Hi, this is Garry from Next Actions
Are you running a successful business or team?
Have your results flattened out?
Are you trying different things but nothing seems to be working?
It’s time to take a step back and look at what is going on.
Join me to discuss some steps you can take to try and restart your business growth.
We all hit that point where things just seem to be coasting along
We want to see more growth but despite what we do the results just don’t change
There are a number of quick tips that you can use to try and kick start your results
The first one is to do with how you are viewing things.
Although we think we don’t we all tend to have rather fixed ways of looking at things
This is really useful when you first start or are selling a product to a small group of people
But when trying to grow it can be one of the things that hold you back.
You look at things through your own filter
You are likely to think that you are targeting people like yourself
But once you’ve got all of those on board then you need to change the way you are thinking
And yes I am well aware of how difficult that is
For this, it’s best to try and take a step back
Using a brainstorming session can be useful for this
What you are trying to do is come up with ideas for different ways to do this
As part of this brainstorming session can you get other people involved?
And don’t just ask the usual people that you would go to
Try and find some people that you would normally not go to
If you’ve been targeting people between 20 and 30, can you get someone who is between 40 and 50
If most of your sales are to males, can you get more women involved
The aim is to get some different points of view than you normally would
Once the brainstorm is finished you’ll have a list of ideas
Normally you would then be picking off the ones that seem easy and obvious, the ones that you think would give you results
What you do this time is throw them away
You’ve been doing the easy and obvious, it’s now time to do different things!
Take the remaining ideas and work through them
Remember you are not doing things that are for you, you are doing things that will attract other people
Once again why not ask someone else for help with this
Find someone with that different viewpoint
Talk over the ideas with them
And the listen to them
I don’t mean hear them, I mean actually listen
Think about what they are telling you
Dig deeper into their thought processes to really understand what they are trying to tell you
Then use this understanding to approach things from a different mindset
Another tip is to find out what the customer actually wants
It’s likely that you initially built your product or service on what you or people similar to you like
This allows you to sell to those people
It allows you to stay in your comfort zone
When you are trying to go out to people outside of that group, then you are finding very little interest
People just don’t see the product as you do
They don’t have the excitement
Why is this?
Well it’s not what they want
What frustrates you though, you can see that it’s exactly what they need!
You can see the need
You can see the potential
But you just can’t seem to get the interest from the people you are targeting
What you need to do is to spend some time to try and understand this new market
You need to get to know the types of people you are targeting
Understand what it is they are looking for
Understand how they are looking for it
Understand what putting them off
This is often referred to as two different activities
The first is market research – understanding what the market wants
The second is customer segmentation
This is dividing customers into groups based on common characteristics so you can effectively market to them.
Again this is not an easy thing to do, and it’s not a quick one either
By spending the time to understand the market your selling into allows you to develop ways to approach it
For example, if the market is looking for red apples then you won’t get very far trying to sell oranges
Understanding the market lets you validate that people want what your selling
You can identify products, services and processes ranges that match the needs of the market
The same goes for the customer segment
If you understand the type of people that are interested in your product you can then tailor your messages to match that
If you’re trying to launch a milk-based product, then you don’t want to be targeting people with dairy intolerances
My final to today is to look at what your competitors are doing
I am in no way saying copy them because that would not be a good idea
Look at what they are doing
Does it seem to be successful for them?
What makes it stand out?
Are they using specific types of marketing?
Maybe they are giving out free samples, or using targeted Facebook ads
Are they aiming their message at specific people
What images are they using?
What types of media are they using?
By understanding what your competitor is doing, and what seems to be working for them allows you to also do the same for yourself
Are you spending lots of money on Facebook ads but getting nowhere
You competitor only appears to be giving away free samples and has a booming business
So why not try something similar, can you give away samples?
Are you giving away free samples but getting no response?
But your competitor has ads running in the local free newspaper
Well, stop the free samples and look at how you can advertise in the paper
As I have said the idea is not to copy, but to learn from them and apply it to your own business
Do you have something that is holding your business back?
If you do then put a comment below
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To summarise
When your business growth hits a wall you should
Look at things differently
Understand your customers
Look at competitors offerings
When doing these look at them with an open mind
If possible can you get other people that you would normally not go to to help you
Also, look at all your ideas and throw away the obvious ones
You are trying to get different results
And to do this means you need to have different thinking
If you’re struggling with getting off the plateau then give me a call
Working together we can come up with strategies and approaches to help get you moving again
Isn’t it time you got the results you deserve
Please reach out to me on 0415 591672
I am based in Australia so please use the international dialling code +61 if calling from another Country
You can also email me on garry@nextactions.com.au
or visit nextactions.com.au where you will find a link to book a free short introductory call
Do you have any topics you’d like me to cover
If you do please drop a comment below and I’ll add to the list of upcoming videos
Don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to my channel so you get new videos as they come out
I’ll talk to you again soon
