Small Business B2B Marketing Blog

Failing to align your marketing message with your target audience is the primary reason why most small business B2B sales lead prospecting campaigns efforts fail.

Interview with Bob Hennessey - What I have learned over 30 years of marketing that will benefit small business selling to other businesses.

In Part I we discovered the benefits of customer centric web marketing in website sales lead generation. Here is a recap of our discussion in Part I.

This small business web marketing strategy guide is easy to implement and can actually save time and money building your business on the Web.

In baseball there is a term called playing “small ball.” A team usually adopts small ball because it lacks power hitters that can hit home runs easily and often. Manufacturing runs is the mantra used by those playing small ball. A single here, a bunt there, a stolen base and smart base running are the methods utilized to manufacture runs.

How do you build initial rapport with your customers?

Building initial customer rapport with anyone is important with small business firms that sell consultative products or services to other businesses it is essential. It is the impetus to being able to establish a rapport beachhead and the springboard to your likelihood to build a deeper and closer business relationship.

Okay, so how do you build initial customer rapport?

It is simple how do you answer the question, “what do you do?”

How you answer, the question is the foundation to rapport building. It is the business question you are asked most often at a networking event, by a potential customer, or a casual acquaintance regarding your business.

Are you ready? Do you know how you will answer?

Your answer is decisive to building initial rapport with the person that just asked you that question and maybe in getting a referral from that person from a friend or casual acquaintance of theirs. Your answer is that important.

Why, because your answer has the power to instantly resonate with the person that just asked you that question and if it does you will have an opportunity to build deeper rapport to sell yourself and your business.

The number one thing not to do is to answer the question by telling them what you do. That’s right do not tell them anything about what you do.

Instead, tell them how you can help solve a problem they may have or others they know may be encountering.

When someone asks the question, “what do you do?” They are really asking can you help me.

Some people call this an elevator pitch or speech; I like to call it a 10-second commercial because you need to deliver this message in less than ten seconds. When done properly you should evoke one of two reactions from the person you are talking to. They will react with wow, tell me more or tell me more. In either case, you just built initial rapport.

By using a well-crafted, customer-centric 10-second commercial you are delivering a simple but powerful marketing message about your business that can be repeated by the person that asked you the question and by others, they network with. A good 10-second commercial is worth tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising to a small business.

Takeaway
If you want to be more successful in building initial rapport with your business-to-business customers then develop a customer-centric marketing message that explains how your small business can help solve problems for your sales prospects in less than 10-seconds and use it as the foundation of all your marketing everyday.

Do you want to reduce small business b2b marketing costs & increase your customer base? Then you may want reconsider your approach to b2b sales prospecting. Unbelievably the secret to successful b2b small business lead generation does not require selling.

“We built our success on working hard and overachieving for our clients. In return, they often were a great source of new business referrals.