Selling products and services to small businesses

Greetings

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion of the previous topic. Honestly, I did not expect such an interest. If there is a demand, then there will be an offer. I will try not to make long breaks.

In the process of discussing the previous topic, the old kind question popped up: “How do we sell IT?” Let's consider this question from the point of view of small business.
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To begin with, I will try to formulate what, from my point of view, is our small business. A small business is a small in terms of the number of employees (usually it takes up to 50 people) an organization in which management processes are not very formalized, a small number of regular customers (but the departure of any of these customers is very painful for sales) and with a turnover of up to 1 million dollars As a rule, it belongs to one owner (individual), who is also the director of this company. The organization specializes in one area of ​​activity, almost all employees have specialized education, but they are not specialists in management, much less IT. Many external contacts are made on the recommendations of friends or relatives. Like you forgot nothing?

igorux : Absolutely optional. For example, almost all publishing houses are small enterprises, and they may have thousands of customers.

All efforts of this company are aimed at development - increase in turnover due to retention of regular customers, search for new and reduction of costs. There is, of course, an option when a small company keeps at a certain level and its owner does not want to grow anywhere. As a rule, all processes are already established there, they do not change and for us, IT's, this is a practical “deaf” option. Moreover, any intervention can harm this firm and they understand it (sometimes unconsciously).

Naturally, a small company has almost no budget line for the development of IT. The owner of the account every penny that he spends either on the development of the company, or for himself.

Now let's be honest with who we are. We are in this case serving the industry. Rarely, when in a small business IT-tools are tools of labor, but even in this case, every penny will still be considered. We almost never know the specifics of a particular area of ​​activity that lies outside our interests. We also have products or services that we sell. And frankly, these things are not vital for the above firms. Nothing like? Remember sellers encyclopedias? This is it.

In most cases, a potential client either does not understand what is being offered to him, or why he needs it, or why it costs so much. And often all together. And we only exacerbate the situation by describing the product with IT-terminology and using the words “improved”, “increase efficiency”, “savings”. Plus, the explanation takes time - time manager.

The situation, to put it mildly, worthless. Do you like it when you get something done? I do not. And the owners of small firms are very pragmatic people. They must be convincing only with the help of concrete numbers.

First of all, try to describe your product or service in specific quantitative criteria and indicators. “Better,” “more efficient,” “more comfortable,” “faster,” are empty words. It is better if you can give some monetary criteria of advantage, but, as a rule, this is problematic. The criteria for time and reliability remain, and now they can be converted into money. For example, registration of a client in your program takes 30 seconds, and just in an Excel table for 1.5 minutes. Reliability is higher due to the fact that you use a database with a backup, and not a file on the disk. In short, everything that can be converted into money.

Dogen : Usually the opposite. That's the nature of Excel. It is better to rest on real “multi-user”, on the ability to share access to clients, transfer from one manager to another, to preserve knowledge about a particular client, etc.
Files are also excellent backups, if the system administrator is not quite so miserable. Here it is necessary to dig deeper and rest on the preservation of the entire history of working with documents, etc. - it is close and understandable to people, because forever any small disassembly occur.

In large projects, a feasibility study is almost always required. Try to write it for your product. It will save time for you and your potential customers. I am silent about the fact that you immediately show yourself in a favorable light - you operate not with empty words, but with concrete numbers.

Further, when you write this document, be sure to include all the COSTS that will accompany your product during implementation and operation. Rent, training, technical support, etc. etc. Firstly, without this it is difficult to assess the profitability of purchasing your product. And secondly, it will save you from unpleasant moments in the future. Perhaps the fact that you have not indicated any expenses will help you initially sell the product, but in the future it will be difficult for you to explain why you still want money. I agree that explaining the need for technical support to an ordinary client is difficult. And even more so when it comes to some "small" modifications. “We already bought this product, why don't you want to fix it a little bit?” Familiar?

oleg_kud : With regard to changes in the course of the play, I usually show a graph of the cost of changes depending on the stage of the project.
Looking at the cost of an hour at the TZ stage and at the testing stage, the customer thinks 3 times whether it is worth changing and what is most important to change now or in the next version - which is more useful for you, you have a potential continuation of the project.

Another “favorite” problem is the “familiar student.” IMHO, you need to fold and put a monument to the "Unknown student." Or "Vasya Pupkin". Sorry for Tsereteli's money is not enough - his monsters are painfully good. “And we already have a specialist. He set up a program for us, set up a computer, stretched the network (underline the necessary). "There is nothing left but to frighten with reliability and quality. Siding dumping prices does not make sense. In general, IMHO, you should never work at a loss in the hope of somehow compensating for this. Try to explain that relying on one person is dangerous. He can get sick, go on vacation, etc. “What will happen when he graduates from school / institute? Do you associate the existence of your company with one person you know little about? ”Managers are not always aware of how much valuable information they store in a computer. Ask him to clarify this with his own employees.

Addition : As for the start-up company, you can always refer to the personal experience of its owners and employees. It is unlikely that a very young specialist will create a company. And so, on the contrary, you can get close to the fact that you are tired of working for your uncle - you started your business. Those. You and your client are in the same market position - you are independent entrepreneurs. IMHO, it's one thing when you talk to a hired employee and another with the same entrepreneur as you yourself.
Lisa : By the way, this is very effective. I experienced both roles :) And potential customers imbued with sympathy, and she, too, imbued with sympathy. And just in working with small business and making a decision by one or two people, sympathy means a lot.

Existing customers. If possible, get written thanks from your customers. Successful implementations and satisfied customers are a very important factor.

Licensed software or pirated. Cheap iron or expensive. I think everything has been said here. With iron, you can always give an analogy with cars or with products. Who is closer.

More difficult question commercial or freely distributed software. The main thing is not to indulge in religious extremes. It is better to calculate everything: maintenance, updates, development. Everywhere there are pros and cons.

Development. This is another important argument. A company that actively uses IT technologies rarely encounters the problem of processing an increased number of contacts / transactions, etc. It's one thing when something is already being used and employees are trained. A completely different scenario, when a problem arises suddenly, and there is no time to solve it. This, by the way, is one of the criteria for choosing commercial or frivarny software. It’s one thing to switch to Enterprise Edition and a completely different product or platform change.

The cost of your work. How much and for what does a good chef get? And what, the meat and the pan is - who can even cook? What does your client prefer: a restaurant or a dog patty? You studied, spent your time and energy, why did you not deserve a decent reward? You can appeal to the market - cheaper than the average price should be suspicious. If you provide services, describe the decomposition of your work: take, connect, measure, adjust, reload, etc. etc. All this work and it costs money.

And the last. It is not always possible to convince from the first time. Be sure to leave a business card and materials. Sometimes, a person just needs to calmly ponder everything and orient, consult. Try to find out when they end a contract of support for the current product, to remind you of yourself shortly before renewal. Even if it didn't work out - congratulate you on the New Year or some other holiday. An unobtrusive reminder often works well.

PS Most things are well known. Correct where I'm wrong. To some extent, I wrote it for myself, so as not to forget, and I would have been at hand.