SMB Sales & Marketing

By Matt Ramage, Advanced American Telephones

If you’re like most small businesses, return on investment (ROI) is the North Star that guides your success. Faced with a tight budget, limited staff and lean resources, you’re careful about allocating funds only to those investments that will enhance operational efficiency, customer service and sales. That may or may not include telecommunications. If it currently doesn’t, here are a few reasons why it should:

• The right phone system can help you and your staff project more of a “big-business” image—but still allow you to stay true to your roots.
   
• Looking for more ways to trim the fat? If you’ve been running your business with cellphones, a small office phone system can save you a lot of money. You won’t have to compromise on features either.
   
• Despite—or because of—the proliferation of electronic communication like automated emails and recorded messages, your customers may actually prefer more personal communication. Another plus for the trusty telephone.
   

How do you make sure your investment provides the return you want? First, you can learn from the mistakes of others. For example:

• Avoid investing for the short-term. You don’t want to get locked into a system that’s inflexible and obsolete within a couple years.
   
• Don’t forget to factor in maintenance and service contract fees. If you’re really diligent, you’ll opt for a system that you can install and manage yourself.
   
• Don’t be swayed by a deal. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
   
• Don’t let all the frills blind you. If you don’t need them, don’t pay extra for them.
   
• Take it seriously. Purchasing a phone system for your business is just as important as any other infrastructure decision. Make sure you involve the right people in the process.

Now that you know what to avoid, let’s look at what to consider. The market is awash with options—far too many to delve into here. These broad strokes should help you start evaluating traditional phone systems:

• Size matters.  You may be working out of your home today, but what are your plans for the future? How many employees do you think you may add in the next one to three years? You’ll want a system that can grow with your business.
   
• Do it yourself. Are you prepared to set up and maintain the system yourself? If you are, you’ll save a lot of money. On the flip side, your time may be worth more than the cost of having a consultant handle it. Add it up to see what makes most sense financially. My money is on the former.
   
• Your customers count. Do your customers expect you to be available after hours? Even if you can’t offer a live point of contact, there are options you can provide that will placate your callers temporarily. For example, an auto attendant will let you customize how calls are handled when they come in at off-hours. An answering system and voicemail are additional considerations. How many minutes of recording time can the system accommodate? Does each desk -set or extension have its own system or voicemail?
   
• Take your work with you. If your business requires you or your employees to be away from their desks a lot, you’ll want to make sure the system integrates with cordless headsets and/or handsets. Ask about the range these cordless devices permit. Is it far enough to accommodate frequent trips out to your store room or back office?
   
• Seize the sales opportunities. Besides helping you be more responsive to callers, a business phone system can help you market to your customers. For example, with music on hold, you can record messages that promote new products, sales, tech tips, etc.

Overall, the best advice I can impart is to keep your ROI compass front and center. It will steer you right.

Matt Ramage is the Senior Vice President of Product Management & Marketing at Advanced American Telephones, where he drives product management, channel marketing and customer support services for Advanced American Telephones and the company’s AT&T-licensed brands in North America.

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By Matt Ramage, Advanced American Telephones

If you’re like most small businesses, return on investment (ROI) is the North Star that guides your success. Faced with a tight budget, limited staff and lean resources, you’re careful about allocating funds only to those investments that will enhance operational efficiency, customer service and sales. That may or may not include telecommunications. If it currently doesn’t, here are a few reasons why it should:

• The right phone system can help you and your staff project more of a “big-business” image—but still allow you to stay true to your roots.
   
• Looking for more ways to trim the fat? If you’ve been running your business with cellphones, a small office phone system can save you a lot of money. You won’t have to compromise on features either.
   
• Despite—or because of—the proliferation of electronic communication like automated emails and recorded messages, your customers may actually prefer more personal communication. Another plus for the trusty telephone.
   

How do you make sure your investment provides the return you want? First, you can learn from the mistakes of others. For example:

• Avoid investing for the short-term. You don’t want to get locked into a system that’s inflexible and obsolete within a couple years.
   
• Don’t forget to factor in maintenance and service contract fees. If you’re really diligent, you’ll opt for a system that you can install and manage yourself.
   
• Don’t be swayed by a deal. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
   
• Don’t let all the frills blind you. If you don’t need them, don’t pay extra for them.
   
• Take it seriously. Purchasing a phone system for your business is just as important as any other infrastructure decision. Make sure you involve the right people in the process.

Now that you know what to avoid, let’s look at what to consider. The market is awash with options—far too many to delve into here. These broad strokes should help you start evaluating traditional phone systems:

• Size matters.  You may be working out of your home today, but what are your plans for the future? How many employees do you think you may add in the next one to three years? You’ll want a system that can grow with your business.
   
