An effective David to a competing Goliath

Small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) face a host of unique challenges. For many, not the least of these is competing for customers on the same stage with much larger competitors.

Many SMBs have accepted the role of follower, relegating themselves to living in their bigger competitors shadows. This, however, does not need to be the case. Comparatively, large enterprises may have budgets and resources SMBs cannot come close to matching, but there are a number of things SMBs can do to not only compete with, but even outsell larger competitors.

Here are four proven tips to help SMBs push their sales to the next level:

1. Be proud to be an SMB and tell potential customers why: SMBs often do not like to think of themselves as such. They feel the small business label is a stigma that will drive potential customers towards larger competitors. The truth is customers typically do not have any aversion to doing business with small companies, and many would actually prefer it if they only knew the benefits.

This is where SMBs can do themselves a favor. Instead of trying to hide their size, SMBs should embrace the fact that they are smaller, more nimble and more customer-friendly than their large enterprise competitors. There are several things SMBs should be communicating to potential customers about the benefits of doing business with them:

• Customers will always be higher on a SMBs priority scale compared to that of a larger enterprise.
• When a customer support need arises, it is easier to get the right people involved in finding a successful solution.
• SMB employees typically feel more vested in the companys success and they will do whatever it takes to make sure customers are happy and remain loyal.
• Employee apathy is an unfortunate reality within many large enterprises. This can lead to poor customer service and support.

2. Create a consistent and repeatable sales process: Many SMBs think of sales only as an activity or outcome, but to compete with larger competitors, sales have to be thought of as a process as well. Its useful to think of a sales process as a linear timeline. On the left is the beginning of the process and on the right is the end of the process. In the middle there are points along the way which are milestones. These milestones make up sales stages. Developing a formal sales process and communicating it to sales people will ensure that they are doing and saying the right things at the right times. Sales are too critical to an SMBs success to be left to ad hoc strategies and chance.

When laying out such a sales process, SMBs should first look generally at what the sales team is already doing, taking note of the activities occurring throughout engagements with prospects and clients. These should then be listed on a linear timeline in sequence. Once these activities have been documented, SMBs should ask themselves, What can I do to streamline this process? and Are we doing things in the optimal sequence?

3. Dont be afraid to use technology to help build customer relationships: There are a number of technologies available to help SMBs get organized when it comes to sales, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) software. There are, however, two key challenges SMBs face in regards to this technology: choosing the right solution and successfully implementing the solution. Enterprises face these same challenges, but the impact of purchasing the wrong solution or an implementation gone awry has far greater consequences for an SMB.

There are several things SMBs should be looking for when selecting a CRM or SFA solution:

• Make sure the solution is scalable. It should be able to operate as effectively with a whole fleet of users as it does for a single individual.
• Look for a solution that has an easy-to-use interface and intuitive features. It will only be profitable if it is used regularly.
• One of the most important features a CRM or SFA product should have is the ability to synchronize data between the standalone version and a mobile device version.

There are also several things SMBs can do to ensure the implementation of a CRM or SFA solution will be successful:

• Show employees how the new tool will benefit them and that it is not meant to be a tool for management to spy on them.
• Most sales people use Outlook throughout the day. Discover what sales processes they are already doing within Outlook and then see what can be leveraged into the CRM or SFA tool.
• Rollout the software implementation gradually to avoid overwhelming the sales force. Implement one feature at a time.
• Once the CRM application is implemented and the sales force is trained, issue a simple declaration that they will only be paid commission for sales if the contact is in the CRM program.

4. Harness the power of the Internet through SEO to drive sales leads: In almost every conceivable scenario, SMBs have fewer resources for both inside sales and for driving customers to them. Search engine optimization (SEO) increasing the visibility of a website or web page in search engine results is a remarkable and largely free way for SMBs to drive customers to them. There are several keys to effective SEO that SMBs should be aware of:

• Have a foundation of relevant and beneficial web content. Implementing SEO before making websites useful for potential customers means they will likely leave just as quickly as they came.
• Use relevant, searchable and logical keywords with proper density. Often, too many keywords on a page will get sites labeled as a sort of spam.
• Build relevant external links. Getting other influential websites to link back to a SMBs site can equate to as much as 70 percent of their SEO efforts. To help secure these links, SMBs can develop articles and other quality content that others will want to display and link back to on their sites.
• Build relevant internal links: Including numerous internal links across a SMBs website to other places on the site helps search engines determine the most important pages on the site.

James Wong is an award-winning entrepreneur and the founder of Avidian Technologies, makers of Prophet CRM software. Despite competing directly with corporations such as Microsoft and Salesforce.com, Avidian has grown revenues at an annual rate of 54.2 percent over the past 5 years.