Here’s the deal. If you have a business, and you don’t have a plan for how to grow.. you are already failing. You need to at least have a hypothesis by which you believe you can achieve SCALE-ABLE GROWTH. And there is not reason to not grow.. here are the top strategies.. the key is always test (“Is your strategy working?”):
- you will grow by viral behaviour. Once you get a boost of new players, you will auto-grow because your virality is above 1.0.
- you will grow by advertising. You make enough profit $$ per item/customer (after acquisition costs) that it justifies continued ramped up investments in advertising.
- you will grow by retention and word-of-mouth. Similar to virailty, but more personal. you will retain your customers so well, they keep buying more and more and even bring friends occasionally.
- you will grow by ‘free’ marketing. People are searching for what you got, and your SEO will help them find you in a scalable fashion. (p.s. this is very difficult)
- you will grow by hiring a sales-force and hunting out the best customers.
What’s your strategy?
Got any others to add to this list?
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Harlan, Thanks for your post, I'm still trying to figure out how to sell our products & services. I hate Purchasing agents that get measured on how much they "save" their company by getting a better price. Plant managers love us because our products help them achieve a better cost/wiget. Plant managers usually trump Purchasing managers when it comes to vendor selection. Know your customers' success criteria and the awful art of selling becomes much easier…Tom
Great insight Tom! thanks for sharing as well. I will codify your suggestion into #6.
6. you will grow by being able to clearly show your value to your customers such that it is a no-brain-er.