Big-budget enterprise sales teams aren’t out-selling you because they have deeper pockets—they’re winning because they have better systems.
While small and mid-market businesses (SMBs) represent 43.5% of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP), according to the most recent data from the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, yet sales tech providers often leave smaller businesses hanging. Instead of building tools that fit your specific needs (and budget), they focus on enterprise-level solutions with sky-high price tags.
The result? Your team spends days manually creating proposals, tracking contracts, and managing documents while large enterprises use automated systems that zoom through these tasks in minutes.
Your sales reps juggle administrative work and struggle to keep up while larger companies delegate to sales automation software and spend their time building relationships and closing deals.
Their sales process has guardrails. Yours has potholes.
Sure, enterprises will always have more resources—but that doesn’t mean you can’t outmaneuver them.
By investing in the right tools — ones that streamline workflows, automate docs, and boost efficiency — you can level the playing field. The goal isn’t to outspend them. It’s to outsmart them.
This guide explores how forward-thinking SMBs are leveraging modern technology to find shortcuts on the competitive sales highway, with practical strategies you can implement to transform your revenue operations starting today.
SMB sales strategy challenges
As an SMB, you get stuck behind roadblocks that your enterprise competitors can easily avoid.
Limited resources and budget
While enterprises allocate millions to sales enablement, your team works with constrained resources that must stretch across multiple priorities.
This often leads to relying on manual processes that hold you back.
Smaller teams with heavier workloads
Enterprise teams have dedicated proposal writers, contract specialists, and sales engineers.
Your sales professionals are likely doing it all: prospecting, selling, creating proposals, and managing customer relationships. This means less focus on high-value sales and more exhaustion.
Manual processes and document chaos
Without automation, your team spends hours on tasks that enterprise teams complete in minutes.
Proposals take days instead of hours, and tracking document versions becomes a nightmare as you dig through email threads and shared drives.
Limited access to sophisticated sales technology
Enterprise-grade tools often require dedicated administrators and specialists that SMBs just don’t have, which creates a sales technology gap that puts you at a significant disadvantage.
On top of that, your enterprise competitors use document automation and artificial intelligence-assisted insights that make them even more effective.
The combined impact of these challenges can feel overwhelming. The good news? There are now tools designed specifically for SMBs that address these exact pain points without requiring enterprise resources.
Winning SMB sales strategies
The sales cycle as an SMB can feel like an uphill battle, but the right approach turns challenges into opportunities. Here are five game-changing strategies to help you work smarter, stand out, and close more deals.
Streamline your sales workflow
Map your entire sales process from start to finish and ruthlessly eliminate friction. Identify:
- Steps that consistently delay deals
- Handoff points where deals often stall
- Redundant approvals
- Manual tasks that could be automated
By removing these bottlenecks, you accelerate your sales process and free up your team to focus on building relationships with prospects and customers.
Automate document creation
Document creation and management is a huge sales efficiency opportunity for SMBs. Configure, price, quote (CPQ) sales technology transforms this process by eliminating manual work while improving accuracy.
- Use templates with content blocks to create consistent, professional documents quickly
- Implement automated pricing rules to eliminate calculation errors
- Leverage data integration to pre-populate customer information
- Set up digital approval and e-signature workflows to close deals faster
Advanced Roofing Systems shows the impact of this approach.
After implementing PandaDoc’s template builder, automatic field detection and assignment, data auto-fill, and approval workflow, they reduced contract creation time from hours to under 30 minutes, leading directly to quicker revenue collection.
Improve sales efficiency
Enterprise teams have the luxury of specialization, but SMB teams can compensate through higher daily efficiency.
- Prioritize leads based on what your data shows about the chances of conversion
- Block time to minimize switching between prospecting, selling, and administrative tasks
- Create clear playbooks for consistent sales processes
- Focus on key metrics that drive revenue growth
Small changes can build towards meaningful results. If a five-person team saves 30 minutes a day, they gain over 50 hours a month to spend on higher-value activities.
Leverage technology strategically
Technology can be a great equalizer between SMBs and enterprise competitors — but only if you deploy it strategically.
- Implement a right-sized customer relationship management (CRM) system
- Adopt CPQ software to generate accurate quotes as quickly as possible
- Select communication tools that improve response times
- Use analytics to continuously refine your processes
The most successful SMBs integrate these systems seamlessly, rather than building unwieldy technology — or worse, manual — environments.
Build strong customer relationships
One edge that SMBs often have over enterprise businesses is high agility and more personalized service. To use this advantage:
- Include executives in key conversations to demonstrate commitment
- Create tailored solutions that address specific customer needs
- Set internal response-time goals that beat your larger competitors
- Provide consistent, attentive service throughout the customer journey
When sales efficiency improvements create more time for customer interaction, your team can focus on the relationship-building activities that only they can do, instead of on manual tasks that are easy to automate — with the right tools.
Modern tools empower SMBs to compete
Implementing the strategies above requires a sales technology partner who understands SMBs’ unique needs.
CPQ solutions like PandaDoc address the document and sales efficiency challenges that prevent smal and medium-sized businesses from competing effectively.
Create professional documents in minutes
Templates and intuitive editing tools help your team quickly assemble proposals and quotes, reducing document creation from hours to minutes.
This allows you to respond to opportunities while they’re still warm — a critical advantage in competitive sales environments.
Ensure accurate pricing every time
PandaDoc’s CPQ features allow you to easily configure pricing rules and packages with confidence.
Your salespeople spend less time manually generating quotes and tediously fact-checking details, which leads to fewer errors and shorter deal cycles.
They can also follow step-by-step playbooks for every sale.
Deliver a smooth customer experience
From proposals with embedded payment options to hassle-free e-signatures, PandaDoc helps you create a professional impression that rivals any enterprise competitor.
Customers can sign on their mobile devices without printing or scanning — reducing friction where it matters most.
Gain helpful insights
See when prospects view your proposals, what sections capture their attention, and when they’re ready to move forward.
These actionable insights help your team have the right conversations at exactly the right moments.
Connect with your existing tools
PandaDoc’s CPQ integrates with popular CRM systems, creating a seamless sales workflow without complex technical setup.
These integrations allow your team to manage deals without leaving their familiar CRM environment, and the centralized document platform supercharges your efficiency.
By addressing these fundamental document challenges, PandaDoc helps SMBs implement efficiency strategies without enterprise-level resources.
The result is a competitive sales approach that maintains the relationship advantages of a smaller, more responsive team while eliminating sales process disadvantages.
Optimize your SMB sales strategy with PandaDoc
Curious to explore how document automation could help your SMB sales team? Learn more about PandaDoc’s solutions for growing businesses today.
Disclaimer
PandaDoc is not a law firm, or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. This page is not intended to and does not provide legal advice. Should you have legal questions on the validity of e-signatures or digital signatures and the enforceability thereof, please consult with an attorney or law firm. Use of PandaDoc services are governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
