Double Digit Growth

Pat Mcgraw has a lesson for all of us:

5 Reasons Businesses Miss Goals

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 06:53 PM PDT

There are businesses out there, right now, that are chugging along and producing double – even triple-digit revenue growth.

How are they doing it? And, more importantly, how can you learn from them so you can make it happen for your business?

Here are five key factors that separate the highly successful from the rest of the pack.

Consistent Promotional Efforts. Are you promoting your business every day? Or do you have spurts and gaps? When your target buyer is being bombarded by more than 3,000 promotional communications each and every day, you need to be there fighting for their attention day in and day out. If you go silent for a couple of months, you lost a lot of ground that can’t be made up by a ‘big push next month.’

Clearly Defined Target Market. Successful businesses are like lasers – they have clearly defined target audiences which allows them to offer stronger, more relevant messages and offers. On the other hand, most businesses define their target audience too broadly which results in weaker messages and offers – and lower response rates.

For example, a business that serves “manufacturing businesses with less than $10 million in annual revenue located in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. that are now required by federal law to submit Report ABC on a quarterly basis” is much more focused than another business that targets “a business that wants business intelligence software.”

Efficient processes for quickly qualifying leads. Too many businesses treat all inquiries as qualified leads and toss them all over to sales. The result? Sales has to work through the pile of leads – and that typically results in a bit of triage. That explains why 80% of all inquiries are disqualified by sales – that produces the real ‘lost opportunity’ because 60% to 80% of the disqualified inquiries turn around and make a purchase within 12 to 24 months.

Efficient process for identifying and nurturing qualified leads that aren’t ready to buy today. Successful businesses take those qualified buyers with plans to buy in the future and place them in a lead nurturing program – but that’s only 30% of all businesses. They report double and triple-digit increases in conversion rates with some as high as 300%. That type of performance improvement doesn’t happen for the 70% of all businesses that just disqualify the qualified lead…

Efficient process for ensuring the first-time buyers have a WOW experience that quickly turns them into repeat buyers. Successful companies address the buyer’s natural tendency to re-evaluate their purchase – and they work closely with the first-time buyer in order to increase the chances for repeat business and referrals. The end result is that successful companies have a process that turns more first-time buyers into repeat buyers and they shorten the time between the first and second purchase.

Notice the use of the word ‘process’ - that’s because a process allows these successful businesses to measure performance, identify opportunities to improve, and take the appropriate action that produces better results.

Again, process requires discipline and commitment – and saying “No” – which is why so many businesses resist creating a process! As one CEO told me, “My sales people need freedom to chase opportunities they think are worth the effort. If we set up a process, they might not be able to pursue a great opportunity – and our business suffers.”

Of course, if the marketing plan is properly created, those opportunities would be high priorities for the company…

Post from: patmcgraw

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