An executive who markets to small business asked me the other day what’s keeping entrepreneurs awake at night. (You have to know your prospects’ problems before you can start marketing effectively to them.)
Unfortunately, I didn't have any amazing insights to offer. Even in the face of recession in the eastern half of Canada, business owners are still grumbling to me about the same old problems:
* The agony of recruiting good help;
* The difficulty of holding on to good people when every other business is trying to lure them away;
* Rising energy costs;
* Trying to make sense of the Internet (before it changes their business forever);
* Finding ways to turn the Succession Boom to their advantage – either by preparing their business for sale, or by buying another business, for strategic or competitive reasons.
My marketer friend and I agreed that the slowing economy has not yet dented the confidence of most entrepreneurs. We decided the Canadian economy has gone through a huge restructuring in the past two decades, and that as a result, fewer businesses seem to be affected so badly by manufacturing’s decline and the slowdown in the U.S.
Of course, it also helps that entrepreneurs get to pick the markets they serve. In the past few years, many small businesses have changed focus and reduced their dependence on automotive companies, mass consumer markets, and other predictably vulnerable sectors. As the Canadian economy switches further to providing services, especially business and professional services to world markets, expect to see more and more entrepreneurs develop their own “Get out of Recession Free” card.
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Six More Tips for Selling More
Continuing from the previous post, here are another six tips for more powerful personal marketing to small business owners.
1. Emphasize specific benefits. How much money did you save Client A by finding them better equipment? What kind of yacht did Client B buy after you helped them land a big deal?
2. Be free with referrals. If you can't help a particular individual, try to recommend someone who can. They will not forget the favor.
3. Ask for referrals! Once you have established what you do, ask prospects if they know anyone else who might appreciate a call from you to help them with their problems.
4. Find a reason to follow up. Most sales are lost through a failure to follow up in a timely manner. You might want to arrange a meeting, send them a document or an article you’ve read, or arrange an introduction. Your goal is to stay top-of-mind.
5. Ask for the order! As your relationship progresses, suggest a low-risk way to start working together. Offer some incentives, such as a pending deadline or a time-limited discount.
6. Eliminate fears and doubt: Your costs must be clear. Entrepreneurs abhor open-ended contracts and fees. Most people are more motivated by the prospect of losing $5 than by the chance of gaining $20 – so play up the value, minimize the uncertainty and set their minds at ease.
1. Emphasize specific benefits. How much money did you save Client A by finding them better equipment? What kind of yacht did Client B buy after you helped them land a big deal?
2. Be free with referrals. If you can't help a particular individual, try to recommend someone who can. They will not forget the favor.
3. Ask for referrals! Once you have established what you do, ask prospects if they know anyone else who might appreciate a call from you to help them with their problems.
4. Find a reason to follow up. Most sales are lost through a failure to follow up in a timely manner. You might want to arrange a meeting, send them a document or an article you’ve read, or arrange an introduction. Your goal is to stay top-of-mind.
5. Ask for the order! As your relationship progresses, suggest a low-risk way to start working together. Offer some incentives, such as a pending deadline or a time-limited discount.
6. Eliminate fears and doubt: Your costs must be clear. Entrepreneurs abhor open-ended contracts and fees. Most people are more motivated by the prospect of losing $5 than by the chance of gaining $20 – so play up the value, minimize the uncertainty and set their minds at ease.
Friday, 2 May 2008
Five Tips for Personal Selling to SB
How do you as an individual sell to the elusive small-biz market? Get out there and meet them! With entrepreneurs, it's all about the relationship.
Five top tips:
1. Go where the entrepreneurs are. Be seen as part of their community (e.g., through involvement in associations such as CAFE, TEC, EO, CATA, the CofC, etc.) If you don't know what those terms stand for, you have a chunk of catching up to do.
2. At networking functions, know whom you want to meet. Study the membership or guest lists to know who's whom. Arrange an introduction if possible, from a trusted mutual friend. And bring lots of business cards.
3. STOP SELLING! Ask good questions and listen: “Tell me about your business.” “What kinds of problems have you run into?” "What got you through that?"
