 "At Trendline, all we do is help our clients build effective, profitable, value-added sales relationships with small business customers and prospects."
Bob LaPointe, President |
It's All About Building Sales Relationships
The cornerstone of effective small business marketing is a devotion to and passion for building and nurturing sales relationships with your customers and prospects.
The beliefs about how to best increase market share and share of customer in this segment are as diverse as the companies that comprise the market. But if you're not the lowest-price provider in your category, adding value has to be at the core of any viable strategy or approach (see "Building Sales Relationships: The Media Dilemma,").
Enduring Sales Relationship
The exchange of value, with a mutual expectation of return, that creates an emotive connection between customer and provider.
When you appeal to a business owner's fundamental needs (see "Business Owners Are All the Same...Where It Really Counts,"), you're in the relationship-building business.
Striving to understand the basic differences between small and large companies (see "Do You Really Understand the Culture of Small Business?" ) helps make your sales messaging more effective, and by committing to scalable, value-added customer communications programs (see "Banking Big on Small Business," ) you "walk the talk." The result is the creation of sales relationships that differentiate your brand, build competitive barriers, develop product awareness and, ultimately, change buying behavior.
Build the relationship and the owner will think of you first when it comes to buying related products and services. Besides, as a small business marketer, what other choice do you have? Can you deploy a sales force to build effective relationships? Can traditional mass media spark effective sales relationships? Is your direct mail relationship working as well as you'd like?
At Trendline, all we do is help our clients build profitable, value-added sales relationships with small business customers and prospects. We help create relationships that lead to changes in buying behavior and the fundamental metrics that drive client profitability: lowering customer attrition, building revenue per customer and improving acquisition economics. We hope this issue of B2SMB will help you think a little differently when it comes to mapping out your marketing and sales strategy for 2008.
Bob LaPointe
President
781.639.0440
bob@trendline-co.com
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