SmallBizResource Blog -- Business Know-How

Get Your Foot In the Door With a Small Sale

Posted by Janet Attard, Courtesy of Business Know-How Friday, May 23, 2008, 03:10 PM ET

Businesses and consumers alike often consider that the risk of dealing with a new, small business far outweighs any benefits they may derive, particularly when there is a lot of money involved. How can you overcome that mindset?

One of the ways is to take small steps toward getting your customer familiar with you and the quality of your products and services.

One of the simplest ways to do that is to give key prospects a free sample. Software programmers who sell their programs on the Web often make available demo versions of their programs that will work for a limited time. People interested in the program can download it and try it for a short period of time to determine whether it meets their needs. Other programmers give away simple versions of their products to get people to purchase the versions that have highly desirable add-on features.

If you worry that free samples will result in more tire-kickers than real customers, develop a low-cost but desirable product or service to sell to your target market. Be sure the product or service is top quality. Once you've gained the customer's confidence on a small sale, it will be easier to reduce concerns about placing big orders with you.

If the client doesn't bite on the first attempt to trade up to bigger and better sales, don't forget about them. If you have qualified the customer in advance and know there are good possibilities for additional sales, stay in touch on a regular basis. Send them news clippings, press releases, product announcements and anything that will help build your case for being a qualified and reliable supplier to their company.

Business Know-How