Three Lessons for SMB Market Success

By:  Vinod Harith

We deal a lot with SMBs (apart from being one ourselves) and spend significant time and effort in making their businesses successful. The many years we have worked closely on delivering marketing and sales programs for them has given us a fair deal of insight on the magic formula that can deliver market success for SMBs. If we peeled off the several layers of complexity thrown up by market factors and other stuff we can’t fully control, there are three rules that can ensure SMBs achieve market success, no matter whether you do it yourself or you outsource your go to market.

1. Clarity of outcomes: Decide what you want. Is your priority building a channel, acquiring trial customers, increasing walk-ins or improving sales? All of the above, unfortunately, is not an option. Many SMBs spread themselves thin by going after multiple objectives, often emulating marketing programs or strategies of larger peers. What we have found to work: focus on one or two key objectives that you can afford to invest time and resources on, govern closely and achieve ROI. Ideally start with the low hanging fruit - choose your most potential markets, most effective channels and easy to market services and not the other way around. Lesson: Dig deep, not wide.

2. Patience: This is easily one of the top reasons for market failure given that most entrepreneurs are typical type 'A's: aggressive and impatient for success. Most worthy go to market efforts are marred by frequent changes in strategy, people, moving off goal posts and more importantly 'pulling the plug' off marketing due to inability to sustain investments. What we have found to work: don't start a program unless you have the patience, intent and funds to sustain a minimum of six months of marketing effort. Lesson: if you keep pulling off the plants to see if the roots are growing, you're never going to have a garden.

3. Screw theory and learn from others: Most entrepreneurs try to learn from peers and believe what worked for others will work for their businesses. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. Every go to market effort is unique, especially in the current dynamic market context. Be willing to make mistakes, experiment with new ideas and innovate in the marketplace. Past experiences are at best data points and not the Holy Grail. What we have found to work: You need the agility to learn from the market and make dynamic course corrections as you go along. Lesson: Its the rolling stone that gathers no moss.