Small and Medium Business for Xerox, posted his thoughts and a few pictures from our roundtable discussion in Orlando in his Big I, little t blog (that's me circled in blue).
We're still waiting for the podcast of the discussion. I'll share it with you as soon as it's out.
Small companies are always looking to their bigger counterparts to get best practices and learn how to grow their business. How does Xerox get positive press coverage? How does Microsoft hire the best people? How does Bell prepare its business plan?
The success of the Service Corps Of Retired Executives, a national nonprofit organization comprised of retired professionals who offer free counseling to small business owners, is only one example of how SMBs are looking up to tap the knowledge of bigger companies.
This all leads to a very important question: Why are you not sharing some of your best practices with SMBs?
There are many processes that your organization takes for granted that would be of tremendous value to a small business owner. What questions do you ask in a job interview? How do you motivate your staff? What kind of incentives do you offer? How do you make sure your suppliers and partners are loyal to you?
With all the new small business resource centers and portals popping up across the Fortune 500 websites, none of them are offering information that is of true value to small business owners. The opportunities lies in providing useful tools and resources by tapping into the intellectual property of your staff and by sharing some of your processes that are taken for granted. Remember, small businesses do not have the structered systems in place to help them grow and are often learning through trial and error.
The first big company to do this will go a long way to winning the hearts and minds of small business owners.
One of the concepts that kept coming up at last week's Xerox small business event was being a "trusted advisor" to entrepreneurs.
Small business owners like buying from people they know and people they trust. Companies who can establish a trusted relationship with their SMB clients have a good chance of retaining them as clients even if the competition has better prices / features.
Rick Spence highlighted this issue in a recent post:
All the more reason, I say, for marketers to develop stronger relationships with business owners before trying to sell to them. You can do that through newsletters, personal calls, blogs, direct mail, invitations to events - anything that sets you up as a trusted partner.
Without that trust, even the best sales proposition will almost always finish second when the business owner has a pre-existing relationship with a competing supplier - whether or not they can do what you do.
On Sunday evening, Xerox invited myself, 4 other SMBbloggers (Chris Brunner, Patrick Cook, James Gaskin, and Denise O'Berry), and research analysts from IDC and Gartner to fly to Orlando, Florida and help them devise a selling to small business strategy.
Xerox's challenge is that they have a well respected brand name but are not considered to be an option for small business owners. Xerox has the perception of being only for "big business."
I did an informal poll with a few of the entrepreneurs in my network to find out what their experiences with Xerox have been and get their suggestions for improvements. What I found was that none of them even knew Xerox had a small business line of products! Needless to say a lot of work had to be done.
Yesterday afternoon we had a roundtable discussion to give Xerox suggestions on how to increase their awareness level in the SMB community. I then met 1 on 1 with Paul Gleason, Vice President of Small and Medium Business for Xerox. The roundtable is set to be podcasted - I'll let you know when it comes out!
Overall it's been a great experience. We gave a number of ideas that could really help Xerox differentiate themselves and penetrate small and medium sized businesses across North America. The key will be can they act on the suggestions and how quickly.
EvanCarmichael.com is the world's #1 website for small business motivation and strategies. Evan also runs a series of successful Mastermind Groups in Toronto for entrepreneurs.
