Want to win with small businesses? Think big
April 30, 2021
For a wide range of enterprises – from banks and insurance company to utilities, telecommunications providers and tech firms – small and midsized businesses (SMBs) represent a vitally important customer segment. Hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis, SMBs are also poised for a vibrant rebirth.
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“What if instead of relying on small channel partners, enterprises could work with a much larger partner – one with big resources for serving SMBs?”
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Enterprises often have been serving SMB customers through a network of agencies, brokers and resellers. Many of these channel partners are SMBs themselves. In working with clients, my team at Accenture began to think about the potential for a new and different way for enterprises to support SMBs.
What if instead of relying on small channel partners, enterprises could work with a much larger partner – one with big resources for serving SMBs?
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As we explored that question, a new approach began to take shape. We recognized an opportunity to bring together massive data sets, trained resources and industrialized marketing solutions and put it to work on behalf of large enterprises to support small businesses. We call this package the SMB Sales House.
The SMB Sales House is designed to give enterprises a single source for a wealth of SMB data; proven strategies and tools for search engine marketing, digital advertising campaigns and virtual events; and contact center professionals to engage via phone and “feet on the street” to meet with SMBs in person when a particular sale requires that level of engagement and support.
This approach may sound different from Accenture’s traditional role in helping an organization build a strategy and roll out the technology, business processes and change management initiatives to execute it. That’s because it is. With SMB Sales House, we are taking a totally different approach – delivering a turnkey solution that we have built, that we actively operate, and that we can quickly put to work for enterprises.
We also decided to use a value-based model with no upfront cost to get started. Accenture is compensated only when we successfully generate business on behalf of an enterprise. In many ways, it’s like an ongoing pilot – one in which Accenture does the heavy lifting of identifying SMB prospects, understanding their needs, aligning products and services with those needs, and then engaging with SMBs to turn them into new or more loyal customers for a business.
Bringing together these resources around the globe is an ongoing effort, and we are now regularly onboarding new countries. The process, which takes a couple of months, involves gathering local data sets and addressing legal requirements. Once we have onboarded a country, contracting is relatively fast and simple. We can be up and running on behalf of an enterprise in that country in a matter of weeks.
As you’re reading this, you may have questions about the specifics of how this offering works. I welcome the chance to answer your questions – and to show you how our SMB Sales House is delivering results for other enterprises around the globe.
To learn more, please connect with me via LinkedIn.
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