When Your "Small Business" "Acts as if" You're a Big Company

The phone at your "small business" rings. The receptionist answers and says, "The sales manager? One moment..." and she puts the caller through to you. Later, the phone rings again. "The production manager? One moment..." and she puts the caller through to you.

Oops, same caller. You've just shown your poker hand and you're not holding a full house, you're holding a pair. Because your receptionist lacked basic incoming telemarketing skills, you've suddenly shown your business to be a small business...

when, in fact, you were hoping to look like a large business! Now, what do most businesses do when this happens? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Unbelievably, small businesses that want to grow forget one fundamental rule that applies to the schoolyard, to the corporate world, and to the world of entrepreneurs: "Act as if".

 When your "small business" "acts as if" you're a big company, people sit up and take notice. They respect you. They respond to you. But if you're a small business that lacks telemarketing skills - whether that's for inbound or outbound calls - you've shown yourself to be a two-bit loser.

Will companies do business with you? Maybe they will. But if they know that 98% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years, maybe they won't. After all, they want to work with someone for the long haul.

So, small businesses who want to grow: stop living the lie! Stop being a "small business" that wants to grow but doesn't do anything about it. Instead, adopt an outlook on life that says "we're a large company... we just haven't filled all of our desks yet".

So where do you start? One basic area: Telemarketing sales.

Whether people are calling in or calling out, most business is done over the phone; maybe not every transaction, but most businesses do some part of their sales cycle over the phone. And, for many businesses, the phone is one of the primary points of contact where a prospect's first impressions of the company are formed.

So, follow this basic (but often-forgotten) progression with me: Small businesses want to become big businesses. They need to sell more to do fulfil that dream. To sell more, they need to improve a crucial area of their sales cycle. One of those crucial sales cycle areas is the "telesales" effort. To improve the "telesales" effort they need training. Training leads to improved execution. Improved execution leads to more sales. More sales leads to business growth.

When I put it like that, it's a "no-brainer", right?

So the question is: Are you living a lie and being a "small business" that wants to be a big business but doesn't do anything about it? Or are you living the truth and living up to your dreams!?

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