5 Things to Know When Marketing to New Businesses

Getting new businesses to take interest in your company can be one of the most challenging tasks for a salesperson. Unlike well-established businesses that may have enough capital to give them the freedom to purchase goods and services from other companies to aid their business, new businesses must be extremely careful with their business decisions. One wrong move and their new company might end before it really begins. When the stakes are that high, how do you convince a new business that hiring your business is the right choice, that you can help them establish a foundation of their own? When you have a list of new businesses

1) Be Ready to be Flexible:

Being flexible is the most important thing you can do when working with a new business. Come in ready to answer a lot of different questions and offer advice in any way you can. Unlike established businesses, startups aren’t as easy as a business saying “we’re looking for this, can you do it?” As Bill Mattern of GoLeads puts it,

“For startups, because they may need help in a variety of areas and are not sure where to start, the message might lean more towards: “how can I help?” vs. an established business, which is more inclined to have a specific need. Business owners in startups might be looking for answers in a number of areas because they may not be sure where to start. Established personnel usually have enough historical data to know where to focus their attention and want answers to specific questions to stay on task. Owners in startups may be more open to hearing which path to take.”

Basically, come prepared to help them figure out what they need and be ready to answer questions that they have. If you can help them figure out what they might need then you’ve built a relationship with this company. At that point, it’s very likely that they’ll come to you when they need the kind of services your business provides.

2) Know Your Audience:

It’s always a good thing to keep in mind who it is that you’re marketing to. You can’t approach a new business the same way you’d approach one that’s a decade old and two companies with the same goal might have completely different needs or views. Finding out as much as you can about a business before marketing to them is essential. What do similar businesses tend to need? What are things they might not have thought of? Could your company assist them? If so, how? What are the ins and outs of the industry? Startups are guaranteed to have questions for you, so the more you can answer for them, the better. If you know the industry you’ll have a much better idea of how to market yourself to a startup than you would otherwise.

3) Continuous Support

New businesses often won’t know exactly what they need; they probably won’t figure everything out after meeting with you for the first time. Offering a potential lead the ability to reach out with any future questions they might have is an excellent way to turn them into a lead. If they feel like they have a door open to them, it’ll be easier for them to go through it than to try and open a different one.

4) Listen, but be Confident

Even though the business you’re working with is the one that ultimately needs to make their own decisions, your company has more experience; there’s a chance that your ideas will conflict, and that’s okay. It’s always important to listen to your client, but it’s also important to know when to push them. There will be decisions that they need to make that they might not want to. That is once they hire you. When generating leads, it will be best to show the confidence and experience that they’re going to need later, as well as a willingness to listen.

5) Follow Up

Make sure to follow up with your lead to make sure your initial meeting went well and to see how else your company might be able to help them. A follow up not only helps establish a relationship with the lead but can also help you figure out what is working well and what isn’t with the way you operate with leads. Using that information is an excellent way to make sure any future interactions with that lead and future prospects goes as well as possible.