Business development strategy
'Are you a not for profit organisation, or business?'
Most people go into business with the aim of making money. At the simplest level, this means making more money than you spend. But how many of us make money without making a profit? If this is the case in your business, then in essence you are a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation.
As the old saying goes “income is vanity, profit is sanity”. Many of us confuse making a profit with income. As a result we don’t understand why our income isn’t getting us ahead of the game and why the bank won’t extend our credit. For many people their business is their pension and like many pensions the business is not looking likely to provide the income required come retirement.
So, how can we improve our profitability, stay competitive, increase cash flow and generally become more effective?
Here are a few suggestions that should get you working in the right direction:
1. Become the best at what you do
2. Know your customers
3. Have a plan for recruiting new customers
4. Charge what you are worth
5. Maximise your cross selling and up-selling opportunities
6. Build continual streams of income
7. Track your profit and not just your income
8. Make sure your clients are fully aware of everything you sell
9. Train your sales team, or yourself in sales
10. Follow up immediately
11. Have a systematised referral process
12. Give away things free
13. Use a variety of routes to market and don’t just rely on referrals, or any other form of marketing
14. Ensure you test different offers, headlines, targets
15. Don’t waste money on non direct marketing campaigns. Save that for those with deep pockets
16. Don’t forget to ask more than once – don’t presume you know the answers
17. Link your marketing to the current news
18. Use endorsements
19. Use a system for creating and closing leads
20. And last, but by no means least - define your Unique Selling Point (USP) and make sure you think about the U. Saying you provide great customer service and you are the best at what you do is not unique. Everyone says that, but in reality, things are often very different.
The question to ask that will help you to grow your business is a very simple one. How can we improve....?
Improve what? Improve everything in your business. Let’s face it, nothing is perfect and therefore everything can be improved.
However, most business owners don’t focus on this because they are too close to the business they are working in it to be able to look down at the business from an external point of view and work on it.
That is where an external eye, can be useful. Someone to ask – why do you do it that way?
Obviously if you need any advice with this, or you would like a free marketing review meeting, we would be more than happy to help.
Just give Steve Mills a call on 0118 930 5700.
