Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM September 2019 | Page 12

MARKETING
SOMMER KIBBEE
Vernon Graphics & Promotions
832-274-5245
www.myvernon.biz/brianstottlemyer
Five Reasons You Should Be
Selling to Small Businesses
1-It’s easy to build trust.
It’s easy to build trust with small business owners
because most of the owners are present in the day-to-
day activity that surrounds their business. In fact, there
isn’t much that takes place in a small business that
the shop owner doesn’t have a hand in. So once they
establish a trusting relationship with someone else who
is an asset to the well-being of the business, they tend to
keep that person in their close circle.
Try building a friendly relationship with the store
owners in your home town. Make an effort to know
their customers so they trust you to help make their
businesses grow.
2-No hoops to jump through.
Because you are most likely working directly with the
owner, there won’t be any hoops to jump through to find
someone authorized to make a decision. Small business
owners tend to keep decisions to a yes or a no. There
won’t be any phone transfers, upper-management, or
lag time to deal with.
Once you have
developed a trusting
relationship with a
small business owner,
they’ll feel comfortable
to entertain your
promotional product
ideas and the buck
stops there. They either
like it or they don’t!
3-If they’re happy,
they will tell
someone.
If small business
owners are happy
with their products
and service, they WILL
tell someone. And if
someone should ask
where they got something, they WILL tell someone.
Where big brand companies stick to commercials and
print ads, small businesses do most of their marketing
through word of mouth and social media these days.
Selling trendy promotional products to one store
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MOMENTUM
might result in supplying an entire Main Street with
promotional products.
It’s not uncommon for entire communities to
rally all of their small businesses together for Shop
Small Saturdays and Sip and Strolls so go ahead and
encourage your customers to share your contact info for
city-wide events.
4-Be along for the ride.
Don’t you want to be along for the ride when
that small store becomes one of many? Every large
company and corporation started as a small business!
They might be ordering minimum quantities right now
but that just means there’s nowhere to go but up! And
if your marketing tools (promo products) have been
helping their business grow from the beginning, they’ll
continue to need you and your products as they grow.
If your customers are growing, you’re growing!
5-They’re small but mighty.
Small businesses might be small when they stand
alone, but they’re certainly mighty when they stand
together. For every
US corporation,
there are 1162 small
businesses! Towns all
across America are
looking to revamp
their downtowns with
quaint boutiques,
restaurants, and
stores. While all of
the department
stores have made
the move online,
the Ma & Pa shops
are keeping their
doors open and their
shelves full of trendy,
earth-friendly, and
reclaimed items.
Small businesses are as trendy as the products inside
them and they provide vital revenue for our home
towns. Let’s make sure we support them by shopping
small and offering marketing solutions (promotional
products) that fit their budgets.