Who Is An SMB?

As buzzwords go, the small and medium business (SMB) segment has become the
flavor of the season. Most vendors are rolling out products and projects for the
SMB. Some major players, who were earlier only dealing with enterprises, have
now decided that SMB has untapped potential and are trying to woo customers
here. And the channel seems to be caught in this frenzy.

There is no denying that though enterprises are major adopters of technology
worldwide, smaller companies are also looking at technology to improve their
business efficiencies. Therefore it makes sense to try and work with SMB
customers and see how their needs can be met.

But that is where most of the partners are stumped. Who constitutes the SMB?
Do you identify a SMB customer based on the number of employees it has or its
annual turnover? Is this the right way to go about things?

Maybe, these are the two easiest ways to go about identifying prospective
customers. But there is another way, which very few partners have considered.
And that is of identifying companies based on the kind of technology they have
invested in the past couple of years and their plans to intensify this
investment in the future.

The reason for this is simple. Irrespective of the size of the company what
matters is how clued in that organization is about implementing IT and which are
the core solutions that it has in place and how this can be improved further.
Only a company which has tasted the benefits of having a robust and good IT
infrastructure in place and seen the returns coming in, either in tangible or
intangible terms, will be keen to invest in it further.

Therefore, these are the companies that will be more open to try out newer
solutions. They will have a heightened perception about IT and its usage and
benefits. They will have realistic level of expectation from it, as well.

Also, what is important is that these SMBs of today are the enterprise
customers of tomorrow. If you handhold them well today, they will be your de
facto clients tomorrow.

In short, they are the geese, which lay the golden eggs. But don't turn
greedy like the man in that story and try to fleece the goose. Nurse and nurture
it instead. And you will be singing all the, nomenclature about SMB or
enterprise is damned.

Think about it.