Suresh MadhuvarsuCo-Founder & CEO, SalesTable AI · Co-Founder & CEO at SalesTable

3 Lessons Learned Selling Salestable into SMBs in 2023!

11 Feb 2024 · 3 min

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2:50

In this SalesTable video, the speaker shares three key lessons learned from selling software to small‑ and medium‑sized businesses (SMBs) during 2023. First, owners and CEOs are typically the decision‑makers, but they have very limited time and mental bandwidth to evaluate new tools, making quick, low‑friction buying experiences essential. Second, SMBs often lack robust IT or cloud infrastructure, so vendors must deliver a ready‑to‑use solution rather than a self‑service platform that requires extensive configuration. Third, products that provide immediate, individual (day‑one) value to a single user outperform those that rely on team‑wide adoption, because SMB buyers prioritize rapid ROI and cannot wait for multi‑user collaboration to generate benefits. The speaker warns that without these considerations, software can become "shelfware" in SMBs, especially as many are struggling to survive in 2024. He invites listeners to share their own observations on SMB trends.

Chapters

Hello. At SalesTable, we have learned 3 specific lessons from selling into SMBs in 2023. Number one is really all about the owners and CEOs are typically the buyers of the software, and which basically means they don't really have a lot of headspace and time to really evaluate, think through on what we are providing. So That's the number one time constraint that we always found with SMBs. The second thing is about the amount of infrastructure that they have is so limited in terms of the IT or a cloud there. It's always about providing a solution rather than a platform. And that, that's the one of the biggest thing that we realize because it's easy to say that, hey, we are providing a platform, you go, you do your configuration and then invite users to whatever you need to do. But unfortunately, that doesn't really work out for SMBs because the buyer of the software is so, so busy. And especially in the scenario of 2022, 2023. And then of course, I mean, right now we're in 2024. Everybody is really trying to survive. Everybody is trying to really make their day. And which means bringing in the efficiencies or having another tech stack is not really the number one priority for them. Number 3 is really about, is your solution that you are providing, is it team-oriented or individual value-oriented? I think, you know, that actually is a major lesson learned because a lot of the PLG in the SMB space that you really see out there, the successful companies are the ones where a single user, they sign in, they get the value out of it day one, right? But if your software has a team orientation where the value comes in only when other users have to sign in, they collaborate, and then you get the value, then in the SMB scenarios it is becoming difficult, especially these days. So those are the 3 lessons learned for us. The takeaway for us especially is SMBs, especially in the recent years, are struggling to survive and we need to really appreciate the lack of resources that they have and really provide a solution and bring in the value the day one. Otherwise they might adopt it, but then it'll become more of a shelfware at some point of time. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you guys saw the SMBs the last year and especially going into 2024.