Constant growth offers your business resilience and greater sustainability, economies of scale, greater bargaining and buying power, higher market dominance, and diversification. This gets you around common commercial risks. As a result, if you are looking to set your business on a fresh growth trajectory and stand above your competitors, this article discusses some of the easiest yet most effective growth ideas to incorporate into your strategy.
1. Track your KPIs.
At the core of any successful business growth plan is the ability to know what works and what doesn’t. Likewise, as a brand CEO, you need to identify high-ROI metrics and put more effort and resources into them. Therefore, we call these metrics key performance indices (KPIs).
Common CEO KPIs include quick ratio, operating cash flow, total debt-to-equity ratio, working capital, and return on equity. Of course, all companies work differently, so it’s worthwhile to understand your daily operations before building your KPI dashboard.
2. Create a sales funnel.
A comprehensive sales funnel can help you track your customers much more easily and save your sales team a lot of time and exhaustion from trial and error. As a result, all you need to do is conceptualize your funnels carefully, put different methods to the test, and tackle the market using every workable opportunity you can lay your hands on.
Therefore, whether it’s a blitz sale offering or a free shipping offer, you need to ensure the sales front always rides on innovativeness and your sales team delivers in diverse ways.
3. Keep tabs on your cash flow.
Businesses that operate without an inclusive and up-to-date cash flow balance often find themselves facing surprise cash-related obstacles. Contrary to popular notion, rapid growth isn’t dependent on a business’s ability to run on tight margins and pump the bulk of its funds on marketing and expansion projects.
As a result, it is more about finding the balance between current needs and expectations for the future. Likewise, as a sales manager, you need to understand your opportunities and needs. Then, plan with the available resources in mind.
4. Recruit effectively.
The strength of your workforce dictates the strength of your business unless each of your operations is automated to the bits. As a result, quality employees will create a culture that will propel your business to greater heights.
Your hiring process should be well-planned based on the job description awaiting the candidate. Likewise, everyone brings something unique to the workplace, and you need to find people who complement the talent that you already have.
5. Use a customer relationship management system.
Manually monitoring your customer transactions gets more complex as the business grows and transactions increase. If you want to grow quickly, consider using a customer relationship management (CRM) system. CRM tools provide a unified interface where you can view customer and prospect data and monitor all interactions. A proper CRM system supports sales management, facilitates team communication, integrates with social media, and delivers actionable insights. Popular CRM tools include Salesforce, FreshWorks, Keap, Zoh, Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Oracle NetSuite.
6. Build a customer loyalty program.
The best customers are those that feel emotionally connected with your business. Not only will they stick around in the face of increasing competition, but they will also save you a fortune in the long run.
Therefore, acquiring a new customer costs a lot more than retaining an existing one. As a result, a loyalty program is thus crucial for any business seeking to truly transform its growth curve.
7. Adapt to change.
Change is inevitable. In the world of commerce, conventional methods of acquiring and retaining customers seem to go obsolete at a rapid pace, with the most successful companies being those that switch more swiftly.
As a result, if you don’t have the resources to perform internal tests, you can keep tabs on the leading lights and be among the first in the lower brackets to take up significant innovations.
8. Enhance your online visibility.
Whether your website complements a brick-and-mortar store or your business is entirely online-based, increasing your online visibility shouldn’t be something to ponder. Likewise, if your brand or product can’t be found on the internet, your business will have to rely on passersby and customers acquired from traditional marketing techniques. investing in the services of a reputable digital marketing company can significantly benefit your business in today’s highly competitive online landscape.
For better online visibility, invest in search engine optimization, engage prospects and customers on social media, launch a newsletter, and produce good content. Similarly, if you have the resources, you can launch a brand-specific mobile application. A well-managed social media marketing strategy effectively improves your business’ online visibility since it allows for targeted advertising, increased brand awareness, and higher customer engagement.
9. Automate.
While hiring the right talent is paramount, automating some processes might be the best way to get the most out of your workforce.
Repetitive tasks that don’t require creativity are a waste of skill and should involve minimum human effort. Therefore, take the time to identify digital operational processes that can be automated and free your employees up for more important tasks.
10. Enhance customer data privacy.
People are slowly becoming aware of the presence of cybercrime. As a result, they understand the importance of keeping their data from the prying eyes of strangers.
According to a 2019 survey, 50% of smartphone users in the United States will only share their geolocation information if they are told how it will be used. Now imagine their vigilance with more important information such as credit card details.
11. Reward your team.
Your customers should come first, but they shouldn’t put your employees in the back seat. Every behemoth was built on the backs of intelligent, hardworking, and devoted employees.
You want to encourage passion among your team if you want to get more than the bare minimum. There are many ways to do this. You can reward the most productive departments with treats or promise pay raises and promotions to individuals who achieve certain feats and even provide incentives for making healthy choices, thus improving their overall well-being and productivity.
12. Provide effective employee training.
Efficiency and productivity at work are highest when your workforce can easily and effectively utilize the resources at their disposal. Likewise, a company that frequently adopts new technology requires initial training for recruits and continuous training for existing employees.
Therefore, you should also put effort into making your training program brief, simple, and effective.
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Gradually optimizing these processes will increase efficiency, reduce operational costs, and accelerate your business’s growth.
Hopefully, the above tips come in handy for you as you look to increase sales and expedite your growth.
