Is your business stagnant? 3 strategies to make it grow
If you are a business owner, you will feel identified with this. A business is like a child, like a small child that you have conceived from the mind, with illusion and have helped to grow day after day, night after night, educating, feeding and giving much, much of your love, of your time, of your self. You have put aside many things in order to assure him of his future. It is an important part of your life. So when it stagnates, when it is in trouble, and you cannot make it grow, you get frustrated and everything becomes complicated, because something in you has also stagnated and cannot grow.
Usually there are two ways to grow your own business once you have found yourself on a plateau that seems so difficult to get out of. The first is to restructure it. In some cases, an incorrect or little specialization in the market, little differentiation from the competition or a not very attractive service, can make your business stagnant because customers do not identify with you, with your history, with what you do or with what what do you have to offer. In these cases, an investment in promotion and advertising doesn't always solve things, and will probably further widen the gap between what you do and what you receive in return.
But if the cornerstone of your business is working correctly and the problem is that you have a low influx of prospects, you can dedicate yourself to generating more promotion and publicity to make your business and your offer better known. Now, unless you have great resources to invest in paid advertising and you can afford to do it in a massive and constant way (as large companies do) you must be smart when planning to invest your resources.
Smart investment of resources
Whenever we think of investing, we think of money. But the truth is that money is the simplest part. Look, you have it or you don't have it. You invest it, and it is no longer in your wallet or in your bank account. And it works for you while you dedicate yourself to something else.
But there are other resources to invest that seem cheaper when in reality, once you use them, you don't get them back. And you can't always count on them either, because they're also a rare commodity. It's about your time and your energy.
So when we talk about intelligence we are saying that it is important that you find the optimal combination to use your resources (time, money and energy) and thus leverage the results of your activities, for example, those of promotion and advertising.
The 3 strategies that I share here with you require more of an investment in time and energy, than even money. But the intelligence you put into them is what will make the difference in the results you will get in your business.
1. Share your knowledge
You will agree with me that it is a strategy that does not require a large investment in money. However, if you cannot take the time or do not have the energy to do it properly, I assure you that it will not work and on the contrary, it will keep you stagnant more and more.
The trick here is to share the knowledge that your ideal client needs, the one that makes a difference in their problems. This is the reason why it is super important that you clearly know what are the needs, difficulties, challenges and expectations of your ideal client.
This strategy not only allows you to connect with your potential clients, but also educate them, prepare them for a level of action that they cannot access immediately but they can do it through a time of working with you.
2. Spend your time listening to your ideal client.
As we said in the previous strategy, it is essential to know what your ideal client needs. Because if you offer him what he does not need, even if it is very cheap or free, it will not matter, and on the contrary, you will be wasting his time (and of course yours).
It is always good to do little market research to find out what your potential customer needs, but the best opportunity you have is when you have a sales conversation. Whenever a potential client contacts you, comes to your office or calls you interested in your products and / or services, it is an excellent opportunity to learn more about him.
So the next time you have this situation, do not jump immediately (and with an air of despair) to the point of sale, and try to know a little more about the reality that your client or potential client is living. This strategy is super valid also for customers who have already bought you. Don't assume you know what they need because you've already worked with them. Everyone's needs change when some variables of the contexts in which they are immersed are modified. And the market is constantly changing.
3. Re-design one of your services and launch it again with more and better benefits for your client
Sometimes you get attached to certain services or products and think they are really effective and wonderful. But too often you are totally biased by your own opinion, and other people might think differently.
It is always good to find a new format to deliver, promote or design your services, especially if some context variables have changed. For example, take away some sections or phases that have not been very successful with your previous clients; reinforces those that have made a difference; add some gifts or bonuses that you have incorporated into your business in the last time; redesign them to meet other additional needs or reach another sector of the market for which you work.
Use your creativity to redesign your outdated or unattractive services, and re-impress on them the passion and enthusiasm they had when you first launched them. And prepare an excellent advertising campaign (combine paid strategies with free strategies) to promote this re-launch and let your customers know that you are constantly on the move and that you are always making improvements to give them greater satisfaction and better results.
I hope that you have taken note of these three strategies that you can start implementing today so that your business gets moving and begins to grow again. Which of these three strategies will be the first to bring about a change in your business?
