How To Be A David To The Goliaths

Your company provides tremendous value, a personal service and everyone that works with you leaves happy. And yet, despite you knowing you’re the better fit, a prospective client has chosen to opt for a bigger competitor. Frustrating.

It comes down to that old saying “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” Buying from big firms with a good reputation is a safe choice, if not always the right one.

The reality is we’re all susceptible to sticking to the status quo. In fact, we actually prefer to do absolutely nothing according to research by Princeton psychologist and Noble Prize winner Daniel Kahneman. Remember those promising prospects you never heard back from? There’s a good chance they’ve not chosen a competitor, they’ve simply done nothing.

It appears we’re a risk adverse bunch - unless there is a compelling, urgent reason to act, the majority prefer the comfort of keeping everything just the way it is.

So what does it take to get someone to make a decision?

Using the fear of losing out

Whether it’s trying to persuade the kids to eat their greens, or convince a prospect to sign on the dotted line, we’re used to selling the upsides. We are brought up believing positivity and incentives are the routes to persuasion. Yet Kahneman’s research showed decision makers were up to 3 times more likely to act in response to a threat of loss than they were to the opportunity of gain.

So actually, what we need to do is convince people that staying the same is unsafe. Rather than just running through the usual features and benefits, you need to show your potential clients the consequences of their current, risk-strewn path and enlighten them on the value of change.

If you face a steep challenge against large competitors, don’t just talk about the advantages of being a small business, warn prospects about the dangers of working with big firms. Will they be responsive? Will they have a direct line to call? Will they make the client feel like number one?

Being cheapest doesn’t win business

Who goes out focusing on buying the cheapest car, the cheapest food, or cheapest clothes?

Research shows that price is only the main consideration in 45% of business purchases. No matter what product or service you provide, price is not the most important factor – it’s value.

Despite this, smaller businesses often charge less, or are too open to negotiation, because they don’t price themselves based on the value they provide. In fact, perhaps counterintuitively, if you price yourself too low you risk being rejected altogether – potential buyers simply won’t believe you can provide the same level of service as your more expensive rivals.

Ultimately, your customers want you to be in business next year so you can continue to support them. Smaller businesses have the advantages of being flexible, personable and quick to react. Get the basics right, and you can charge more.

·Build a strong, empathetic relationship with your clients

·Take an interest in their goals and innovate to help them get better value

·Focus on removing barriers and complications to make interaction easy

·Continuously meet and exceed expectations

·Be proactive to issue management and fix them at source

The art of looking big

A survey by Salesforce shows 59% of B2B buyers would rather stick to online research than speak to a sales person. That means you may not get the opportunity to share why you’re so great as the decision may have already been made without you realising.

This is also a great opportunity for small businesses. The internet is a great leveller, with a well thought out website helping you to look far bigger than you are – the foot in the door to give you a chance of getting that enquiry.

So how do you convert those online researchers?

With a quick Google search, decision makers are able to learn more about you than ever before. You therefore have a limited time to build trust and convince researchers that they should use you – take note of the statistic showing 84% trust online reviews as much as they do a recommendation from a friend.

Continuity is important here, people should be able to build a picture of your business searching online reviews, reading case studies on your website, and reading positive things on your social media accounts. In other words, don’t undermine your fantastic reviews showing on Trustpilot when you have a Facebook page which hasn’t been updated for 2 years – if buyers are risk adverse, you’ve just waved a flag screaming “Hey, we’re so small we don’t even have the resources to update our Facebook, let alone serve our customers!”

Technology has further enabled small businesses to punch above their weight. Your big company feel could be undermined if someone then goes to pick up the phone to hit your voicemail! There are various live chat, call answering and virtual assistant services out there to give a greater perception of size whilst, more importantly, ensuring you also never miss an all-important sales opportunity when your resources are stretched.

In an extremely competitive environment, you can’t afford to have a chink in your armour. If you do, this opens the opportunity for the big, ‘safe’ competitor. Focus on your strengths - and their weaknesses – to become a small business success.

As a former Operations Director now running my own business - Miss MPS in East Malling. As a passionate advocate of small businesses, I launched my company to help take care of the time-sapping administrative tasks that stunt business growth.