4. Practice using the phrase, “How can I help you?”
5. When it’s your turn to talk, don’t brag about your expertise and experience. Tell stories that illustrate your experience and demonstrate the results you have achieved for your clients. (Make sure they’re pertinent!) Include vivid images and a happy ending.
Practice these stories in advance to make them as powerful (and as brief) as possible.
Simple as that!
Five top tips:
1. Go where the entrepreneurs are. Be seen as part of their community (e.g., through involvement in associations such as CAFE, TEC, EO, CATA, the CofC, etc.) If you don't know what those terms stand for, you have a chunk of catching up to do.
2. At networking functions, know whom you want to meet. Study the membership or guest lists to know who's whom. Arrange an introduction if possible, from a trusted mutual friend. And bring lots of business cards.
3. STOP SELLING! Ask good questions and listen: “Tell me about your business.” “What kinds of problems have you run into?” "What got you through that?"
4. Practice using the phrase, “How can I help you?”
5. When it’s your turn to talk, don’t brag about your expertise and experience. Tell stories that illustrate your experience and demonstrate the results you have achieved for your clients. (Make sure they’re pertinent!) Include vivid images and a happy ending.
Practice these stories in advance to make them as powerful (and as brief) as possible.
Simple as that!
Sunday, 30 March 2008
What constitutes "value"?
Are business owners cheap? Or do they just value “value”?
My customary joke is that entrepreneur is a French word meaning, “I don't have a budget for that.” Which means that while they don't specifically budget money for most purposes, they will still invest in new products, projects or services if they can see the value in it.
In a recent column for Tech Data’s quarterly publication, Tech Times, I wrote about attending a Toronto Raptors game with a friend who runs his own highly successful exporting company. His seats are in the third row.
“Harry” told me that he’d had a chance to move up a row, (where you can see and smell the players better), but he turned it down: “I couldn't justify paying an extra $300 per seat per game.”
I found that remark very telling. In my experience, entrepreneurs don't mind spending money to solve their problems and indulge their wants – they just like to receive value. Harry could afford the better tickets, but he can’t justify the cost. He can't see the value in it.
The good news about selling to business owners is that they rarely need to justify their spending to anyone. There’s no boss to oversee their activity or set spending limits. So the key to selling to business owners is to help them justify the purchase to themselves.
How do you do that? By understanding both the personal and financial issues involved in making these decisions.
For instance, business owners are looking for ways to improve their business – as long as these solutions don't make business more complicated. They adore fast returns on investment, but that’s usually less important than not rocking the boat. New LCD monitors that free up desk space are easy to justify. But a CRM system that will upset employees’ routines and take months to master will look more like a problem than a tool for growth.
Another example: the best entrepreneurs aren't risk-takers, they're risk-minimizers. If you can reduce the risk of their purchase, they’re more likely to buy. You can reverse the risk by offering money-back guarantees, rebates, installation assistance, or free service calls for 30 days. Entrepreneurs tend to be skeptical by nature, so demonstrate your faith in your products by assuming some of the purchase risk.
Finally, business owners are looking for respect. They want to be treated as individuals and as peers. So they like custom solutions, special deals, and being able to negotiate terms. Talk down to them and they’ll squawk. And walk.
My customary joke is that entrepreneur is a French word meaning, “I don't have a budget for that.” Which means that while they don't specifically budget money for most purposes, they will still invest in new products, projects or services if they can see the value in it.
In a recent column for Tech Data’s quarterly publication, Tech Times, I wrote about attending a Toronto Raptors game with a friend who runs his own highly successful exporting company. His seats are in the third row.
“Harry” told me that he’d had a chance to move up a row, (where you can see and smell the players better), but he turned it down: “I couldn't justify paying an extra $300 per seat per game.”
I found that remark very telling. In my experience, entrepreneurs don't mind spending money to solve their problems and indulge their wants – they just like to receive value. Harry could afford the better tickets, but he can’t justify the cost. He can't see the value in it.
The good news about selling to business owners is that they rarely need to justify their spending to anyone. There’s no boss to oversee their activity or set spending limits. So the key to selling to business owners is to help them justify the purchase to themselves.
