​How to Grow Your Business?

Growth is the top priority of a business. A business owner can grow in a number of ways. However, the real foundation of a growing business is its ability to increase customers and eventually sales. How can a business grow and why it is more important to gain additional customers than to sell more to existing clients?

Why Increase Customers?

Some of you might argue that the better strategy is to sell more to existing clientele. You do not have to use additional investment. All you need is to improve your quality, convince them to buy more from you. It is a win-win situation. This strategy is profitable at some point but it will wear off later on and sooner than you expected. You would be left asking, “Why is my profit increase only a few dollars even though I have increased sales to my existing clients?”

However, if you have invested time and money in recruiting more customers, you would be increasing your sales and at the same time, gaining clientele who would become repeat customers later on, if they are satisfied with the products and services you offer. Therefore, it is also important that you maintain high quality service or products throughout the period of gaining more customers.

Look at the most successful businesses today. They go out, instead of spending the day behind their desk doing endless paper work, answering to inquiries of customers via phone, talking to customers who visited the office for some clarification or waiting for a customer to enter and buy a product. The most successful real estate agents are not just sitting at their newly built houses but are constantly on the move, seeking prospective clients to talk and convince them to buy a new property.

As a budding entrepreneur, you should devote most of your time outside the office, looking for customers. Even as you have established and gained more clients than you can handle, the process should be continuous. Set a goal of gaining new customers in a month. Remember, customers come and go. They may be satisfied and orders from you repeatedly, they would eventually wander off and find another establishment to patronize. Their preferences changes over time.

Ways to Increase Customers

Branch out or franchise

A true business minded person would think of branching out as the first step to increasing customers. However, you must keep in mind that branching out entails a new business plan, marketing strategies, and a completely new approach. Though similarities could be ruled out during market researches, people have different preferences and needs from one place to another.

Besides, you need to make an evaluation of the status of your business. Would it be good for you to branch out or just simply franchise your business? Also, you need to consider your wallet. Can you handle another branch without sacrificing your main branch? Will it be sustainable? These are just the few questions you need to answer before contemplating and implementing on branching out.

Another option is to franchise your establishment. It is a lot money-saving than branching out because capital resources would come from your franchisee. Though direct income is not yours alone, you would be gaining popularity and customers indirectly. One risk though is that your ideals may be compromised. Conflicts may even arise with your franchisee. Thus, selecting carefully is the best way to eliminate this risk. Choose someone who could carry out your mission and vision for the business.

Create sales channels

If branching out or franchising is not probable in the future, diversifying your sales channels is another option. There are different sales channels that you could adapt for your business: direct and indirect distribution. You should know the benefits and risks involve before choosing one, two, or more than but not greater than five of the distribution channels. A right combination of direct and indirect ways can give you a huge leap in number and amount of sales.

Direct sales channel refers to the people under your direct supervision. You hire, train and pay them to market and sell your products. It is the best choice since you have the management control over matters, such as quality of service, and time management. You can simply fire personnel who do not abide with the rules and hire another one who could give you better and higher results. It may seem crude but a sale is the life force of your business and you should be serious about it. Without sales and additional numbers on top of what you are making, your business is dead. The risk is higher maintenance cost since you need to think of wages, incentives, and employee benefits to keep your people working for you.

Indirect sales channel refers to agents, local distributors, resellers, franchisees, brokers and among others who sell your product but are not in your direct command. The benefit of indirect channel is you can widen your market area and the cost of maintaining an employee is passed on to others. The risks are decreased customer feedback and quality of service maybe jeopardized.

Tap on other markets

Don’t get contented with your existing market. Broaden your scope and it will benefit you and your business. If your current market belongs to the teenage group, it is time to consider and step up in the ladder. Try gaining the attention of the middle age group especially if your products can also cater the needs and wants of this market group. It only takes a few market researches to see if you could tap on other markets.

Go online

Everybody uses the internet. Creating an online market strategy to boost your sales will not hurt your business. Besides, it is the most low-cost marketing strategy that you can employ for your business. Just make sure to target the right audience.