Posted By:
Rieva
on
05-21-2009
If your company sells Business-to-Business products or services, new research shows that your small business may actually have an edge over large corporate competitors.
Surprised? According to research firm Warrillow & Co., in a recent study, 45 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed said they were interested in buying products or services from local suppliers.
Why did these entrepreneurs trust smaller, local providers over big-name brand companies? Warrillow asked the entrepreneurs to do a word-association exercise with both local and national providers. Four terms that the respondents associated with national providers were: cookie cutter, intimidating, hard, and slow. Small-business owners were 54 times as likely to describe national brands as "cookie cutter" compared with local providers, 18 times as likely to describe national brands as "intimidating," nine times as likely to describe dealing with national brands as "hard," and six times as likely to describe national brands as "slow."
Of course, Warrillow notes, national providers are still strong competitors, especially when it comes to price and the sheer variety of their product offerings. But those aren't the only factors on which business owners base their purchase decisions.
Warrillow's research showed that just 28 percent of the business owners who expressed interest in buying local had actually done so in the past six months. So there's still a gap between desire and action. Still, it's a good time to take advantage of entrepreneurs' preferences and show them how your company can provide something better than the big guys.
How would you describe the smaller, local providers you deal with? Can you channel their good qualities?
Rieva Lesonsky