Being a Small Business: Part 3

A couple of weeks ago, Gregg Williams kicked off a blog series about “Being a Small Business.” He wrote about a question that many small businesses hear from their prospects.

Why should I do business with a small business?”

Gregg talked about some of the advantages of working with small businesses and posed the very interesting and amusing question “Given all the great stuff small businesses can do, why would you want to do business with one of those bigger guys?”

The following week, Jim Jenkins weighed in on the topic. He pointed out that small businesses have the opportunity and responsibility to stay close to customers and to see every business opportunity as a partnership, not merely a transaction.

In Part 3 of this series, I’d like to explore the “Why should I do business with a small business?” question from a slightly different angle. What I’ve learned over the years is that sometimes a prospect asks this question when what they really mean is “If I invest time and resources into a partnership with you, how will I know your small business will still be around in 6 months or a year?”

When you get this kind of concern from a prospect, you want to help them get comfortable with partnering with your small business. You want them to share your confidence that a small business can be a partner they can turn to year after year. Small businesses play a pivotal role in many markets. They make products and services accessible to customers who might not otherwise have an appropriate option. Small businesses provide that all important alternative to the “Big Guy” in the market who might otherwise monopolize price, distribution, scope and more. I want my prospects to know I understand our special role in the food chain.

So how do I get customers to understand all this? Clearly each small business has its own way of addressing the “How do I know you’ll be here?” question. At IQ Services, the initial answer sounds something like…

Because we want to be here. Because we care. Because we have fun. Because we know where the industry is going. Because we listen. And because IQ Services builds partnerships that grow into relationships.

And then we get to the “prove it” stage of the conversation. That’s where our service offering roadmap comes in…

Our roadmap is the tangible evidence of our experience, care, market knowledge, listening skills and commitment to being a reliable partner. Our roadmap is about doing a better job of what we already do for our customers as well as anticipating and providing testing techniques and services that will help customers have confidence the next time they implement that “next big” thing in their contact center.

When prospects understand we have a vision and roadmap for our offerings and for staying relevant in the market, they get comfortable. Prospects recognize our sincerity. In our case, they sense our very real commitment to staying in business so the marketplace has an expert, cost-effective testing service to turn to when the “Big Guy” can’t move quick enough or provide that high-touch service that meets their unique needs. We know our presence in the marketplace makes remote testing and monitoring available to companies that don’t have the internal resources (time, money, schedule, expertise, and commitment) to do it themselves.

So what are other small businesses doing to address “will you be here tomorrow” question. Do you agree this is the question prospects are asking? Let us know what you think. mgeary@iq-services.com.

Marla Geary
http://www.iq-services.com/
6601 Lyndale Ave South, #330
Minneapolis, MN 55423