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Too Small to Improve? Take a Different Angle

Do you find yourself thinking "My business is too small to do that"?

By Mark Riffey

It may seem that the strategies and tactics we talk about here are intended to improve your business relate solely to bigger businesses. A company with lots of staff, a big office and plenty of cash can make these things happen easily, right? And these things apply only to those bigger companies, at least, that’s what you might be thinking. Thing is, that really isn’t true. If your first thought tends to be “my business is too small to do that“, give yourself a chance. Step back a bit and look deeper at what we’re trying to accomplish and let the complexity fade to the background. The key is to pan for gold: find the fundamental outcome that these discussions are about.

A small company will almost never implement things the same way a bigger one would. That doesn’t mean that the small company shouldn’t implement them. Both have the same fundamental needs, like more sales, better leads, faster delivery (or something), and so on.

For example, the discussion might be something that seems complex, like a marketing calendar or lead curation. Both of those things may seem like overkill for a small company – but neither of them are. If we drill down into what they’re trying to accomplish, I think that will become evident.

Let’s talk about what lead curation really is. Why? It’s a great example of one of these “bigger business” things can be implemented by a small, or even one person business… Even if you think “my business is too small”.

What is lead curation?

Leads come into your reach in different stages. They might be ready to buy. The late Chet Holmes said his experience showed that three percent of your market is always ready to buy. The other 97% might be researching, recently decided to investigate, may have determined that their existing solution isn’t doing what they need, and so on. Out of 100 or 100,000 leads, you will find natural groupings like this.

If someone is ready to buy, your sales team (even if the entire team is you) needs to know they’re ready so that someone can start a “ready to buy” conversation with that lead. If someone from your team (or you) have an early-in-the-process kind of conversation with them, you may lose them.

A lead who has recently started researching solutions like yours will likely be put off by a sales person who opens a “ready to buy” conversation. Someone else (or you, if there is no someone else) needs to have the kind of conversation with that lead that will help fulfill their research needs as it relates to your product. This might be the time to provide them with a comparison form (ie: buyer’s guide) that helps them make a purchase decision.

For each stage a lead is in, the conversation that the lead needs to have with your sales team (or you) is a conversation that helps them come to the conclusion that it’s time to move to the next stage. Bear in mind, they don’t necessarily think in these stages, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

That is but one example of “something your business should do”. It’s a good example of something that a bigger company might have software or some sort of system to manage.

You may not have or need those things, but that doesn’t mean the process isn’t important to your success and growth.

“My business is too small for lead curation”

Based on this description of lead curation, it’s not a size thing. It’s all about having the right conversations with people based on where they are in the process of deciding to buy. The smallest company needs to do this – and in fact, the smallest companies are both awesome and horrible at this. You’ll either see them having the same conversation with every lead (horrible), or they will cater very specifically to each lead (awesome).

For a small business, figuring out how to perform lead curation and keep track of what has been done to move your leads through each stage of buying is still important. It isn’t important how the smallest of small businesses does this. It isn’t important how the bigger business does this. It isn’t important that the bigs and the smalls use the same tools or techniques.

What’s important is that it gets done.

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s sitecontact him on Twitter, or email him at [email protected].