How to GROW and scale your business

The following companies announced possible retrenchments in the first 2 weeks of 2020: 

-   Dion-Wired – possible 1 400 jobs

-   Telkom – possible 3 000 jobs, 

-   Sibanye-Stillwater – possible 1 142

“Many listed companies are set to cut jobs, some predict as many as 10 000 in the first quarter, not to mention other companies that haven’t publicly announced their projected cuts”- Kizito Okechukwu, Executive Head at 22 On Sloane: 3 Feb 2020

And with our country’s GDP growth rate of below 1%, how do you see your company making it through 2020, let alone the next 3–5 years?

There is a major shift in the economy and business landscape that will soon affect you and your business directly, if not already. It is equally clear that only those who are doing things better than ‘just right’ will truly succeed in 2020 and beyond. And those that are not, will unfortunately perish.

What we found to be common amongst businesses that succeed versus those that fail, is that those that succeed have strategy that priorities the following tactics:

Tactic #1: Establish Product-Market Fit

The purpose of a business is to find, sell to, and to keep customers. The way customers find, buy, and use products and services has evolved significantly over the last decade. The culture of instant gratification, on-demand delivery, the subscription economy, product and service personalisation, and stiff global competition, forces large and especially SME’s, to provide compelling value for customers to warrant sales. To provide compelling value and have a chance in the marketplace, they have to achieve what we call Product-Market Fit.

Marc Andreessen, the American entrepreneur and investor, defined the term as ‘being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market’. However, the definition I prefer is this: A company has Product-Market Fit (PMF) when it offers a unique product or service that a great market desperately wants and is willing to pay for it. 

When you don’t have PMF it unfortunately means you don’t have a viable product or business. Meaning, you could be disrupted at any time by companies that have that product market fit. 

The market tips in your favour – word of mouth grows rapidly because happy customers will tell their friends and family about you – You become a MUST HAVE in your market. 

Tactic #2: Innovate a scalable business model

“A business model is like a blueprint that defines how a company provides its products and services (value proposition) in a way that is easy to buy, makes the customers happy and keeps them coming back for more”. In essence, a business model shows the logic of how a company intends to make money. 

Unfortunately, most businesses only have a product or service but not a scalable business model through which they can provide that product or service in a way that is profitable, scalable and sustainable in the long run. 

Simple examples of differences in business models include:

-       A traditional 1-man corner street chesa nyama that sells meals to hungry people vs the Chesa Nyama franchise that sells an income and wealth generating value proposition to entrepreneurs who want to own a self-managing business -  same product but very different business models. One business model makes tens of thousands of rand per annum, the other, millions in the same period. 

-       A typical mom and pops florist vs Netflorist. One is a traditional small retail shop, while the other, Netflorist, is a massively scalable business that uses equally scalable ecommerce infrastructure at its core to provide flowers, gifting and other products through. Again, same product but very different value proposition and business models.

Tactic #3: Build an automated marketing and sales machine

A majority of businesses miss their revenue targets. This is primarily because marketing and sales has changed over the past decade. Yet businesses still use outdated methods of marketing and selling. 

Here are some stats that speak to how sales has changed and therefore the challenges you face when it comes to generating leads and ultimately closing sales opportunities:

-       B2B clients are 65-90% of the way through the purchase decision process before they contact a supplier. (Forrester)

-       It takes an average of 8 touches to get an initial meeting (or other conversion) with a new prospect (Rain Group)

-       Almost 80% of new leads never become sales. (MarketingSherpa)

Therefore, you need to capture leads before they make a buying decision and you need to nurture them for some time before that decision is made. You can achieve this through the effective use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Marketing Automation systems. These will help you generate a greater number of leads, but also to nurture and close those leads over time. Resulting in higher revenues generated.

For more growth tactics and further insight on how to best go about implementing them, register for our upcoming webinar titled ‘The 5 Tactics For A 10X Growth Strategy’ by clicking this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/6015815029962/WN_z3oNRseGQO6GFzYitsEFVA

Your partner in growth!

KK Diaz

Business Strategist, 5X Author and Growth Accelerator!

Website: www.agamebusiness.com