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How to Partner With Your Small Business Customer

A small business can have anywhere from 1 to 500 employees, but collectively, they’re a mighty force, accounting for 99.7% of all business in the United States.  Unfortunately, according to the Small Business Administration, 50% fail within the first five years.

Given the limited resources of small business, your expertise makes you a valuable partner.  And while they’re probably more focused on budget than enterprise customers are, they're also more likely to be loyal.  Offer them personalized, reliable, trustworthy service, and they’ll consider you part of their team.

Here are a few of the ways you can maximize your partnership and success with small businesses:

Assist with a social media strategy – do you have content they can re-post, connections they can link up with, a tip to getting more followers, co-branding opportunities?  Smallbiztrends.com identifies mobile as the #1 technology that a small business should utilize, with 56% of all consumer traffic currently coming from mobile devices.  With all this mobile activity, using social media as a marketing platform can represent a huge cost savings over traditional channels, but it’s a waste of time without a coherent plan.  Ask if they have a strategy, and if they don’t, share your own experiences. 

Encourage them to ditch their landlines – they’re pricey, they make no contribution to collaboration efforts, and the technology is static.  Unified communication and collaboration tools (Microsoft Skype, Google Meet, Fuze) allow all employees to work together no matter what their physical location happens to be.  Whether you’re in the office, hanging out in a coffee shop, waiting at an airport, or hunkered down at your dining room table, you can be a part of the conversation. UC&C platforms, paired with high quality headsets, are a wise investment for all businesses, including SMBs.

Suggest cloud services - I addressed the contribution cloud usage can make to business in a previous post.  Subscription services provide IT support, payroll, software, data storage, and customer service, just to name a few.  And because usage is metered, a business only pays for what they use.  Offer bundled UC&C, cloud services and headsets as a practical, measured response to budget constraints.

Make recommendations based on your experience – how have your other customers addressed similar issues?  You have a wealth of information that your customer can only access through you.  In a small business, most employees wear more than one hat, and you have the ability to give them workable multi-tasking tools. 

No matter how big your customer’s business is, the strongest contribution you can make is as a consultant.  Get to know their business, their needs, and their obstacles.  Offer them solutions that will maximize their investments and their profits.  Remember, your success depends on their success.



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