• Do it yourself. Are you prepared to set up and maintain the system yourself? If you are, you’ll save a lot of money. On the flip side, your time may be worth more than the cost of having a consultant handle it. Add it up to see what makes most sense financially. My money is on the former.
   
• Your customers count. Do your customers expect you to be available after hours? Even if you can’t offer a live point of contact, there are options you can provide that will placate your callers temporarily. For example, an auto attendant will let you customize how calls are handled when they come in at off-hours. An answering system and voicemail are additional considerations. How many minutes of recording time can the system accommodate? Does each desk -set or extension have its own system or voicemail?
   
• Take your work with you. If your business requires you or your employees to be away from their desks a lot, you’ll want to make sure the system integrates with cordless headsets and/or handsets. Ask about the range these cordless devices permit. Is it far enough to accommodate frequent trips out to your store room or back office?
   
• Seize the sales opportunities. Besides helping you be more responsive to callers, a business phone system can help you market to your customers. For example, with music on hold, you can record messages that promote new products, sales, tech tips, etc.

Overall, the best advice I can impart is to keep your ROI compass front and center. It will steer you right.

Matt Ramage is the Senior Vice President of Product Management & Marketing at Advanced American Telephones, where he drives product management, channel marketing and customer support services for Advanced American Telephones and the company’s AT&T-licensed brands in North America.

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By Michael Lee, Director of Global Marketing, Alibaba.com

Online storefronts are a wonderful way to sell goods and services, but presentation is key: too many businesses fail to market their storefronts successfully.

Online storefronts have proven to be a cost-effective way to ring up more sales because they provide customers with self-service and self-ordering capabilities, which saves money and manpower. Those who don’t want to build their own online storefronts can join one of the many Web-based business directories—digital era versions of the Yellow Pages—which are great for boosting exposure and reach.

Unfortunately, B2B directories usually offer their members the same fixed-format template for their online storefronts, making it difficult to send a unique message or stand apart from the competition. So, while directories allow small businesses to set up shop on the Internet with minimal investment and no specialized Web knowledge, companies tend to settle for uninformative, unattractive storefronts that they fail to keep up to date. 

To get an idea of the latest thinking in e-commerce marketing—and common pitfalls to avoid—we asked several international suppliers on Alibaba.com for some tips on how they maximize the marketing of their online storefronts.

Answer common customer questions upfront. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you probably know what most buyers want to know before they ask it. Save time and e-mails by using the home page of your online storefront as a FAQ machine.

Be transparent. Some suppliers are reluctant to disclose corporate information prominently on their online storefront because they don't want to tip their hand to the competition. But in conducting product searches, your potential customers must sift through a mountain of information from many companies. The more you disclose about your company up front, the better your chances of surviving the selection process.

“We recently took advantage of Alibaba.com’s new feature ‘minisite’ which allows a more customizable storefront template, complete with rotating top-of-page banners, photos and videos. A mini-site is more than an online storefront or a display window,” explains Tommy Zhou, international trade manager for Guangdong Yichao Biological, a China-based maker of chewable vitamins, capsules and candies. Putting that kind of useful information on the homepage “can help shorten the time required for initial communication and encourage buyers to send us inquiries more quickly,” Zhou says. “This way we can move to the order negotiation stage faster.”

Accentuate expertise. HDSafe Technologies, a Chinese maker of hands-free electronic faucets and flushing valves, is using its storefront to distinguish itself from competitors by highlighting the installation guidance and after-sales support the company offers to every customer.

Don’t set and forget. As with a brick-and-mortar shop, first impressions matter, and potential customers draw immediate conclusions when they visit your online storefront for the first time. If your online shelves are dusty and the messages are stale, customers are likely to move on to your competition. Don’t neglect routine page maintenance and updating. Merchandise featured in your digital shop window should be rotated regularly. Pay attention to the seasons and holidays, too. For example, don't feature air conditioners in the winter unless they're part of a clearance sale.

Details, Details. It is important to be detail-oriented in product descriptions. Make a pitch that plays to emotions—then tell customers what they need to know, including product functionalities, payment terms, minimum orders, packing options, etc. Pay attention to the keywords you use.

Keep it clean. When building a modern homepage, suppliers should communicate important points while at the same time avoiding information overload. Clean, pleasing page layouts and good design connotes professionalism. Cluttered presentations are more likely to confuse customers and drive them away. 

As you can see, these international suppliers have “learned on the fly” how to build ecommerce sites that generate sales and help to recruit new customers. If you can avoid the common marketing pitfalls, you will be on your way to having a website that is an important driver of revenue for your business. 

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