5 Cheat Codes to help you Sell to SMBs

Did you know that there are more than 31 million businesses in the U.S. with fewer than 100 employees, aka SMBs? This means the SMB market is HUGE.

SMBs also have two extremely attractive qualities:

• Shorter sales cycle: SMBs can make decisions FAST because they have fewer decision-makers than enterprises. Thus, SMBs need fewer touch-points than enterprises, allowing you to close more customers faster.
• Lower requirements: SMBs are more flexible feature-wise and have lower security, compliance, and other technological requirements. SMBs just want to know that you can solve their problem and are more willing to adapt their workflow to your solution vs. enterprises which will need you to fulfill a long stringent list of requirements before even giving you a try

Thus, SMBs are an incredibly attractive market if you can figure out an efficient sales cycle. Here are 5 cheat codes to help you crack the SMB sales game.

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1. Build Trust

SMBs are usually run by mom and pops – human beings. They are very different from the giant mindless money printing machines that enterprises are. SMBs do business with people they know and trust.

They find their bankers through recommendations. They find their accountants through recommendations. This means… you should find a way to get recommended to them via a warm intro!

If you can’t, find a way to show them that you’re a human being:

• Conferences
• In-person sales
• Personalized emails and phone calls

SMBs owners are human beings, so show them that you’re a human being they can trust.

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2. Show Value

SMBs don’t want to see a fancy PDF with a bunch of charts or some flashy sizzle video. They just want to know that you solve their problem. The easiest way to convince them you can do that is:

• Referrals from people they already know and trust (the warm intro).
• Third-party social proof: Testimonials from “name brand” logos.
• Great reviews on Yelp, Google Reviews, G2, Capterra, etc.
• An actual product demo that is easy for them to “see themselves using.”

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3. Easy Adoption & Usage

Have you ever had a great sales call end with a verbal YES, but then the customer falls out somewhere between the agreement signing -> payment -> onboarding process?

A prospect isn’t your customer until they’re using and loving your product. Every step between your first touch and them loving your product is a chance for them to say no and leave.

So think of your entire sales and customer onboarding process as a user journey. Simplify each step to make it easy and fast:

• Sales pitch - what do you do, why do you do it, and why should they care?
• Product and pricing options - make it obvious which one they should pick.
• Sales agreement - make it simple by including only relevant information and make it mobile-friendly.
• Payment process - it should be as easy as paying at McDonald’s.
• Customer onboarding - don’t make them jump through hoops to use your product!

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4. Qualify Your Leads

An often overlooked part of sales efficiency is making sure your leads are high quality so you’re not wasting time on “low probability” customers. This means you need to do the necessary research to determine whether a lead fits into your ICP (ideal customer profile) to ensure that they have a high probability of understanding and needing your product or service.

Some typical things to consider when qualifying leads:

• Business type
• Business size both by revenue and employee count
• Geography
• Title of your contact (are they a decision-maker?)

Most companies use a scoring model to quantify lead quality. Higher quality leads -> higher probability of closing -> higher efficiency for your sales team

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5. Counter Concerns with Incentives

Every potential customer is going to have concerns before signing up -> they don’t know you or your product yet! Analyze your past customer conversations to figure out what the most common concerns have been. Develop incentives to provide confidence to your prospects.

• Price -> free trial
• Commitment Length -> monthly vs. annual plans, money-back guarantee
• Missing features -> workarounds, product roadmap / estimates, direct communication with customer service
• Unproven ROI -> case studies, social proof

SMBs are a huge opportunity but require a tailor made sales process. When done right, cracking the SMB sales process is the ultimate cheat code..

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Roger helps sales teams transform their sales agreement, payment, and onboarding process into one simple experience - just like signing up for an app! Interested in learning more? Let’s talk.