Our friends at SAP offer top tips to make technology work hard for your business

SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy, contributing £473 billion a year and making up more than 90% of all the nation’s businesses.

However, there is one area in which many SMEs are failing: their adoption of the consumer digital revolution. Either through fear or lack of information, many seem reluctant to embrace all the opportunities digital can bring – according to the UK’s Cabinet Office, a third of SMEs do not even have a website capable of selling their product.

If you’re an owner, manager or employee of a small business and fear you may be losing out on business to larger, often more tech-savvy competitors, it is critical you start or ramp up your digital transformation. These seven key steps are here to help you start.

1. Play to your strengths

Running a small business is not easy. In between managing inventories, maintaining visibility of sales and accounts payable and making the business digital, there is a tendency to get overwhelmed with spreadsheets and inventories instead of focusing on your unique strength against bigger companies: direct, authentic and personal interaction with your customers. With the right technology, SME owners can ease the time spent on running their business and let refocus it back to where it matters most.

2. Make your website your shop front

The fact that a third of SMEs are unable to sell their products through their website is unacceptable in the digital age. A website or online store now stands as the company’s true shop window, the critical portal which brings in the customer then leads them to their purchasing decision. One of the most important steps in embracing digitalization for many SMEs is therefore to create a website which can sell their products, and works across every device, particularly mobile – recent research reveals that 44% of consumers report their mobile devices as being the most essential aid to their decisions.

3. Spread the word

Once a new website is in place, digital marketing tools like e-newsletters are there to help customers find it. Third party vendors such as Amazon or eBay also have a huge power in helping widen the reach of products, though remember the primary aim is still to move customers from here onto your own website.

4. Be up-to-date

Once the customer has been drawn in, it’s critical not to lose them again. A system needs to be ready for customers who want to buy 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and who will not be impressed if they order something the system has failed to update as no longer in stock. Keeping a digital inventory and sales system means you are always ready to sell.

5. Be consistent

In-store, over the phone, on social media; wherever customers interact with a company, they expect that interaction to be the same. It is crucial that as SMEs expand into the digital world, they create a consistent way of talking with their customers, integrating all the different channels – e.g. a company’s tone on a digital channel must be identical to the tone they use face-to-face.

6. Be ‘always-on’

Predicting how their target market thinks and acts can be a challenge for many small businesses, but using a data analytics platform, they can see every customer interaction in real-time, across all channels. This way, if they have a positive reaction from a customer, they know and can build on it; if there is negative feedback, the business can address it as soon as possible, and try to turn it around into a constructive exchange.

7. Find tech that works for you

SMEs are experts at what they do, but aren’t necessarily experts with technology, and many want systems that are simple to understand, simple to use, and with simple access to expert support and guidance. A solution like SAP Anywhere can fulfil all these needs, offering tools that help across the front office, as well as ongoing help from technology experts.

For more info please, visit the SAP website or email tariq.mahmood@sap.com