How do you do that? By understanding both the personal and financial issues involved in making these decisions.
For instance, business owners are looking for ways to improve their business – as long as these solutions don't make business more complicated. They adore fast returns on investment, but that’s usually less important than not rocking the boat. New LCD monitors that free up desk space are easy to justify. But a CRM system that will upset employees’ routines and take months to master will look more like a problem than a tool for growth.
Another example: the best entrepreneurs aren't risk-takers, they're risk-minimizers. If you can reduce the risk of their purchase, they’re more likely to buy. You can reverse the risk by offering money-back guarantees, rebates, installation assistance, or free service calls for 30 days. Entrepreneurs tend to be skeptical by nature, so demonstrate your faith in your products by assuming some of the purchase risk.
Finally, business owners are looking for respect. They want to be treated as individuals and as peers. So they like custom solutions, special deals, and being able to negotiate terms. Talk down to them and they’ll squawk. And walk.
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Memo to Big Business
Selling to small business is not just about finding a mailing list and hiring a call centre. It’s about knowing your market.
Case in point: I just got off the phone with Wells Fargo. A cheerful representative with a strong mid-west U.S. accent called to tell me that because of my business’s outstanding “profile” (i.e., they rented a list), I was eligible for a line of credit of up to $100,000. At prime plus 1.5%, which is pretty generous.
But of course they made the usual mistakes. They pretended that I had earned this privilege, when I clearly had not (my business is unincorporated, has no assets and has virtually no capital requirements). Please: if you want to earn my trust, don't start by lying to me.
Plus, they let someone call me who has a grating foreign accent. It was a mild one, to be sure, but why not use a Canadian call centre? We're a proud nation here: why not make it sound more like you actually have a presence in (and thus a commitment to) Canada?
They did some things right, though. When I said that I already have a credit line (from a Canadian bank) and didn't need hers, she was very cool about it. She asked if I would like to note down a web address and an invitation code that would let me take advantage of their offer some other time.
Why don't more people do this? It’s a marketing win-win – it lets the uninterested consumer off the hook quickly, yet it gives them a second chance to think about the offer. So I said, sure.
She then read out five numbers. I wrote them down thinking, "Good for them – they kept this simple." They were respecting my time. But then she read out four more numbers. Then three more. Then three letters. Why? With 15 digits, they have enough codes for everyone on earth, along with everyone who has ever lived on the planet. Plus everyone who ever will.
Moral: Making things easy for business owners is crucial. But you have to do in all ways, not just some.
Case in point: I just got off the phone with Wells Fargo. A cheerful representative with a strong mid-west U.S. accent called to tell me that because of my business’s outstanding “profile” (i.e., they rented a list), I was eligible for a line of credit of up to $100,000. At prime plus 1.5%, which is pretty generous.
But of course they made the usual mistakes. They pretended that I had earned this privilege, when I clearly had not (my business is unincorporated, has no assets and has virtually no capital requirements). Please: if you want to earn my trust, don't start by lying to me.
Plus, they let someone call me who has a grating foreign accent. It was a mild one, to be sure, but why not use a Canadian call centre? We're a proud nation here: why not make it sound more like you actually have a presence in (and thus a commitment to) Canada?
They did some things right, though. When I said that I already have a credit line (from a Canadian bank) and didn't need hers, she was very cool about it. She asked if I would like to note down a web address and an invitation code that would let me take advantage of their offer some other time.
Why don't more people do this? It’s a marketing win-win – it lets the uninterested consumer off the hook quickly, yet it gives them a second chance to think about the offer. So I said, sure.
She then read out five numbers. I wrote them down thinking, "Good for them – they kept this simple." They were respecting my time. But then she read out four more numbers. Then three more. Then three letters. Why? With 15 digits, they have enough codes for everyone on earth, along with everyone who has ever lived on the planet. Plus everyone who ever will.
Moral: Making things easy for business owners is crucial. But you have to do in all ways, not just some.
Friday, 28 December 2007
Ugh! Marketing
I need a new chair mat. Before I headed out to to buy one, I checked the website of Office Depot Canada to see if they're doing anything special for "Boxing Week." Sadly, the site remains as dull as it is the other 51 weeks of the year.But check out Office Depot's U.S. site.
