A gentle reminder: your clients don't care about your solution. (and that is good news!)

If you are rushed for time here's the summary:

1. Don't ever sell what you do. Sell what you solve.
2. Share case studies of what you did with clients in a non marketing way.
3. Size matters: use your status as a small business as a competitive advantage.
4. SMEs understand SMEs: don't underestimate your ability to relate to another small business (ergo: stop trying to sell only to large organisations)
5. If you have to compete on price, educate your customers to the hidden danger of cutting corners (assuming you aren't overpricing yourself!).
6. Break up your offering (and pricing) structure in much smaller laddered steps to make it easier for a client to get in the door.
7. Do not be afraid of charging for your value. Customers who have been around the block know from experience that free comes at a cost, and it usually on customer service, support etc. For a small cafe', when that coffee machine breaks down, the store's revenue goes down immediately. And they know it. And they know being able to call you and you rush out to fix it is worth real money, much more than any premium you charge.

If you have a little more time for details, grab your coffee and read on...

You may or may not have seen one of my posts where I shared how my wife Tamar Goren joined a small business instead of a large corporation (this is a wake up call to large organisations struggling to attract talent, but that's for another post!). The company focuses since many years on helping small businesses (roughly up from 2 to 25 employees) with setting up processes and systems to help the clients dramatically reduce spent on administrative tasks (and therefore reduce costs of staff spent on these tasks), ensure that prospects and clients don't fall through the cracks of busy days and increase profits by helping build a stronger relationship between the small business and the client.?

That's nice. But did you notice that...

I never once mentioned what tool or tools they use!

That's because IT DOES NOT MATTER. Not in the eyes of their clients. Their clients - small to medium businesses, from law firms to small hotels to plumbing businesses, to accountants, car selling businesses, shop owners, clinics, etc - only really care about the end solution making their admin lives easier and increasing sales. That's it. And they do this since many years. And what about bigger clients? They pass these onto organisations that can handle that as they learned that handling a big client is an entirely different ball game (just the compliance and reporting requirements are often so onerous as to make the relationship unprofitable).

So what can we learn from this:

1. Don't sell what you do. Sell what you solve. Example: if you are a website developer don't advertise that you develop websites but rather advertise that you help shop owners sell more online.
2. Share examples of how your solution to a specific client helped the client. You want to show VALUE of what you do. Linkedin is perfect. But don't show off... rather share to educate. Eg. "A client recently engaged with us due to them experiencing a lot of stock losses in their restaurant. When we looked at it more closely we realised 1, 2 and 3. We managed to solve the challenge for the client and reduce stock losses by 70% by focusing more on (whatever your key takeaway is). And you don't need to sell! Don't sign off with "contact me if... or follow me... it cheapens your brand. Clients will message you. I promise).
3. You have enormous advantage as a small business over a large business. For a small business solutions provider every client counts (we can have another chat about the right and wrong clients). The economics of a large business disincentivise an employee to spend too much time on a client as their contribution is measured to fine detail (after all a % of each sale goes towards covering large overheads).
4. Small businesses understand other small businesses much better than a large one ever can. On individual standarised products a large business will win. But on just about everything else it is difficult to change the direction of the Tinatic easily. This is the space for you! Create relationships and build on these, no matter if you are a street vendor, architect or plumber (think referrals, repeat business, etc). In Italy I have seen how large businesses are partnering with smaller local ones to deliver the last mile and support clients vs centralising everything in a nameless contact centre.
5. Get your pricing right. I overheard how a client says he can get the solution 25% cheaper somewhere else but when unpacked the competitor didn't include service, support and upgrades. Help your clients understand the real costs.?
6. If you offer a solution break it down into multiple chunks with corresponding pricing attached vs a one price take it or no. E.g. my wife's company has a 15mins free scoping call, then they charge (very reasonable rates) for a session to really understand the client's business processes and map the steps and requirements and then they charge for setup etc. This allows the client to test if your methodology of solving a problem really is for them without having to committ to the whole invoice upfront. Very very clever. And if someone wants it for free walk away. You can't afford freebies (must make a note to myself... I am guilty of this!)
7. Charge for your services. Your service and customer support is worth gold for those who really need it.

Hope the above helps.

Now go out and have a coffee!

York