Small Business Makes a Big Impact
Bill Bartlett
Critically-acclaimed Executive Coach | Sales Culture Consultant | Author | Owner of Bartlett Insights and Coaching Group | Partnered with over 50 companies to increase revenue - TEXT 630 235 3371
May is “Small Business Month”, a time to celebrate the companies that represent the backbone of our economy. Did you know there are over 28 million small businesses in the United States, 22 million of which are made up of self-employed individuals? Additionally, I discovered that over 50% of America’s workforce is employed by a small business and approximately 543,000 small businesses are started every month. According to Digital.com "Two-thirds of all businesses survive at least two years; half of all businesses survive at least five years, [and] one-third of all businesses will survive at least ten years." Finally, small businesses make up 99.9% of all business in the United States. My conclusion: we should celebrate small businesses year-round as their leaders are true business heroes!
In my training and development business, approximately 80% of our clients come from the small business segment. They span a wide range of business sectors and vary in size from one employee, home-based, to 100 employees set up as corporations. All of them share two things in common, the first of which is immeasurable passion about their product or service and the drive to find customers who have a need for them. The other is the disillusionment that accompanies the inability to understand why all prospects don’t immediately fall in love with their products!
I recently met Jim, a small business owner in the technology field, at a networking event. He volunteered that he invested everything he had in the development of a piece of technology with the potential to improve the efficiency of any manufacturing process. He knew he created a superior product and was setting up sales calls on potential prospects. During his sales call, Jim bombarded his prospect with all kinds of features and benefits, waiting for the prospect to share in his excitement and make a purchase. When it didn't happen, Jim became disillusioned, panicked and reduced the price to close the deal, thereby shrinking his margin and negatively impacting the bottom line. Jim went on to say he ultimately ran out of money and his business began to fail. After listening to this saga, I asked him to invest a few hours with me to discuss ideas that might refurbish his business and generate sufficient capital to perpetuate it.
The following are five recommendations I made to Jim during our meeting. If you are a small business owner who is struggling to succeed, take these to heart and apply them during your sales calls:
- Learn all you can about your product, the marketplace and your prospects. Use this knowledge to create questions that help your prospects think differently about your business and solutions you provide.
- Stop bombarding your prospects with passion-infused presentations loaded with features and benefits and focus on relating your product’s solution to their specific problems.
- Spend 60% of your week setting up new discovery meetings with potential prospects and building relationships designed to help them get to know you and the services you provide.
- Join a business accountability group where you are responsible for reporting weekly progress on key performance indicators that demonstrate your business is moving in the right direction. Associations like Vistage are designed to act as your Board of Directors as well as business consultants who help eliminate costly mistakes.
- Learn to sell! The leading cause of failure in the small business world is associated with a lack of sales knowledge and excessive dependence on product knowledge. Invest time, money and resources in learning all you can about selling and develop a sales methodology for your business.
Hopefully, these tips I gave to Jim will help you and your business grow and prosper, not just survive. In the three minutes it took you to read this article, 39 new businesses were formed in the United States. I tip my hat to all the small business warriors who have put it on the line for something they believe in! You are my business heroes!
Go conquer your worlds!
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As president and owner of Corporate Strategies & Solutions, A Sandler Training Center, I've been training and coaching presidents, managers and sales people for more than 23 years. I'm also the author of the best-selling book, The Sales Coach's Playbook. Learn more about me and my company here.
Good selling - Bill