Business development is a key part of building your business. It can also be the toughest. Especially if you’re not a sales person, such as myself. I hate the feeling that I’m being “sold” on something and therefore, I hate the thought of “selling” you on my service. But to grow my business, I must reach out and show you what I do. This can be a daunting task as it requires a lot of rejection. And to be successful you must learn to push past that aspect of it. I wish I had more encouraging words for you on this subject, but I honestly do not. This is still an area I force myself to do as it is by far NOT the most enjoyable portion of my workday. I will be delving more into the topic of business development over the next few months, but to start us off on this topic, I’m going to list a few ways you can start growing your business.
1. Referrals – This is the best way to get business as several studies show that people buy from people they trust. And if you don’t know someone personally, the best way to “trust” someone is to take the word from someone you do know. So ask for referrals. It is likely that if you provide quality product/service or you have built a solid reputation with someone, they will have no problem sending people your way. You may also look into starting a referral program to promote your word of mouth advertising.
2. Cross Selling/ Up Selling – This is done by going back to your current clients and work on selling them on additional services or products that you have that can be beneficial to them. The key here is that the sale is beneficial to them. You don’t want to ruin a solid relationship by pushing sales your client really doesn’t need. But go through your accounts and see how else you can be of service and then go have a sit down with your clients.
3. Social Media – You can really connect with your clients through your social media. If you are engaged on your social media often, you will see what speaks best to your followers. You can use this information to help generate leads, push promotional material or coupons that your followers will value. This is a great way to connect on a personal level with perspective clients.