SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES

Overview

Driving any business growth is never simple, especially if you want it to be long-lasting. It goes beyond simply adding extra features to your product or even providing add-on services. Business owners must create a strong strategic plan to achieve growth; strategies may be organic, inorganic, or a combination of both.

Increasing market penetration, market expansion, product expansion, product or service diversification, mergers, and even acquisitions are some of the most popular growth strategies that firms use to achieve the growth they want.

Before moving forward with a plan, it is crucial to recognise and state these six growth suggestions:

1) Set your company's growth objectives.

Since most of the business growth objectives are like "We want to be a million dollar firm," "We want to be the largest player in the country," "We want to take our product to the world," etc., they typically take five to ten years to achieve. It is remarkable to have an expansive vision, but in the short term (let's say 12 to 18 months), you'll need to get your clothes soiled by going through the swamp in addition to wanting to assess your results. Therefore, once you've established your broad goals, divide them into manageable portions that will last between six and twelve months so that everyone on the team knows their respective goals and you can celebrate little victories.

2) Customer-centric

It's okay if not every customer you now have fits your desired customer profile or will stick around for the long run. You can find which solutions give the best customer fit by identifying which of your customers are getting the most value from your solution—those who can explain why they choose you and are satisfied with it. You can then do more of what you're doing to attract more of those consumers.

3) Ask the right questions from the right person.

Realizing customer mindsets is never simple. In addition to the fact that no two clients are the same, neither are their problems. This is a dilemma for any organization since, in addition to being an expert on what they want, the client frequently has no idea what kinds of available solutions or which is the right fit for them. The reality is that marketers concentrate too much on generating products and services based on small demographic segments Vs. Building solutions that address basic customer demands (be they social, functional or emotional) (be they social, practical or expressive).

Your company can develop and deliver a solution that fits that basic requirement if you comprehend the problem your customer wants to solve.

4) Your customer experience map and value journey contain gaps you should be aware of and bridge.

Any experienced marketer will tell you that the fastest way to close a sale is to eliminate obstacles and close gaps between what customers want and what companies have to offer. The Customer Value Journey or Customer Experience Map has likely already been developed and executed by most mature firms. However, there may still be places of friction where your customers may experience difficulties or uncertainty. Your company will experience sustained business growth if you can identify these points of conflict and design those areas of the customer journey (such as Customer Experience offline or online, utilizing research or qualitative data for insights, digitization, etc.).

5) Choose and concentrate on the key performance indicators.

To determine which of your growth tactics is working and which is not, and how they are genuinely working toward accomplishing your 12 to 18-month targets and eventually your 5 to 10-year goal, you must first define what KPIs you will verify, compute, and measure.

6) Try, Modify, Repeat

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome. To develop a sustainable and scalable plan for sustained business growth, try something new, modify the strategy to achieve the desired result, and repeat the intentional and controlled process.

Conclusion

It's challenging to come up with corporate growth ideas that are sustainable. Any company leader will continuously have their resolve put to the test. You must examine both inside and externally to identify the company's genuine core and its core competencies' locations to determine where the business's possibilities for a turnaround exist. It occasionally calls for reorganising, creating a solid financial sheet, and—most importantly—concentrating on cash generation. However, as any business owner knows, there cannot be a gap between what you desire and what you are prepared to do to achieve it.

Do you incorporate these points into your business?