in quotes because even if you are a service business, you only have enough service staff to do a certain amount of work. The last thing you need is to take all those sales and then disappoint people on delivery. So, let’s start at the top with marketing. No matter your business model, you need to know your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP in business jargon) and what problem you solve for them. And very importantly, “Where do they spend time?”, so you can get in front of them. As an example, I have helped many businesses sell to IT people. A general rule of thumb, most IT staff are not heavy LinkedIn users. So, no matter how we tried to make LinkedIn marketing work, it rarely did. Are you a local business? Does radio and supporting community events work for you? Are you national/international? Are there trade shows or podcasts you can support or attend? Again, the
trick is to understand who your Ideal customer is and be where they are, with messaging that shows them how you make their lives easier. Next along the Growth Strategy Road is Sales. Do you sell online? Do you have a sales team? Are you Business to Business, Business to Consumer, or both? Whichever it is, start with the idea of making it easy to buy from you. Whether that’s a simple online process, customer-centric salespeople, or the friendliest staff around in your retail shop, the easier it is to buy from you, the more people will return, and with a little bit of luck, tell others how great it is to be a customer of yours. And that’s a great arrow to have in your Growth quiver! (I did just rewatch Hawkeye on TV, so archery metaphors are in my head right now!) If you are online sales only, start with buying from your site. How does that compare with other experiences you have had? Did something in the process seem pointless? How quickly could you get to order confirmed? Ask clients what their experience is, and what they would improve, and get to work on delivering it. If you run a sales team, look for these traits when hiring and retaining – Resilience, Curiosity, Reliability, Humility, Goal Oriented, Detachment, and Fearlessness. Build interview questions that uncover these. Use your relationship with the existing team to strengthen these. These traits more than any technique or product knowledge will help your team connect to prospects and feel like they are working together, not being sold to. And there is a whole new column right there! Then you have to back that up with Operations. I call it that because the delivery of products and services is very
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