Small business managers should take lessons from their neighborhood druggist. In the face of widespread assault from chains, druggists not only have held their own, they enjoy a rare place in America.
According to many surveys conducted over recent years, the independent druggist is the most trusted professional in America. At the same time, according to the National Association of Independent Pharmacies, non-chain druggists fill 53% of all prescriptions while representing less than 42% of all stores.
This is happening because local druggists:
- Know their customer
- Ask their customer more questions and are concerned
- Provide an ear to their problems and needs
- Offer a variety of services in an individualized atmosphere
Another more specific example, involves the rapidly evolving hardware environment. Down the road from a giant Home Depot store in Secaucus, NJ is a small hardware and lumberyard. It has survived three years of unrelenting pressure from its bigger rival by focusing on service.
A customer never waits more than five minutes for an experienced salesperson to help them. Every salesperson knows one or two departments intimately and every department well. For this store, and any other business faced with a big rival, better service is often the key to continued profits.
Don't Panic, Act
When a new, bigger competitor opens up nearby, every small business will lose patronage and money. People naturally flock to a new store, especially one that offers lower prices and newer surroundings.
When this happens, small firm owners shouldn't panic. Rather, they need to assess what they can do better than their newer, bigger neighbor. Four things experts suggest are:
- Provide a more personalized service. Remember your customer's name and shopping preference.
- Concentrate on improving the quality and presentation of your goods and services. A coat of paint goes a long way to dressing up any establishment.
- Communicate with your customers. Assure them of the highest quality service and that you will maintain your standards of product reliability.
- Run specials whenever you can and communicate these sales to customers.
- Whenever a problem occurs, fix it promptly and with a smile.
Selling To Goliaths
These same concepts work when the goal is to sell to large corporations, For Anthony Parinello, one of the nation's better-known sales gurus, this is just the starting point for his four strategies to better sales. Parinello has talked with CEOs, presidents and business owners over the years, and believes their success depends upon four operating principals:
- If you want to sell faster know who your ideal prospects are.
- If you want your sale to stick...pitch a balanced "gain" equation.
- if you want to sell quickly sell to the CEO, president or owner.
- Be an expert...stay focused and you'll get add-on business!
Equally as important, every employee needs to know what the company's goals are vis-à-vis the larger company. This approach adds muscle to your efforts and creates an aura of a much larger company.
This type of thinking is particularly crucial for opening new accounts at large corporations. People take you for what you value yourself. Walking into a large company and projecting the confidence that you can solve some of their problems is a good start in any business relationship. Cultivate relationships with "lighthouse customers" and leverage their expertise to guide your own product/service development. Use them as reference accounts to build a case for the larger company to use your products or services.
Help them find a better supplier by demonstrating how effective your company can be in working with them. That's where the total employee focus comes in. If the large corporate entity feels your whole team is committed to making the effort successful, it will lead to a sale.
Always remember, David did slay Goliath. You have a significant number of stones in your bag to do the same.