Get to know clients and keep them
Building relations can help small businesses grow
Rick Spence, Financial Post
Published: Monday, September 29, 2008
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any entrepreneurs rely on big businesses as their key customers and revenue sources. But first you have to get them to notice you and then buy your product or service.
Moe Somani has a few ideas about how to do that. As president of Soho Business Group, which is holding its annual small business conferences next week in Toronto and Oct. 15 in Vancouver, he sells sponsorships and partnerships to organizations such as Visa, Rogers, Yahoo! and TD Canada Trust. While his company has big ambitions and a national footprint, it's still just 10 people working in an office just off the main drag in North Vancouver.
But Somani is no stranger to underdog-dom. In fact, it was probably essential to his development as an entrepreneur. The 42-year-old began his career at Pitney Bowes in Toronto. But he wasn't selling its industry-leading postage meters -- he was selling photocopiers. His territory included major clients such as Honeywell Bull, the University of Toronto and the Toronto Board of Education -- organizations where no one ever got fired for buying from industry leaders like Xerox or Canon.
"It helped me learn the ropes," Somani says. As the underdog, he learned to compensate by offering more personal and dedicated service. Where his competitors called on prospects only when a new bid process was about to begin, Somani would contact them a year in advance. He'd meet the decision-makers, help them out with photocopying problems, and make sure they understood his products' advantages. "You can't sell to the customer until you've earned the right to do so."
As he built relationships, one of Somani's tactics was to offer a "loaner" to prospects when one of their copiers broke down. Where the market leaders might take three or four days to fix the unit, he could have a copier delivered in a few hours. And each model would be a step above the machine it replaced.
Somani's dedication to relationships and customer needs resulted in big contracts with the board of education, which abandoned its practice of accepting the lowest bid in exchange for Pitney Bowe's superior service. It also encouraged many U of T departments to endure the extra paperwork required to buy from Somani rather than the university's preferred-vendors list. "We didn't make the Top 3 vendors' list," Somani says, "but we sold more product than any of them." His team even helped customers complete the paperwork, to make it easier for them to buy.
Somani left Pitney Bowes in 1997 to found Soho, which serves small businesses and home-based businesses. Since then, he has honed his relationship-building tactics in dealing with the big companies that make his business shows profitable.
Here are some techniques Somani uses to win over -- and renew -- demanding, enterprise-level clients:
Teach your staff 'selling means serving' "I always tell my sales people, 'Build the relationship.' Earn the right to present to these companies," Somani says. "Find out about their needs, as opposed to calling someone cold and then sending out a proposal very quickly."
Know your prospects' buying process Somani makes sure he understands his customers' budget schedules, their buying cycles and when his contracts come up for renewal. He builds trust by being in touch with clients well before and long after key decisions are made.
Be sensitive to customers' changing needs "We're very flexible and accommodating," says Somani. One client has even renewed for several years without a written contract. "It's because of the trust factor. They believe we are going to be giving them what we say they are going to be given -- and more."
With big companies, build relationships at street level as well as senior levels To promote next month's conference, one Soho staffer visited 15 TD bank branches in two days to explain the benefits of the show and drop off brochures. "We want to have the personal connection with the branch manager," Somani says. Another benefit is if head office changes its mind about doing business with you, the lower levels may push back. "We have seen it [in one corporation] where marketing decided not to do something with us, and sales asked them to reconsider."
Give clients extra value
Somani invites clients to regular Soho receptions in Toronto and Vancouver, where they can meet his staff or hobnob with local entrepreneurs to try to understand that market better. He also tries to match them up when they have converging interests, such as cross-marketing or participating in each others' events. "Sometimes I wonder why they need us," Somani says jokingly.
But he understands personal relationships are as important to big companies as they are to small business. - Rick Spence is a writer, consultant and speaker specializing in entrepreneurship. His column appears Mondays in the Financial Post. He can be reached at rick@ rickspence.ca
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