Business Know-How
I
magine the situation. Five entrepreneurs decide to look for a new business venture. They create their wish list and send out their researchers to find the perfect and perfect clients/customers (hungry for the product, insatiable
appetite for repeat purchases). Some other characteristics would be ideal: relatively easy to brand your product/service, to productise and create apparently unique special formulae/ recipes, a growing, national obsession with the topic, a few celebrities available to be associated with the brand.
If it were 1970, then the industry would be the diet industry.
If it were 1980 it would be independent record labels or holidays.
If it were 1990 it would be extreme sports or fitness.
If it were 2000 it would be gap year students. And in 2010, my guess is that it was business support for small businesses.
The business support industry has been a classic growth industry. The collapse of the existing providers (Business Link, etc), who had a variable reputation, combines with a growing obsession with entrepreneurship (The Apprentice, Dragons’ Den, Queen of Shops, an entire government pinning its hopes on entrepreneurship and SMEs as the hero of recovery). All this creates the perfect breeding ground for new businesses focusing on selling to the small business.
So, we have small businesses (typically under £500k turnover) being a ripe market for plundering. The numbers stack up: millions of them. The demand is there: they want to know how to grow their businesses, the secrets, the quick-fixes, the short-cuts. They have the spending power: redundancies. They have the hurt: poor profit, low sales with the recession as the backdrop. They have the desire.
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So, the next step is to satisfy the need and the formula is relatively straightforward. Speak in a voice that the customer client can relate to, demonstrate your credibility (testimonials, endorsements, case studies, video, website, how tos), have a proven-track record, have an expertise and an ‘ology’(a proprietary point of view), ideally focus on a niche subject or market and away you go.
The whole industry is about results. The attention of the potential customer has to be focused on the (subtle?) difference between what consultancies sell and do as opposed to what clients buy. It is clear that small business clients buy more sales and more profits. Most consultancies seem to sell a variation on the theme of more profit/sales for the business owner. What is in dispute is whether the consultancies deliver on the promise.
After several decades in the industry, having taken client businesses literally from zero to hero, from dream to final sale, I understand how the industry can deliver not just for their own shareholders but also for the clients. It is not sustainable (or moral) for the industry to under-deliver on its promises (even if there appears to be a bottomless pit of needy clients in search of the magic silver bullet). Neither is it good enough to make the sale, take the clients’ money, and deliver on the promised service, especially if the client doesn’t get the benefits offered.
So, the opportunity is there for the new providers to help/ assist the smaller businesses. That is not in dispute. But, will these interventions translate into significantly improved business performance on the part of the clients and delegates?
By Robert Craven
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