Sales Laundry

Posts Tagged ‘SMB Sales Strategy’

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of. If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q: We have a strong sales guy, excellent with Small/Medium Enterprise accounts, but is obviously struggling to land large enterprise accounts and failing to sell them on our services.  He has not closed a single large enterprise opportunity.

I would appreciate any help in steering this guy in the right direction, any issues you feel they may have with these account types, and what plans/procedures/proposals may be put forward to resolve this issue. Thanks

A: The absolute best way to get to the bottom of the problem is to go with him on some SME account calls where he is excellent and some large account calls where he is struggling and see first hand where the challenges are getting the best of him.

The good news…

He is able to at least get an appointment with the Large Enterprise accounts, so he is able to convey value over the phone (I assume) to a viable company contact and get the meeting.

The fact that your sales professional is excellent with Small/Medium Enterprise accounts tells me he does have the ability to convey your products value to a prospective customer and secure a signed contract.

Areas to look for an answer…

The fact that he is struggling to land a Large Enterprise account does suggest some potential problem areas worth investigating.

1. SME accounts will almost always have fewer decision makers involved in making the ultimate decision to purchase your product while large accounts may have a handful of individuals scattered across the organization that need to be collectively convinced.

Look at who he is meeting with at the large accounts, is he uncovering all of the potential people involved in making the purchasing decision?  He might need help identifying who the key players are in large corporate environments and developing a successful strategy to get in front of all of them.

2. While he may be getting meetings at the large enterprises, I would evaluate his efforts at qualifying the person he is meeting with making sure they can make a purchasing decision vs. being an internal advocate that cannot influence vendor/product selection.

3. The problems of the SME customer may not be the same as the large enterprise customer.  If he is selling to the same pain points in a large enterprise as a SME account, he may be missing the mark by trying to solve problems the large enterprise does not have or are of too low a priority to garner immediate attention.

Ask him what pain points/problems he is trying to solve for the large enterprise and evaluate his answers with other sales professionals successfully landing large enterprise accounts.

4. Look at your historic sales cycles.  It is not uncommon for a sales cycle to be longer with a large enterprise account vs. a SME account because of the bureaucracy and volume of departments and decision makers that have to be won over to your offering.  Benchmark the sales cycle you went through to land your other Large Enterprise accounts and SME accounts and compare them to this sales professional’s benchmarks.

From my experience, the answer you are seeking is most likely somewhere within these four suggestions.  If, however, none of these seem to address the problem, pinpoint the specific areas (from first call to signed contract) where your sales process differs between your SME and Large Enterprise accounts.  Systematically work through each one of those identified areas with your sales professional as it is almost a certainty that one or more of them are the source of his struggles.

In twelve minutes, John Nese, owner of Galco’s Soda Pop Stop, is going to make you want a bottle of soda pop.  John is also going to teach you something that will change the way you look at soda pop from this day forward, and make you want to buy that bottle of soda from him.

A business focused on a niche makes for focused sales people.  Focused sales people become niche experts and niche experts, in many cases, sell circles around sales generalists without really trying that hard.

I like the way John said it better.

Ready for that soda pop?  Head on over to the Soda Pop Stop and say hello to John for me.

Recently I was talking with a small business owner enjoying a degree of success growing his business from a one-man-band to six person shop and achieving a degree of local business notoriety.  Our discussion centered on talk of hiring a sales professional for the company and the owners exciting growth plans to take the business to the next level.

The owner was convinced that the correct course to grow the business was through a large expansion in products, markets served and by targeting larger customers that could buy in bigger chunks.

His theory was that with a significant expansion he could grab more revenue and tap new markets to avoid the risk of his primary revenue source drying up and foundering the company.

It was a reasonable line of thinking that I identified with even though it was a poor decision that could not have been more wrong.  I know this because I was guilty of the same mistake in a similar situation at an earlier point in my sales career.

I could not persuade the owner to look at a more focused strategy of measured growth or any other option for that matter, so I knew it was something I was going to have to pass on.  With any luck, maybe I can help you avoid a mistake that your business just may not recover from.

The biggest lesson I got out of my own personal foray into this folly was simply this:

Be the Master of Something or you will be known for nothing.

As a little, growing, cash starved business there is usually a strong desire, at some point, to throw sales discipline out the window and bend your little company around any and every opportunity for potential revenue you can find to survive.

Making that decision would likely be one of the worst decisions you could make, but I also know that over 50% of you will take that leap anyway because the alternatives will be too ugly to even contemplate.

It may seem counterintuitive, but the solution is to go narrow and deep, not wide and shallow.  Narrowing your focus to your best product(s), best prospects, building your brand, your experience and credibility in a niche you can own is the best strategy for success.

Look to expand after you have become Master of your Niche and can successfully leverage your hard-won market credibility into sales of your new offerings.  Having too many offerings or serving a large diverse market where it is hard to get traction will leave you Master of Nothing, unremarkable, swimming in a sea of mediocrity.

As focusing sunlight through a magnifying glass gets the attention of the local ant population, a razor-like focus on what you do best is the best way to burn through all the marketing and sales noise that can water down your message and drown out a small company.

What is the worst that can happen?

Typically this story ends one of three ways.

1. The company expands and expands to a wider range of products and offerings in hopes of capturing cash flow and the company ends up eating the people it was supposed to feed.
2. Continued expansion occurs until the sales, support or management structure collapses, damaging customer service, reputations and sales to say the least.  With any luck the smaller but right-sized company will begin to grow again at a more measured pace.
3. Miracles happen.

Three tips for the road.

Create a sales strategy to go deep, building brand, customers, and loyalty as you attract sales.

Manage your cash carefully to avoid potentially being forced to make poor decisions in a crunch.

Get known for something before your company and bank account are worth nothing.

Want to know more on the subject?  Drop me an email with FOCUS in the subject line.  val {at} saleslaundry.com.  As an extension, click here to learn how to multiply your existing sales momentum into more sells.

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