Growing Your Business

Growing your business should be one of the most exciting times of your life, but this could also be the most difficult. It is easy to get caught up in the wrong direction, and all it end up doing is costing you money.

Take advertising for example... making use of the wrong media, the wrong campaign, doing something too early or too late could just cost you money, and get you no return on investment. Advertising is not the only way to grow your business, there are many ways, and some will cost you nothing and might even show the biggest rewards.

There is only one way to grow your business and it all boils down to increasing sales, increasing profit, and decreasing expenses.  This may mean you need to get more clients, or get more from the clients you have, either way, you need to put in some effort in the marketing, promotion and sales part of your business.

This is one area of business that has changed dramatically in the past few years.  Things that were acceptable are now cause to lose clients.  For instance, let’s look at SPAM – 10 years ago, would you blindly consider reporting a supplier or vendor for putting a pamphlet in your post box, or simply terminate a service with a vendor you have been supporting for years because they sent you a brochure?  No, but, let’s see how worked up you get if a new vendor, or an old vendor starts sending you eMails you didn’t ask for, and we are not including the eMails about pills that promise this and that, and discount “genuine” goods, etc, we are talking about the real business and marketing eMails.

Anyway, to get back on track… Growing your business.

No matter whom you speak to, and no matter whose advice you follow on how to achieve the following goal, you should have one end result in mind – everyone that you want to do business with needs to know your business name.  That is simply all there is to it!

There are many strategies to achieve this, and the 21^st century has brought a couple of new ones, and kicked out a couple of old ones, but the end result is still the same.

We have discussed in Running your Business that you need to spend less time with day to day tasks of your business, and more time running your business and growing your business.  When it comes to smaller businesses clients and customers tend to latch onto the owner more than in larger organizations, so while you need to make use of this, you also to an extent need to be careful of this – remember you might want to sell your business one day, and your business will not be worth much if you clients will not stick around if you are no longer there.

Before you start your marketing and promotion efforts, you need to first again clarify these points.  They should have been thought through while you started your business, but we all realize that things do change along the way.

• Who is your real target market?
  • Consider age,  gender, income level, geographical area, etc
  • Also, define whether you are selling or providing a service to consumers, end users, resellers, integrators or value added resellers.  In some cases you might be selling or providing a service to all, or some – be sure to have a strategy to for each, and MAKE VERY SURE you do not compete with any of your resellers or integrators etc, make a clear cut distinction.
• What area you are trying to sell in – if it is across the country, then fine, but certainly not all businesses can provide a service across the country.  Consider making use of the U.S. Census Bureau to obtain information about your area.  Also make contact with your local chamber of business; they have hosts of information that may help you.

Here are some cheap strategies to get your name out there which will help grow your business.  Each point will be discussed briefly and a link is placed the complete article if required.

• Marketing with Business cards
• eMail marketing
• Host functions
• List your company more. 
• Telemarketing
• Referrals.
• Package Deals
• Up-selling.
• Let your CRM system work harder for you. 
• Get broader reports
• Remember the back-end.  

Marketing with Business cards

• You may have seen the brief on this in Running Your Business, but what this boils down to is getting as many business cards out there as possible, and depending on your market segment you may strive to get at least 200 cards out there.  Obviously, if you for example sell to hospitals, this will not be possible, but you need to then get to as many people in the hospital as possible that have access, influence or control over who is purchased from.  Do not under estimate the power of the receptionist and secretary.  The secretary is far more influential than you may believe; remember she or he is the one that is tasked to gather information for a certain topic, and if your company is on her mind, guess who she will be calling.  Also, see our article on Marketing by Business card, and also Creating Good Business Cards.

eMail marketing

This is potentially very damaging, be very careful with this one – you know how you feel about SPAM.

If you have the eMail addresses of your clients, first send them an eMail thanking them for their continued support, and that you have just started up a new weekly (or monthly) newsletter, and you would like to send it to them, but only if they would like to.  Now, since they are already a client, you can work this on an “Opt-Out” basis, in other words, you send them an eMail asking if they are OK with it, and give them the opportunity to request to not receive any eMails.

For new clients you are trying to obtain via eMail, this is the really tricky part – your very first eMail to them will be considered as SPAM.  So make sure the wording of that first eMail is very concise, contains as little information as possible.  Do not try pitching your products, simply mention who you are, the type of products or services you sell and ask very politely whether you can continue to send eMails about your product or service.  Ensure the recipient that you will not send them an eMail again unless they click on the link below, or reply to that eMail confirming they want to continue receiving information – this is the “Opt-In” approach.  We have a separate article on this topic called eMail marketing… the straight forward approach.

Once you have your eMail list established, be sure to handle it diligently, and don’t try kick off with a newsletter every week, start off with one every 3 months, and then 1 month, and then weekly, but you should not go more than weekly.  The reason it is recommended to start off with 1 every 3 months, it so make sure you have enough content to put together and send.  If you are good at writing, and can produce an article every month, then great… go for it.  You certainly do not want to start off with a bang, and then have it taper off; this will not come across very well.

The guys that do your website (unless you are doing this yourself) could also be on a monthly retainer to make sure the articles you eMail are posted all over the web – this is a great tactic, you need to flood the internet with your articles and information – again, speak to the guys at iSOGO, they will guide you very well in this regard, they are good at what they do – we certainly do trust them.

