Businesses fight and compete each and every day. Small businesses can feel this intensity much more than the larger ones. At times they either succumb to these challenges or shine brighter.

Here we see what traits of a small business that let them churn profitable outcome from these challenges.

Investing in Technology – Small businesses master the skill of personalized customer service. They understand that their business can sustain bigger competitors with higher customer satisfaction. The small businesses with acute acumen are the one who understands that they have to build up a technology eco system. They understand that technology will be their enabler to keep the customer services personalized.

Decision based on Data – In general the small businesses believe that the data systems are expensive. A bigger belief is that these systems are only meant for big businesses. Data driven processes are strategic enabler. Analysing data reveals about your customers. They reflect market and customer trends, competitor behaviour, sensitivity to new products and promotion ideas. This in turn results in

• Greater focus in the sales,
• Polishing services &
• Marketing ideas that work with their customers

And these efforts are indeed the pathway to get your business to the next level.

Investing on Customer –Is any of the questions giving you sleepless nights? –

• who is buying my products
• when are they buying
• how are they buying
• from where are they buying
• how much are they buying

For the answers you need customer level data. The best way to get that is to have a sales force backed by a sales system. The data from your sales system will help you to understand the efforts that are being put by your sales team in different locations and for different products or product categories.

Definitive sales strategies are also an outcome of well implemented sales system. It helps small businesses to understand the strategic issues like where to focus and what can trigger better sales outcome.

To conclude, technology has penetrated to every level of business. Pay per use and SAAS models have made it affordable. Customization has gone to a level where one does not have to worry about their business modulus operand. And to top it all, entry level hand held devices are both powerful and affordable that fits in business scenarios. And that makes it possible for small businesses implement technologies in their processes

Let us know what you consider the trait of prosperous small business in the comment section below.

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