The 10 Areas of Focus that will help your business grow better faster

Introduction

Along the last three years, we have devised a go-to-market structure that increases the likelihood of success and growth of new businesses.

This structure is aggregated around ten areas of focus which demonstrated the most impact on business growth. Depending on the stage of the venture, its market and product, you may need to adjust some of these, but has a baseline, it has done quite well.

01. Growth Fundamentals

To grow fast, businesses need to understand the fundamental elements of accelerated business growth. This involves a mix of skills and abilities such as knowledge of why people buy, the principles of persuasion, being great communicators and ambassadors and people management and development.

02. Defined Product Proposition

Having a defined and clearly articulated proposition - as one voice within the company - is critical for growth. The elevator pitch needs to be perfectly rehearsed, understood, communicated and expressed with clarity and belief. Too many times we see businesses that fall into temptation and say that their products do ‘everything’, or have their employees communicate different messages.

03. Target Audience Definition

A critical element for growth is being able to have a big impact on a small audience, the better the audience is defined - where the business’s products and services are more likely to have a differential impact on the status quo and competitors - the better the chances are of sales success and growth.

04. Compelling Brand

The proposition needs to be encapsulated into a compelling brand. The brand is the representation of the fundamental beliefs of the business, expressed visually and through words, intended to be meaningful to a target audience, and permeating every form of communication of the business.

05. Defined Customer Journeys & Acquisition

The venture needs to devise, build and optimise the way customers discover, consider, buy, implement and advocate the products and services of the business. This informs the channels to market and maps different buying behaviours according to different personas and intentions. Growth acceleration depends on the clarity of customer journeys and the ability to improve them over time.

06. Engagement & Content Strategy

As opportunities come through the customer journey, the right engagement strategy will help drive and accelerate these journeys. This applies across all channels - more engaged prospects are more likely to become customers. This may involve purpose-built digital properties and landing pages, well-crafted written and video content and illustrations, driving the right engagement and speeding up the journey as customers become more likely to progress to the next stage.

07. Lead Generation, Nurturing & Conversion - Marketing Automation

Having the journeys defined to be able to scale faster and better, means that businesses can fill their acquisition funnels with the right marketing leads, which are adequately nurtured through the right communication, with the goal of creating conversion into sales, and successful customers after that. Businesses need a clear idea of how to find their customers. A small business networking, and then progress towards automation - this includes the process of optimising the sales funnel, and scaling it without increasing sales costs substantially.

08. Sales Execution & Optimisation

To achieve fast growth, we need to go beyond the myth that if the product is good enough, it will sell itself. Success and fast-growth depend on a stellar sales capability, continuously improving, based on results and data from end-to-end conversion tracking. Building and optimising sales from the right identification of opportunities, defining the right sales messages, and building inside sales capabilities will be a determinant for success.

09. Customer Success & Advocacy

Some businesses, naively or complacently, often overlook customer success after the sale is made. The last thing a growing business needs is unhappy customers. This will distract resources and senior management, and may negatively influence potential customers. It is important to make the right sale, and then maximise the value that customers generate from the solutions they acquired from the business, making them as profitable and productive as possible. This will create goodwill that can easily be transformed into advocacy.

10. Growth Optimisation

With limited resources for fast growth, it is critical to understand the different alternatives providing the most cost-effective or highest achievable performance under the existing business constraints, therefore maximising business growth and unit economics. Fast growth starts with the ability to measure what is making an impact on the bottom line.

If you believe this approach can be improved or if you have a successful experience you are keen on sharing, drop us a line anytime.