Host functions

• Giving is receiving; we have all heard that one right?  Well, it works, as long as you do it for the right reasons!
• Hosting functions is not just about having a breakfast seminar or get together at the local coffee shop, wine cellar or restaurant.  We are talking about the real stuff here.  For instance, have a basketball day at the local orphanage, sponsor some drinks, and some balls, and try getting a local ball player to come out, even if he (or she) is the star player for the local high school.  You will be surprised what local news-papers, radio stations, local TV news and other companies will throw at you for doing things like that.  Again, this is to be done for the right reasons – playing this card for the wrong reasons will certainly hurt you in the long run.  There is nothing wrong with publicizing these events, but remember, it is being done in the spirit of giving, the receiving will come automatically.
• List your company more.  Get your company name on as many directories, publications, bulletin boards and forums as possible, and link them all together.  The linking part is the most important.  If you speak to the right guys to do your website, they may well get all of this started for you for a very small additional charge, and you can continue with it going forward once you understand the concept.  Some companies will continue doing this for you on a monthly basis for a set fee.  You should decide here what you are willing to spend.  For example, the guys at iSOGO (www.isogousa.com) will keep your company in these forums and bulletins for rates starting at as little as $85 per month.
  • When getting your company name in the likes of the Yellow Pages and others, find out what it will cost to just do a little bolding, or a different color, perhaps you can afford to place a larger add – but be sure to find out about 1^st time advertising as well.
  • Yellow Pages and newspaper adverts are not always equally as effective with business-to-business (B2B) sales, you will need to be a little more ‘out there’ to get these sales increased.  Make contact with your local chamber of business, and other meet up groups and communities, and start networking.  Of course finding your clients, and going to see them, sending them eMails, and calling them by phone does still work with B2B, so don’t forget that, and most of all, making them remember your name is still the desired outcome.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is certainly a way to go, but again, be careful, you know how you hate to be called by some companies trying to get you to buy something – just be tactful.  We believe that making a phone call to try set up a get together, or asking for permission to send a mailer, or an eMail is a great way to go – that way you are not trying to force anything down the throat of your new prospect, and they will be far more willing to listen to you.  Also be careful of the new laws pertaining to telemarketing.  When marketing to an individual, law requires that you state who you are, and what you are trying to do within the first 20 seconds of the call.  This does not apply when doing business-to-business marketing.  But to be sure, get some information from the Direct Marketing Association to make sure you cover your bases.

Referrals 

Whether it be B2B sales or sales to end-users or consumers never forget about referrals, and if you can afford it, offer discounts or kick-backs for referrals.  Remember, you would be prepared to pay commission to sales rep right?  So, take part of that, or all of that, and pass it on to your clients.  Tell them for every sale they bring, you will take 3% (or more or less) from their next purchase – there is nothing that sells better than one happy client to the next.  Remember, paying the receptionist to swing the vote of the owner to buy from you will not be seen as ethical, giving her a little commission for referring someone else is not a problem.

I know of a company that went to the receptionists of every single one of his clients, and let them in on a competition he was going to hold only for receptionists, and the receptionist at the end of the year with the most positive referrals that converted to sales would win a weekend trip for two to a holiday resort.  The referrals he generated from that was staggering.  It might however in some cases be wise to inform the business owner about that, or at the very least as his or her permission.

Package Deals

Make sure you know exactly what it costs you to provide a product or a solution, and keep this information current.  This sounds like basics, but it is often forgotten.  You then need to also keep tabs on what your competition is charging, and have a rational as to why you may be charging less or more.  Once you have this, also consider packaging things together for bundle deals – there is an age old adage… “It is better to have 50% of a loaf of bread, than having 90% of no bread”

Up-selling  

Every month, look at a list of products and services that your clients obtain from you, and see what you can add to that.  For example, if a client buys laptops from you, it might be worth while telling the client that you also sell certain software, and that you can install it for free when he buys laptops.  Again, something that seems obvious, but it is so often forgotten.  With every sale there is an opportunity to up-sell.  You may decide to do at the time of the sale, or you may think it is better to follow up with a client thanking him for his last purchase and offering him or her something that you thought they might be interested in since they expressed interest in one of your other products; this is a very good tactic, as it gives you a great reason to call your clients up, and remind them of who you are.

Let your CRM system work harder for you. 

Again, each month or week get lists of products and services that have been sold to clients, and send them an eMail thanking them for their support, and tell them about a product or service that might interest them based on the product or service they already have.

Get broader reports

For instance, get annual reports to show trends, for example, if you own a motor servicing company, you may note that John Smith hits his 3000 mile mark for an oil change every two months – since you now know that, you can send him an eMail every 6 weeks reminding him that his service might be coming up, and he can simply reply to your eMail to schedule an appointment.  When he does, reply to his eMail stating that you will be ready with a cup of coffee for him.   Also don’t forget to mention in the eMail somewhere that you have an annual maintenance plan where John can pay you $300 for a year’s worth of oil changes.  Since John is already happy dealing with you, why would he not be that much easier to convince to commit to a doing his oil changes with you for a whole year?  Read our article on what to do with annually paid funds titled “What to do with money paid in advance”

• These eMails back and forth can be automated with some very simple configurations in that brand new CRM system you have implemented – the return on investment will show itself very quickly. Xxx CRM systems

Remember the back-end

Growing your business is about increasing sales, and getting your name on every single potential clients mind, but you also need to remember the back end of this… the part that happens inside your company.  By increasing sales and revenue, you increase business, you increase work-load you increase the load on your internal systems, and the list can go on. 

Do not forget to treat your staff as you would treat your clients, have meetings with them, and find out where things may be going wrong.  So many owners and managers make the mistake of having meetings with staff to tell them where they (the staff) are going wrong – flip this around and rather ask.  Your staff will start telling you where things are going wrong, and where they think change is required.  This will get them to take ownership of the problem, and will be far more diligent in repairing the problem, or finding a solution – try it… you’ll love it. 

Go back to our section Running Your Business and have a look at the topics on investigating your internal systems – remember to do this, because as your business grows, you may well need to adjust some of the things you do, and how you do them.