America's 26 million small businesses need to work a little magic in how they acquire, grow and retain customer relationships. While small businesses spend some $110 billion on marketing (according to Yahoo!), they can not seem to capitalize on their efforts, failing as often as they start. The cold reality is that an estimated 5.6 million cease operating annually, compared to some 6 million that are formed each year.

It isn't all doom and gloom in the small business environment: on a positive note, small businesses are a minority-driven economic engine.

• Women-owned businesses grew 20 percent between 1997 and 2002 (BusinessWeek)
• The number of businesses owned by Hispanics increased by 31 percent in the U.S. between 1997 and 2002 (BusinessWeek)
• The incidence of firms owned by black Americans jumped by 45 percent between 1997 and 2002 (BusinessWeek)
• Almost a third of Silicon Valley start-ups since 1995 were founded by Indian or Chinese immigrants (The Economist)

Small businesses (under 500 employees) account for about $5 trillion in U.S. GDP – as much as the large enterprise sector – but they are stumbling when it comes to the business of marketing, both online and offline. Central to the problem is lack of quality analytics, insights and customer interactions.

It seems, small businesses are either scared of new technologies, or they believe that the advanced systems and practices employed by the larger enterprise is a financial investment out of reach for the small, lean-running budgets. Take online marketing investments as an example. 60 percent of small businesses allocated specific funds to “marketing” in the last 12 months, but only a fraction of that spend was earmarked for online programs. In fact, it is documented that less than five percent of small business marketing budgets are allocated for online programs and in the last 12 months!

But don't think that the Small Business marketer is more keyed into their customers. According to a 2006 study by the CMO Council entitled "Select & Connect: Strategies for Targeted Acquisition & Retention," marketers admit to an astonishing lack of direct customer connections. The findings show that a significant number of SMB marketers do not have a model or profile of their best customer prospects or opportunities; have no formal system for tracking marketing's role in customer acquisition, retention and value creation; and face big challenges with complex data and system integration. Just over 72 percent of the 550 respondents in the CMO Council survey had annual revenues of less than $100 million and nearly 40 percent had sales of less than $10 million a year.

To "put the sales whiz into small biz," the CMO Council is launching a new authority leadership initiative aimed at "uncovering the secrets of customer longevity & lifetime value" while fostering best practices in the way small businesses "Gain & Retain" customer relationships. "Putting the Whiz in Small Biz" will identify the essence of CRM excellence through small business audits and assessments, as well as interactions with top-performing sales individuals and marketing groups. It will promote the "secret sauce" and best practices of highly successful small companies when it comes to customer relationship management, online marketing engagement and business development.

Funded by a category exclusive brand coalition, the proposed program is aimed at "uncovering the secrets of customer longevity & lifetime value" while fostering best practices in the way small businesses “Gain & Retain” customer relationships. "Putting the Whiz in Small Biz" will identify the essence of CRM excellence through small business audits and assessments, as well as interactions with top-performing sales individuals and marketing groups. It will promote the "secret sauce" and best practices of highly successful small companies when it comes to customer relationship management, online marketing engagement and business development.