5 Growth Strategies for Legacy Companies

Most businesses we know in the small to midsize category are poor planners. Judging from their actions the typical planning strategy comes down to: how do we beat last year. Matters related to business development should be the primary strategic topic now that the summer is behind us.

Late last year a survey reflecting small business sentiment was released confirming what most business leaders think is their biggest challenge. An overwhelming majority, 42% said their biggest concern was finding new customers. This was followed closely by concerns for retaining the customers they already had. Most worry that the competition was going to make a move that could really hurt them.

The planning season is here. To help those looking to build a better lead development process here are several key details you may want to consider:

1. One of the most important marketing guidelines is nailing your unique selling proposition. Your USP is a brand statement that includes all the “What’s in it for me” aspects of why customers should want to know more about you. It describes your target customer, illustrates their challenges, highlights you as the solution, presents differences and promises or guarantees something.

2. The other "must have" component of any business development process is a database of customers, prospects and friends of the organization. These are your key constituents, the people that you need to keep informed of your value to them. Create a robust database that is updated in real time. The company should have only one database, housed on the server. Not several in disparate formats and on different computers or on paper in a sales guy’s office.

3. Examine your current sales platform for gaps and inefficiencies. Many business leaders are reluctant to review their sales performance if the team is comprised of long time employees who may not have evolved their skills or remained viable contributors. If you don’t do regular reviews now is the time to create a policy. Consider what metrics of success would look like for each area of business, then break down your vision into requirements for each team member.

4. Social media is a big factor in almost every business including those selling to other businesses. Every business needs a disciplined strategy for online industry leadership and prospect generation. The right strategy should reflect your USP/brand and align with the needs of your primary customer targets.

5. Before inbound lead activity picks up make sure your business’ infrastructure can handle inquiries in an efficient, practical manner. Remember your prospects have an Internet full of options. Engineer the purchase experience with the foresight to impress and nurture the process from before they contact you to well after the transaction is concluded. The person that answers the phone or responds to an online inquiry is the manager of first impressions.

Growth planning assures an expected outcome. Download our marketing infrastructure guide now on how to build an effective marketing system.