SMB Sales

Fortune 1000 or large companies will refer to the products and services they sell to small and medium businesses as their SMB Sales. It is a vernacular that’s really only used amongst corporate managers of large companies to refer to a large and difficult channel to penetrate. The Small Medium Business Channel (SMB), is difficult to define as there is not one set standard. Almost every company manager you ask will give a different definition depending on the size of the company and the amount of revenues they produce. If we were to generalize, a small business is typically defined as one having ten or less employees and annual revenues of under $10 million. To continue with the generalization, a medium business is typically defined as one having 100 or less employees and annual revenues of under $50 million.

Large companies are focuses on their SMB Sales because it represents a lucrative and growing sales channel. Even in an economic downturn, there are always small to medium sized businesses that are resilient and grow. These customers are prized as they provide a source of growth in an environment where most companies are shrinking. It should noted that not every small to medium sized business is growing. In fact, one of the best practices that a chief marketing officer will provide is to segment the small to medium business channel in to four distinct growth categories: growth, hyper-growth, no growth, negative growth.

To drive positive results within their SMB Sales, a chief marketing officer will focus the companies marketing energy on growth and hyper-growth companies. No growth may be a temporary status and will really depend on the industry the company is in relative to the business cycle. Negative growth companies are ones that have contracted and have a positive correlation to the economy. The head marketing executive will need to identify the growing companies and define the products and services that the smb customer needs or find the pains that they are seeking to address.

Marketing alone will not drive positive SMB Sales. Additionally, it’s important that the sales organization understand how to approach and call on the small to medium business organizations. The challenge is typically that the owner makes most of the decisions and he or she may be difficult to access in a medium sized business. In a small business, access will be relatively easy and the bigger challenge will be one of a value proposition and pricing. The smaller company will be far more sensitive to pricing issues and its important that the large company not simply try to sell the smb prospect the same product it sells to other sales channels.

SMB Sales will grow organically if the product team makes sure that it has a product or service that really resonates with the small to medium business owner. In today’s environment, that means the product should either help grow the small to medium customers sales, reduce the small to medium customers expenses, or help to improve the quality of life of the entrepreneur.