Selling to Smaller Companies

How is selling to smaller firms different from going after larger corporations? That's a question I get asked frequently. In my book, Selling to Big Companies, I lay out a step-by-step plan on how to crack into corporate accounts.

But when you're pursuing business with small-to-mid market companies, there are some key differences.

Reduced Preparation Time
The bigger the opportunity, the more pre-call research and planning you need to do. Why? First of all, since your pay-off can be significantly greater, it's a wise investment. Secondarily, corporate decision makers expect you to have a working knowledge of their firm, business direction, product/service offerings and more. 

Minimal Information Available
With many smaller firms or private companies, it can be difficult to find any relevant information at all. It's often very difficult to craft a customized, personalized account entry campaign because you lack any insights into their corporate direction, financial situation, challenges, etc.

So how can you be effective if you don't spend tons of time preparing and you don't know much about the firm you're calling on?

Become knowledgeable about common issues faced by small business that are relevant to your products/services.  For example, with my target market, I know that:

• Their salespeople are facing a difficult time cracking into corporate accounts.
• Shortening time-to-profitability on new product launches is a strategic imperative.
• Lack of strong value propositions is the root cause of many sales issues.
• Cutting the length of the sales cycle is always a concern.

Then use these phrases in crafting your voice mail messages, email campaigns, positioning during sales meetings and more. Focusing on the key challenges your offering solves enables you to sound like a person worth meeting with - someone who understands small business issues and has some ideas on how to address them.

Other than that, good selling is good selling - whether you're meeting with the owner of a 1-person consulting firm or a C-level corporate decision maker.

Comments

[Troy Bingham]

I find that the decision making channels are often congested, having to get approval by a CEO, or other executive level manager. Aside from the decision making process, budget is another area of significant differene.

Organizational buy-in can be difficult if there is not a standardize process for rolling out new technologies or processes.

[Jill Konrath]

I agree with you completely about the need for small & medium sized businesses to leverage alternate channels and lower cost strategies to drive sales. Salesforce.com has done an excellent job in this area.

Many small biz owners are stuck in the traditional model of hiring salespeople to fuel their growth. This problem is compounded even further by the fact that those doing the hiring don't understand what good selling is. Consequently they make bad choices, spend lots of money and waste many months before they realize their mistake.

Another strategy that works well is to piggyback off other company's "feet on the street." While profits may be less, it's worth it because the ramp up time is much faster.

[Jon Miller]

Jill, very interesting post. I'm curious about your thoughts on another issue related to selling to small companies. SMBs have (often much) lower budgets, and can't always afford a price point that justifies a direct sales force. This means you need to use lower cost channels, such as selling over the internet and using telesales. It potentially means that marketing needs to take a bigger role in the process as well. In my experience, one company that has done this quite well is Salesforce.com. What do you think?