Growth is very important for businesses today. Research shows that growing is not just a goal but a necessity. To grow the business, having a good growth plan is key.
However, Only half of new companies stay in business for more than five years. This makes it even more important for small businesses to have strategies to help them expand.
The truth is that plans to grow a company are usually about making small, gradual improvements. You will use different methods when growing your business, but they will all follow some main principles.
So, what exactly is a business growth strategy? Let’s explore the four key business development strategies for optimal growth to help you understand.
What is a Business Growth Strategy?
A business growth strategy is a plan to help a company expand and develop over time. It can include specific projects, new products, or services. It can also involve joining with another business, partnerships, or selling to new groups of customers.
Smaller things like checking who you work with can also be part of the plan. You can create a business growth strategy using market research or strategies that have worked well for other companies.
There are three levels of strategy, according to experts. A good growth strategy will affect all three levels. It’s important to understand each level and its role in the plan. The three levels are:
- The top-level defines the primary purpose of the whole company. It will guide all decisions.
- The middle level defines the specific plans needed for each customer group.
- The lowest level defines the daily work required to meet goals set by the higher levels. This helps the company stay on track with the strategy.
What are the Benefits of an Effective Business Growth Strategy?
A company can be impacted in different ways by its growth plans. Many good things can come from having an effective business growth strategy. These include:
- Growing Revenue – Companies usually increase sales and profits by following a good growth strategy.
- Increased Value for Shareholders—A company that executes a growth strategy well should see its share price go up. This builds investors’ trust in the company.
- Growing Market Share – This is especially true if new products or services are part of the strategy. The new things might appeal to different types of customers than before.
- Specialized Skillset – A successful strategy could mean the company needs workers with certain skills that may not have been needed before.
The Four Key Principles of Strategic Business Development
Whether you are promoting a professional service, selling a product, or looking for help for a cause, four questions can help create a framework for the strategic growth of customers, supporters, or sales:
- Can you specify the target people or groups important for your success?
- Do you know and understand the main issues or concerns that guide important choices for your important people or groups?
- Do you have a clear solution or answer to these main concerns?
- Can you make a plan that brings attention and provides value to your important people or groups?
Let’s look at these principles closely.
Specifying Targets
There’s no hiding from this fact: If you cannot name who you need to reach, you are mostly just hoping the right people find out. But if you know exactly who must hear about you to succeed, you can stop just hoping and start a plan.
Knowing your target is key to efforts that get the right people’s attention when it matters. Broadly speaking, there are three types of targets:
- Those who can say yes to buying what you offer
- Connections willing to recommend you or introduce you to decision-makers
- Those with knowledge or information about other targets
Focusing only on type 1 is a mistake; strategic plans are built through all three. It’s no secret that word-of-mouth is the best marketing. Coaches who help you understand a process can also be important targets for your plan.
Here are some places to start finding targets:
- Your Own Professional Network: Separate your contacts into the three target types and others not related. This includes past coworkers, clients, and groups you belong to for work or community.
- Industry Groups: If you work in healthcare, you can connect with groups that study, advise on, or support that area of healthcare.
- Supporters of Your Targets: These are people already helping those you want to reach. If you want to work with startup investors, your list may include financial planners and accountants. If you’re an accountant building a corporate tax practice, look to connect with CFOs and lenders first.
The goal is to name specific individuals, not just list groups. Getting the yes requires trust between people. And that trust comes from personal connections.
Concerns and Drivers of Decisions
It’s important to understand what worries or issues matter most to your targets. Use this knowledge to guide what you talk about and how you reach out. Messages that address what drives critical choices for them can start useful discussions.
These discussions can then lead to connections, teamwork, more involvement, and customers. Aim your words at what they find most important in their decisions.
Solutions for Your Targets’ Big Worries
Talking about solutions to important issues can be hard.
A lawyer who focuses on intellectual property rights may say, “I help with IP problems. But if someone doesn’t have an IP issue, I can’t help with cash flow worries.”
Other experts may say something similar – accountants solve accounting problems, consultants address workplace challenges, and so on.
For example, a fundraising advisor to a nonprofit may initially think big donations only involve asking for money.
But then he realizes these types of donations can involve much more. For example, things like taxes, family inheritance plans, and advice from other experts often come up.
So, if he realizes taxes and inheritance dominate each discussion, he can focus on identifying strategies to address donors’ big worries directly. Then, meeting with suitable donors becomes easier when he offers solutions to these worries.
What keeps your target awake can come in many forms. You need to discover their big worries and provide a solution that separates you from others.
Make a Plan to Be Seen
This is about taking your solutions directly to potential customers. Take time to carefully identify targets, understand what’s most important to them, and design a solution. Then, much of the worry around marketing and outreach will disappear.
Where should you spend your effort? Should you go to this event or that networking meeting? Spend time where your targets spend time.
Should you write, speak, or do something else? Use every resource you have to create visibility around understanding important issues and providing value to discussions.
It’s also important to map connections. If you do not know a target directly, identify the relationships that can introduce you.
Providing Value to Your Targets Requires Hard Work
If time isn’t an issue and money isn’t an object, it’s easier to open your doors and hope customers find you. But in real life, resources are limited.
Strategic planning involves digging in deep and learning everything you can. It’s about creating a real plan to meet with important people. You have to stick with the plan and not give up.
Even so, a strategic plan has basic steps: Name who you must reach to succeed. Learn what concerns them and drives choices. Create answers for those worries. Then, follow a map to build relationships and connect with them.
Conclusion
If you are looking to take your business to the next level through strategic development and growth, WinHub can help you get started on the right path.
As a leading consulting firm focused on business expansion, WinHub has the expertise to guide you through every stage – from target identification and market research, to solution development and implementation support.
Contact WinHub today to get started.
