There are only three ways to grow a business. If you have not been exposed to this idea you are probably saying right now that that is totals B.S. but bear with me and I will prove it.
This is the bit where most people would give you some longwinded, drawn-out, round about way of getting to the point but not me. Here are the three.
- Increase Your Number of Customers.
- Increase The Average Amount They Spend (with you).
- Increase The Frequency with which They Spend (with you).
Those are the three.
So can you think of any other ways that don’t fall into one of those three? If you can do let me know.
OK so now we know what they are what are some ways to increase these areas.
Well, let me throw some quick ideas your way.
Increasing Customers
In order for someone to want to do business with you, they have to believe that you are the right person for the job. In order for that to happen, they have to believe in you.
The Right Message
In order for them do believe in you you will have to present them with firstly the right message. A message that speaks to what they want. Ask yourself does your message speak to your customers’ pain, problem or desire? If not adjust accordingly.
The Right Place
Once our message is crafted we have to ensure that it gets seen by the right person. After all, the right message seen by the wrong person has zero use to us. So ask yourself where our customers’ eyes and ears go first, is our message in the right place for them to see it?
The Right Time
Great we have the right message and we know who the right person for our message is all we need know is to place it there at a time when they are ready to see it. After all, there is a time and a place for everything.
Ok that’s more customers out of the way. Let’s take a look at a few quick ways to get them to spend more money with us.
Increase The Average Transaction Value
The first idea on our list is…
Upsells
Can we add more to there order in a way that best serves them?
Can we upgrade their order? (Would they be better off in the long run with a higher quality product or service than the one that they have currently chosen?)
Cross-sells
is there something else that they need that would be complementary to what they have already purchased that would make their lives, easier, better, faster or more enjoyable?
Increasing Their Purchase Frequency
We need to ensure that our customers come back and come back more often there are a number of ways to do that but here are a few to think about.
Over-Deliver
Over-deliver on the value they pay for. (Go out of your way to ensure the cash value they pay is less than the use-value they receive.
Over-deliver on the service they get. (Don’t make your service good enough make it extraordinary, make it so good that in future you become the only logical and reasonable chose for your customer when they need a product or service just like yours.
Over-deliver on the promise you make. (If you make a promise to your customer make it a promise that you know you can and will exceed. Promises that are met are good, but promises that exceed expectations delight us. Do that!)
Build Relationships
Nurture Nurture Nurture. (In property it is Location, in business it is Nurturing. Great business relationships are built over time. The more energy you put into them the better they turn out.)
Your client is under your protection. (In websters dictionary it says words to the effect of… Customer – A person who buys a product or service from you.. Client – Someone who is under your protection. (Make sure you treat your customers like a Client).
“Giving a f##k is coming on strong” GaryVee (Back in the days before he became something of an internet sensation Gary was at The Rails Conference this was back when God was a boy. In a speech, he talked about really caring about your customers he talked about it as a leverage tool. He told the people there that people were starting to notice when people cared about them. The exact phrase was Giving A F##k is coming on strong”. Do as Gary does.
Ok so there you go you have three ways to grow your business and a few quick ideas on how you might do just that so…
Which of the three ways will you tackle first?
If you want some more help on coming up with loads of ways to improve all three you might like to start reading HERE