The small business market, the coveted target of many salespeople, is a myth. At least 85% of small businesses are not real sales prospects; they are one-man shops, paper companies and fly-by-night shows. John Warrillow provides an invaluable service to salespeople around the world by explaining how to spot and eliminate this "sludge." He also tells how to segment viable companies to identify the best potential prospects. getAbstract.com strongly recommends that all salespeople read this priceless book.
A False Market
The small-business market is the Holy Grail for many corporations that wish to sell services and products to companies with 50 or fewer employees. It’s an elusive market to find - so elusive that the first thing you should do is forget about the small business market altogether. It doesn’t exist.
As far as the U.S. Census is concerned, a high-tech start-up, a dry cleaner, and a wedding photographer are all neatly categorized as small business owners. You will need to be a pretty deft businessman to capture a share of this small-business market, however, since these businesses have little or nothing to do with one another. When you think of a market, you think of commonality - some common business interest or transaction that binds every business together. When you search for these commonalities, you quickly find that there are small-business segments, but no single small-business market. To find the segments you wish to attract, and to size up your market, begin by skimming off the sludge.
Sludge-Skimmers and Bottom-Feeders
Almost all small businesses exaggerate - lie - about the size of their companies or the number of people that they...
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