How to make your business grow
Managing a business is like being a top-flight athlete - always looking for ways to become better and better. The consensus among respected writers in the field of business growth is that there are three main ways for a business to grow successfully: get more customers; sell existing customers more products or services; and increase back-end sales. Here’s an extension of those ideas...
1. Attract more customers.
Your customers are those people who buy from you at least once. So one way to extend your business is to get more and more people to buy from you or use your services - at least once. Although there are many different approaches to attracting more customers, the one thing those approaches have in common is that they must either satisfy an existing demand for what you have to offer or create a new one. Supply and demand are key considerations when it comes to attracting more customers.
2. Develop a marketing plan.
Creating or satisfying a demand involves more than a trial-and-error approach. Given the product or services you have to offer, you need to plan how to create a demand and how to satisfy it. A simple, straight-forward marketing plan can achieve that. The plan needs to be specific enough to provide the necessary focus and be flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Remember, no one person can hope to know your product or service better than you do. By all means consult with outside marketing gurus if your strength is not in this area.
3. Sell customers more products or services.
It is considered to be five times easier, and much less expensive, to sell to existing customers than to find new ones. So it’s a sound strategy to focus your energies and other resources on selling additional products to existing customers. Accountants, for example, often provide information technology services, management consulting, and financial planning services in addition to their normal range of services. Successful organisations are finding that existing customers respond positively when asked for additional business or referrals to new customers.
