Last month I wrote about Getting Involved In The Community To Build Trust Instead Of Selling in which I mentioned how Jordan Arron from the BDC was able to become the first outsider to come in and present his company's value proposition to my Mastermind Group members.
Jordan took the right approach and wanted to build relationships instead of selling. He was genuinely interesting in helping my members and did not come with the "always be closing" attitude.
I asked Jordan if he wanted to write about his experience to help others who are trying to make connections and sell into the small business market. Here are his thoughts:
"Last month was my first opportunity to introduce myself to the business owners of Evan Carmichael's Mastermind group. It was a tremendous opportunity which I had the privilege of being a part of for two reasons. Firstly, because not only did I get the chance to hear Frank Cianciulli of Enunciate speak about his experience growing his business, but I was also given the chance to introduce myself to a very targeted group of individuals to grow my business.
As an Account Manager at the Business Development Bank of Canada my one mission is to support small and medium sized businesses by providing the combination of aggressive and customized financing solutions, with consulting services. The way I become successful at this is by being as deeply rooted into the various networks of business as possible. The challenge in this task is that people are always busy, and groups like the Mastermind groups are highly solicited, which can make it difficult to present your offering to them. It was only after I was given the chance to speak to the group that I realized that it was because of my approach that I was given this opportunity.
I think that if I were to summarize my approach, that it would have two specific characteristics (which I will admit, certainly are not unique, nor do they reinvent the wheel). This first characteristic is that I want to listen more than speak. So often people in sales are trying to tell people what they are selling or offering, without being able to understand who they are talking to. Not only does "active listening" allow you to collect your thoughts, and to understand your counterpart better, it also doesn't give such a "hard sell" approach which can put some off quite quickly. Even if you are about to sell something as simple as a pen, people will jump to all the features of that given pen, as opposed to understanding if the person is looking for a $0.50, $50, or $500 pen.
My second habit is that I naturally want to help people in any way possible. Even if I am not going to be lending money to them, I always look to leverage my network by putting them in touch with a potential joint venture partner, purchaser, supplier, or other financial institution. I realize I've actually started building strong relationships with people that I didn't offer money to. This approach in its truest form, works excellent amongst like minded individuals, and in the end they often end up pointing people in their network back to me.
In summary it was great meeting the members of the Mastermind group, and I look forward to the next event I can be part of. As Evan was kind enough to let me enter this circle of individuals, I will look to make every new relationship a two way street where I not only support group members with BDC financing or consulting services, but to just always keep in mind what they do, and to make appropriate introductions for their business where possible. I consider it a privilege and truly enjoy working with entrepreneurs and learning about their visions of success. When I can make a contribution to this success, it's even better."
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.
It is time to add AT&T to the list of Fortune companies creating a website to target small business owners. On Monday the company launched http://www.att.com/OnwardSmallBiz as a resource for entrepreneurs and to promote AT&T solutions.
Some of the content includes:
A daily feed of small business news, including streaming video segments from SBTV.com - Small Business Television.
Free instructional Web-based seminars and training courses hosted by experts.
Tips on starting, managing and relocating a small business from a variety of experts and sources.
Helpful information developed specifically for women and minority business owners.
Money-saving promotional offers from leading brands serving small business needs, including UPS, Pitney Bowes, Lenovo and CareerBuilder.com.
The ability to submit questions and to receive one-on-one advice from SCORE - Counselors to America's Small Business.
Information on AT&T products and services, money-saving bundles and special offers for small business are also available on the portal. For example, Current features include the new AT&T Unity(SM) calling plans for small business that allow unlimited wireline and wireless calling to AT&T and Cingular, now AT&T, customers across the nation.
Easy access to AT&T's online support, e-bill and account management services, including the AT&T Account Manager and AT&T BusinessDirect(R) portals, which allow customers to manage their accounts, view and pay bills online, and even order additional services online.
The site itself looks unfinished. The main graphic is very confusing with a lot of text coming across the picture. The rest of the page layout has minimal content and useless polls like "How internet savvy are you?" While I cannot see too many entrepreneurs taking immediate advantage of this new site it is a step in the right direction for AT&T and if they keep at it they might have something on their hands.
I primarily read two blogs on selling to small business: Rick Spence's blog and this one.In the last month, both Rick and Evan have posted articles on building trust before successfully selling to an entrepreneur.I agree whole-heartedly. A good first step in building trust is finding some type of affinity with small business owner before you can sell anything.
Affinity is typically built through common experiences. Those with common experiences tend to relate better than those with divergent life experiences. For simplicity's sake, I am going to describe account managers I have met who have a lot of success selling to small business and those that do not based on the life experiences of each.
Let's call the successful account manager Mary (Mary is not a real person but rather an amalgamation of many different successful SME account managers I have met).Mary is typically on her 2nd or 3rd career, worked in some type of entrepreneurial setting (or, to put it another way, has not worked in a big corporation all of her life), understands from practical experience the industry she is selling to (or perhaps has worked in it herself) and understands how to create solutions for clients.
Without ever selling a good or service, Mary already has the following unique value propositions:
Entrepreneurs tend to experiment so they appreciate Mary's many life experiences;
Mary can speak from experience and not the text book; and
Having worked in an entrepreneurial environment, she understands the daily life of her clients.
Bob- an amalgamation of many unsuccessful SME account managers I have met- is typically on their first career, spent his entire professional life in an institutional setting, is well educated but never ventured much outside that world.
Bob tends to be a turn-off for many entrepreneurs for some of the following reasons:
Bob is perceived to be too institutional; Bob is a "suit" and "not one of us."
Bob is perceived to be bureaucratic; he understands corporate policy well but does not tend to know how to make that work for his clients; and
Bob speaks "MBA"- big words that do not matter much in the entrepreneurial world.
Mary and Bob are generalizations. Nonetheless, having met both Mary's and Bob's in the course of my practice, my preference is to buy from Mary.
For anyone wanting to selling to the small business market, a good starting point would be to analyze hiring practices and determining whether you have a lot of Mary's or Bob's in your sales staff. After all, sophisticated marketing campaigns only go so far- it's the people selling your good or service that will be the real difference-makers.
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.
"Last month was my first opportunity to introduce myself to the business owners of Evan Carmichael's Mastermind group. It was a tremendous opportunity which I had the privilege of being a part of for two reasons. Firstly, because not only did I get the chance to hear Frank Cianciulli of Enunciate speak about his experience growing his business, but I was also given the chance to introduce myself to a very targeted group of individuals to grow my business. 