It's full of colour, pictures, and discounts. Also known as, reasons to linger and reasons to buy.
What have Canadians done to deserve such lacklustre merchandising? Business owners deserve special prices, promotional deals and exciting new products. Where's the pizzazz? In a recent survey cited at a November Warrillow conference on marketing to small business, Staples Business Depot ranked as one of the top brands for business owners. Too bad Office Depot isn't giving them much competition.
Friday, 23 November 2007
Winning the "Space Race"
Congrats to Encelium Technologies Inc., winner of the 2007 “Markham Space Race.”
And congratulations to the organizers – Town of Markham, Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham (ISCM), Great West Life Realty Advisors, FIT by Design, and Jim Brown of Colliers International – for creating a contest that promotes small business and actually aims to help promising companies achieve their potential.
Markham-based Encelium develops energy-management systems that help building managers control lighting and other building loads to dramatically reduce energy costs. Last March Encelium made the papers for selling its ECS system to Toronto’s Rogers Centre (SkyDome), which was expecting the system to save it $300,000 a year.
A panel of judges selected Encelium as the Ontario small business “most likely to grow” over the next year, based on its compelling growth strategy. The company wins a $63,100 prize package that includes use of a furnished, 1,000-square-foot Class A office space for a year in the Town of Markham, a telecommunications package from Telus Business Solutions, thousands of dollars in business, legal, accounting, financial and HR consulting services, and printing and furniture moving services.
Maple Lake Ltd. of Markham and Maxxian Integration Inc. of Thornhill placed second and third in the contest.
Telus was the contest's Title Sponsor, with Creechurch International Underwriters, Cushman & Wakefield LePage and PowerStream Inc. as gold sponsors. The Markham Space Race was open to export-focused, entrepreneurial companies in Ontario that have been in business for at least two years and have at least three full-time employees. Participants submitted a growth plan demonstrating how their company is positioned for rapid growth.
This blog rarely quotes press releases, but this next paragraph from the official announcement rings true to me:
(Crossposted to Canadian Entrepreneur.)
And congratulations to the organizers – Town of Markham, Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham (ISCM), Great West Life Realty Advisors, FIT by Design, and Jim Brown of Colliers International – for creating a contest that promotes small business and actually aims to help promising companies achieve their potential.
Markham-based Encelium develops energy-management systems that help building managers control lighting and other building loads to dramatically reduce energy costs. Last March Encelium made the papers for selling its ECS system to Toronto’s Rogers Centre (SkyDome), which was expecting the system to save it $300,000 a year.
A panel of judges selected Encelium as the Ontario small business “most likely to grow” over the next year, based on its compelling growth strategy. The company wins a $63,100 prize package that includes use of a furnished, 1,000-square-foot Class A office space for a year in the Town of Markham, a telecommunications package from Telus Business Solutions, thousands of dollars in business, legal, accounting, financial and HR consulting services, and printing and furniture moving services.
Maple Lake Ltd. of Markham and Maxxian Integration Inc. of Thornhill placed second and third in the contest.
Telus was the contest's Title Sponsor, with Creechurch International Underwriters, Cushman & Wakefield LePage and PowerStream Inc. as gold sponsors. The Markham Space Race was open to export-focused, entrepreneurial companies in Ontario that have been in business for at least two years and have at least three full-time employees. Participants submitted a growth plan demonstrating how their company is positioned for rapid growth.
This blog rarely quotes press releases, but this next paragraph from the official announcement rings true to me:
"Regardless of the contest’s prizes, [Innovation Synergy Centre CEO Bob] Glandfield emphasizes that every company that participated in the Markham Space Race comes out a winner, just by developing a growth plan – something many small businesses neglect. “Developing a plan that must face the scrutiny of a third party forces a sense of realism into the process. Entrepreneurs tend to overstate the opportunity, and understate the challenges and timelines, when moving to market. Creating and implementing a realistic plan for growth goes a long way in ensuring the future success of a small business,” he said."Congratulations to the winners and the sponsors for a rare win-win.
(Crossposted to Canadian Entrepreneur.)
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