4 minute read
BUSINESS TALK
FOCUS ON GROWTH, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
BY RUMELLA CAMERON
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When starting a business in the very beginning we focus on getting the word out. You would primarily do that by networking with your sphere of influence, networking at events or online, cold calling and cold emails, and building up your presence to gain clients. Most of your business is coming from referrals and word of mouth, maybe you advertised here or there. But to truly focus on business development and taking your business to the next level there are three areas you should focus on, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service.
When your business seems to be stagnant and not growing anymore the problems you face are:
● Not generating enough consistent, profitable revenue
● Business development capabilities are not scaling with the rest of the business
● Unable to bring in new sales representatives successfully
● Business development efforts (Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service) are fractured.
Depending on the area your business is driving by whether it’s Marketing, Sales, or Customer Service all three of these areas are vital to your business growth. Let’s break down each of these to understand how it works. Marketing generates leads, Sales leads to revenue, and Customer Service keeps the revenue coming. There are 7 stages of business growth. They are Startup, Ramp-up, Delegation, Professional, Integration, Strategic and Visionary stages. Each of these stages depends on the number of employees you have. Today I will focus
on Stage 1, the Start-Up. At this stage, you have less than 10 employees and you seem to be doing very well for yourself but you’re stuck and don’t seem to find a way to move your business forward. It’s important to understand which stage you’re in and have a concept of how your business is driven which will determine the success of your business growth. How can your business survive at this stage and what can you do to move business forward? We will begin with The Non-negotiable Rule.
THE NON-NEGOTIABLE RULE
How Business Survives - Focus 80% of your resources on selling 2-3 of the highest margin offerings you have. So if you have products or services that are high ticket items, this should be your number one priority.
- Set in place a good Customer Service Management (CRM) system. There are tons of CRM systems out there for small businesses. Hubspot is my favorite. We have been using it for the last five years. - Identify brand values that establish the company’s promise to the market.
HOW A BUSINESS SCALES
- Separate marketing, sales, and customer service into three distinct teams. Build up your teams where their primary focus is one of these three areas.
- Use brand values and customer segments to guide business development strategies.
- Establish business development structure that generates leads, turns leads into revenue, and keeps revenue coming.
- Ensure CRM system facilitates business development structures.
- Ensure that you have strong managers leading marketing, sales, and customer service and are a part of the management team.
- Encourage collaboration between business development functions through a shared process.
HOW TO SUSTAIN
- Ensure marketing, sales, and customer service win a team with a synergistic strategy for generating revenue.
- Use integrated CRM systems for business development. - Be sure that leadership teams are involved in business development every day to keep the pulse of customer needs and confirm market attractiveness offerings.
So let’s take a moment and look at how your business is doing right now. How are you going to allocate your business development resources - Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service? What nonnegotiable business development rules do you need to work on? In business, you must move from being Reactive to Proactive. Here are the key concepts that will help you grow your business and move you into the next stage. Business development is Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service. Business Development helps a Stage 1 to 2 business survive. If you are interested in learning more about the 7 stages of business growth get in touch with me.
Conversance Business Solutions is a full-service administrative support, and consultancy firm, serving businesses from small to mid-size nationwide. Our team specializes in various virtual assistant services and onsite support tailored to meet each of our client’s needs. Whether we work as an extension of your team for one-time projects or long-term engagements, we bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. We hope these tips were helpful. Get in touch with us today at 585-484-0038 or visit us online at www. conversance.biz for your business needs.
