Things are changing and fast. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day running of your business. Take a step back, review and think about these 10 business areas and how they could be improved and developed in order to grow your business.
1. Market Potential
When looking at a market strategy, you need to be able to identify potential markets for your products and services. You need to understand your primary business purpose and the alignment of this to market needs. The goal is to identify clear gaps in the market where your differentiators will add value. Take the time to research this thoroughly and create your market penetration strategy.
2. Value Proposition
Every business should be continually challenging and seeking ways to improve its product and service offering. Make sure your USP’s are constantly refined and improved to keep you ahead of the pack. Look at this through the eyes of your customers, as it is their opinion that really counts. Think about the business problems you solve and the solutions you offer. Where possible be consultative in your approach. Think about innovative ideas that will challenge and disrupt the market place.
3. Customer Experience
This is becoming a real buzzword and if treated correctly can create a significant differentiating effect. Think of it this way, your highly engaged clients are your brand advocates, so are an extension to your sales team. Conversely, unhappy clients have the ability to voice their concerns through digital channels that can have a very detrimental effect. It is worth investing time to understand both client engagement, such as NPS, and also your employee engagement. Get this customer experience right and you will enjoy significant customer loyalty.
4. Marketing Strategy
To build an effective marketing strategy you really need to understand your target customers in depth, developing detailed customer personas and identifying their buying journey. It is important to understand the various points at which customers engage with your brand, its products, services and its marketing messages, and to optimise each opportunity to maximise conversions and subsequent profitable sales. In addition, setting KPI’s and measuring effectiveness will ensure that you select the most efficient marketing channels and deliver the highest ROI.
5. Sales Strategy
Sales is one business area where a number of small changes can create substantial improvement. When considering a sales strategy, you should think about individual plans for client retention, client development and new client acquisition. Sales process is an area where significant efficiencies can be found which will improve conversion ratios. Sales strategies should be managed and controlled with the correct lead and lag measures and appropriate review procedures. A clear and well-structured dashboard will make all the difference.
6. People Strategy
The people in your business are a major investment. It makes sense to use them well. Managing people performance and the talent in your business is an important activity. Get this right and you can improve productivity. Your people strategy is all about getting your business from here to there, using the people you have in the best way possible. Getting them engaged with your business vision, encouraging their creativity and innovation, developing excellent performance in all your teams, identifying and developing talent throughout the company – this is the purpose of your people strategy.
7. Operational Strategy
Having a focused and accurate operational strategy can be a great way to carve out cost from a business, improve efficiency and increase profitability. The techniques of Lean manufacture are quite established now and most manufacturers have had a ‘LEAN’ experience from which they have benefitted. However, an important element of ‘LEAN’ is continuous improvement and this can easily be forgotten. In an ever-changing environment, it is vitally important to keep the foot on the accelerator and continuously look for operational improvements.
8. Finance & Governance
When reviewing your business, there are number of financial factors that are essential for successful growth of the business. Management should have the correct information available allowing them to make the right business decisions. Forecasting is essential to ensure day to day activities are in line with the overall strategic plan. We always encourage businesses to be thinking ‘exit ready’ and have an exit diagnostic tool to work out where attention is required. Make sure you know where you are heading and that you have a clear plan to get there!
9. Leadership & Management
Leadership starts at the top. Review your top team to make sure you have everything you need to lead your business to greater success. Developing your current team and creating strong succession plans, makes sure your business will be well led today and tomorrow. Your top leaders need strong management skills to deliver operational activity so developing your managers and your leaders are important. Assessing current skills for all managers and leaders and then planning to develop them appropriately is an important part of your people strategy.
10. Culture strategy
Culture starts at the top. Competitors may copy your products and services but your culture will make you unique. Creating aspirational leadership teams, who are passionate about creating leaders within their teams, is essential. They must trust and empower their teams to make decisions and learn as they develop their skills. Think BIG and take calculated and measured steps to grow your business.
Need support to undertake the review? At Harpers for Growth we can help you to review your business areas and formulate new strategies to help you grow. Contact us here for a free initial consultation.