My company hasn”™t dedicated enough time to growing the business, beyond taking phone calls and doing estimates. We are stretched thin and a lot of the marketing falls on my desk ”“ which means it doesn”™t happen if I get busy with other things. How can I get organized so that my company”™s revenue increases significantly?
Thoughts of the day: Get clear as to what “marketing” means, in terms of activities. Find out who in your company can help you grow the business. Offload things that you do, so you can focus on marketing. Understand the importance of growth to the future of your business.
Taking phone calls and doing estimates are usually categorized under sales activities. Building awareness is a marketing activity. Marketing makes it easier to open doors ”“ which is where things cross over from marketing to sales.
Build a list of fast-acting marketing activities that are likely to take minimal effort and produce high results:
Ӣ Call current customers to ensure theyӪre happy and then ask for the names of three referrals to whom they can introduce you
Ӣ Pull a list of target suspects based on demographics of your best customers, and build a repetitive mail, call, or email campaign to break through to them
Ӣ Review lost proposals and prospects from the last two years and reach out to them to see if theyӪre satisfied with the solutions they bought
Ӣ Review your ads and website to make sure that all offers are compelling and getting the conversion you expected
”¢ Buy up product lines ”“ add things that your current customers and prospects want to buy
Ӣ Hold a get-together for clients and prospects to get them in a room so prospects can hear what a great job youӪre doing
Employees don”™t all need to be on the front line talking to potential customers. Save that activity for people who are experienced working with prospects, or people who want to get trained on how to work on new business opportunities. Do talk with everyone in the company about the importance of getting more customers, and their role in helping make that happen.
Make a list of all of the employees in your company. Next to each name, write down one or more things that each could do to contribute to marketing. It could be anything from accurately answering questions about products or services, to drawing out ideas for advertisements and mailings, to making product samples.
Clear your calendar. If growth is the company”™s top priority, which it should be, then a major portion of your time must be dedicated to overseeing, facilitating and participating in marketing activities. Delegate, delegate, delegate.
Don”™t get lost spending too much time running around in the field from one account to the next. That may be the least productive thing you can do. Instead, try to anchor yourself in the office for a portion of each week. That”™s when you can step back and look at, think through, and work on how marketing and sales are doing and what has to change.
Make sure everyone in the company understands that if the business stays flat, the business is actually declining. Inflation causes the cost of overhead to go up, while you”™re trying to pay for things with the same old client orders. Don”™t let revenue or profits decline year-over-year because marketing can”™t fuel growth.
If growth comes in at a slow, steady pace of 5 to 10 percent, you”™re also taking a lot of risk. Any sudden loss of clients or need to weed out problem ones, and you”™re likely to end up with slow growth, no growth or negative growth. It”™s only once revenue growth is in the range of 10 to 15 percent net that the company can confidently grow faster than any increase in losses or expenses.
Looking for a good book? Try “Marketing That Works: How Entrepreneurial Marketing Can Add Sustainable Value to Any Sized Company” by Leonard M. Lodish, Howard L. Morgan, and Shellye Archambeau.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at (877) 238-3535. Send questions to Andi via email at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com or by mail to Andi Gray, Strategy Leaders Inc., 5 Crossways, Chappaqua, NY 10514. Visit AskAndi.com for an entire library of Ask Andi articles.
