Small Business: Big Opportunity

Recognised as having huge growth potential, the SMB market (up to 70 employees) represents an impressive revenue opportunity. With over 21 million small businesses worldwide using one or more PCs with no server, still using old software that offers limited security protection and failing to address the work/life balance, you can see why vendors are actively targeting SMBs with solutions that are designed to suit their specific needs.

Who are you selling to?

While small business owner managers are as diverse as the businesses they own, they are usually the primary business decision maker and tend not to utilise the skills of an IT manager, instead preferring to carry out the tasks themselves. When dealing with the small business manager, it’s important to remember the following points:

The top business priorities of an SMB Manager are to increase sales to existing customers, win new customers and better manage cash flow
Their purchase decisions are influenced by price, their trust in you, and the performance and compatibility of your solution with their existing systems
They do not wish to be bothered with technology; solutions need to work as expected, when expected.

Maximise the opportunity
When dealing with small businesses you need to talk their language – the biggest hurdle any reseller has to overcome is the winning of trust, therefore it’s essential that you have a fundamental understanding of the way their industry and business works.

Don't oversell – there’s nothing that turns an SMB off quicker than trying to sell them a solution that’s too big or expensive for their needs. Keep in mind their size and limited resources, not only to purchase but to also manage the solution once implemented.

Show how your products make life easier – give a practical demonstration of how solutions will make their business more efficient, responsive and productive.

Be responsive to their needs, both pre- and post-sale. The more information and support you can give them up-front the smoother the sales process will be and the greater the trust and relationship will be.

The mid-market opportunity

The mid-market (70 to 250 employees) also presents a huge opportunity for the reseller community – a large installed base of 68 million PCs and 48 million servers, pressure to do more with less, and the need to compete on a level playing ground with organisations much larger than themselves. All these factors are pushing mid-market businesses to be more aware of the IT solutions available and how they can use them to create competitive advantage.

With mid-market businesses spending over $162 billion on software and IT services a year, the market is currently expected to grow to $235 billon by 2009. This represents a great opportunity for your business in not only hardware and software revenue, but also services.

Our mid-market guide aims to give an insight into the opportunity that this market presents, and offers helpful pointers on the pain points and drivers are forcing change within mid-sized businesses and how Microsoft solutions can help ease those pressures.