3 Tips To Sell To Small Business In The Summer

Summer is typically known for being a slower time for most companies. However, small business owners typically find themselves working overtime and stressed out during the summer months.

Here are some of the challenges small business owners face over the summer. If you can help solve these problems, you are one step closer to making the sale and making the summer months among your best!

Getting New Clients
Many of the decision makers at prospective client companies end up going away on vacation during the summer and it can be hard for business owners to get to a yes. As sales slow down business owners get anxious and desperate to close new business.

Sales Tip: Show how your products can generate new leads quickly and speed up the sales process to land these business owners as customers.

Coordinating Staff Vacations
Summer is also typically the time when the staff at small businesses go on vacation. This can leave the business owner stretched thinly and working overtime to run the company until the employees come back.

Sales Tip: Show how your products can improve efficiencies and automate processes. Make sure there are some short time wins that the entrepreneur can see immediately to help solve their short term time crunch.

Dealing With A Cash Crunch
While employees are away and business is slowing down, rent and wages still need to be paid for most businesses. This can leave many business owners in a cash crunch and unable to make a purchasing decision until the slow summer ends.

Sales Tip: Offer financing. Show the business owners that they can realize the benefits today but not have to pay until they have the money coming in from their sales season.

AT&T Launches Small Business Website

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.