Growing a Small Business

Quite interestingly there’s no real rocket science to growing a small business. In actual fact there are only four (4) ways to grow any business.

One:
You get your existing customer to buy more of your products/services. Pull your Debtors Age Analysis and look at who buys what from you and, more importantly, what of your product/service range are they not buying!
Two:
You get new customers to buy your existing products/services. Plot your customers on a matrix of key demographic or psychographic values and see if there are any gaps that you could fill eg you’re really strong in one region, but very weak in another. These gaps are quick and easy to fill as you simply need to expand your existing products/service to these new areas.
Three:
You introduce a new, value added, product/service to your existing customers. By link selling a new benefit you could increase your existing customers’ spend with you and leverage off your good name, reputation and loyalty to improve profits.
Four:
You diversify completely and introduce a new range of products/services and target an entirely new customer base with these. Note that this option is the most risky as you probably have limited knowledge of the new product/service, have no track record in its delivery and are trying to reach new customers you’ve never dealt with before. Not only is it risky but it is often also expensive both in terms of time and resources.

With these in mind take a look at your current situation to see where you can expand to capitalise on opportunities. Don’t forget to develop an effective marketing plan around this new strategy.

Small Business Sales Prospecting

Whether we like it or not every small business needs an action plan for prospecting new clients.

If you’re a one-man-band, or just aren’t big enough to have a dedicated sales person, it’s probably left up to you to do the cold calling.

It’s a fact that most new business doesn’t fall in your lap and most prospects aren’t sitting there just waiting for your call. So what can you do to develop a system that’s painless and takes the “energy trap” out of the sales process?

First: Build up a prospect list. A database of who you could target, their contact details and what potential value they could have for your business. Then prioritise this from most important to least important.
Second: Prepare a document that details your competitive advantage (why they should buy from you), the benefits of your product/service and, if possible, some testimonials from people that enjoyed a long association with you. You can have this document layed-up nicely as a presentation document, or you could just have the knowledge in your head. But, do make sure you’ve given it enough thought so that you sound positive and confident when speaking to your prospects.
Third: Set up a meeting and visit the prospects. Outline up front what the agenda is for the meeting (to introduce yourself and share with them the benefits of dealing with you) and then make sure you are early for the appointment! Determine your objective for this call, remember it takes between 5-7 points of contact for someone to switch to you, so make sure you have thought through each point of contact carefully.
Fourth: Follow up with a thank you note and action anything coming out of the meeting quickly and efficiently.

On average “they say” that sales is purely a numbers game. See 10 people you’ll get 1 Yes! So it’s not a field for the feint hearted. Stick to it, do the numbers and check your conversion ratio. If you aren’t converting at this level either your prospect list is not needing what you offer, your offer isn’t right or your sales approach is lacking.

Remember to do a post-mortem on your call cycle conversions regularly to ensure you aren’t wasting time and effort in unprofitable markets. Complete a marketing plan with a strong personal selling element in order to set sales objectives, action plans and measurable performance criteria.

Small Business Websites and Internet Marketing

The internet is truly a web of confusing and misleading opinions. What role does it play for the small business owner and can it really add any value?

There are two key aspects you need to consider when deciding what role the internet can play in your business.

E-Brochure:
Do you need/want an e-brochure ie are you looking for a website to showcase your company and build credibility with your potential customers?
OR
E-Commerce:
Do you need/want to be able to sell your wares over the internet with a secure online payment gateway?

The first option is quicker, cheaper and easier to develop. It supports your bricks and mortar business. Ultimately all you require is a few key pages with some well written text on them: Home Page, About Us, Contact Us and maybe one or two Technical Pages to describe various features of what you do and how you do it. This should not cost the earth and there are a lot of online alternatives if you are fairly IT savvy to do it yourself.

The second option is more complex. This is where you need to give consideration to whether you could convert your bricks and mortar business into an online equivalent and change your business to one that achieves greater reward for perhaps lower overheads. This option requires a comprehensive web brief and, more likely than not, you’ll need a good web developer that can do the back-end programming to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Whichever option you choose you must spend a little time on search engine optimisation techniques. For without this you will end up winking in cyberspace!

Finally, write an effective marketing plan to ensure you understand how the internet can support your other marketing activities.

Exceptional Small Business Customer Service

The small business owner must never think of their buildings, their computers or their actual products as their biggest asset. Without doubt they are all important, but your biggest asset is your customer base.

Some very interesting research shows that what your customers want from you is:
– Responsiveness and Efficiency
– Courtesy and Care
– Reliability

In fact, the price and the deadline are very often negotiable, if they get the above three!

How well trained are your staff in providing am empathetic and understanding service? Customer service is a bit like an emotional bank account. If you put in enough deposits, when the odd withdrawal happens the customer is understanding. However, without the positive emotional deposits the withdrawals push you into overdraft and the customer leaves, without any explanation.

Make sure your staff are trained in the soft skills, as well as the hard, so that they understand the need to under promise and over deliver, keep promises they make and seek solutions to customers’ problems.

Get this right and the rest falls into place. Particularly if you have taken customer service into account when writing your marketing plan.

Small Business Leaders Under Pressure

In no other business is the leader in the firing line quite as much as the small business owner. If you own your own small business you’ll know that you not only have to keep the customers happy but the staff too. And, that’s outside of keeping your premises clean, your phone answered and your bills paid!

So what does that mean?

Well, when things are going well, more likely than not, you’ll be whistling while you do your rounds, smiling at all and sundry and generally spreading the good news.

However, when the pressure comes on, the cashflow is tight and the customers are pulling back on their spending, that’s when the true character of the leader comes out.

Whether you like it or not your staff are watching your behaviour more than they’re listening to your words. And, when the pressure is on, it’s even more important for the small business owner to step outside, take a few deep breaths and then come back in with a smile, a confident clear direction and a consistent behaviour that builds credibility and peace of mind with both staff and customers.

Remember you are the business so what you portray says a lot about how your business is tackling the current pressures. Put your best foot forward and go show them how it’s done!

A great way to be able to reduce your stress is to develop an effective marketing plan with clear action plans and budgets. That way you don’t have to worry, you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing you’re doing the right thing.