It’s becoming clear the only way businesses are going to survive and thrive is through accelerated innovation. Your business, even if you’re an independent professional or small firm, needs to stay on the leading edge…or die.
Ask yourself if you’ve done any of the following in the past twelve months…
- improved or refined your marketing messages
- developed one or more competitive, new services
- implemented strategies to increase existing customers’ spend
- discovered new ways to connect with prospective customers
- planned your business growth for the next 5 years
- partnered with other business owners to extend your reach
There’s an old saying… ‘If you’re not moving up, you’re moving down, and there’s no such thing as hovering.’ You can’t remain stagnant and hope to compete in today’s economy. And the very worst thing you can do is to hope the economy will somehow, someday improve.
Here’s a scary thought for you….
What if it doesn’t for a very long time? The current economic downturn has been around for over two years and has worsened through the pandemic.
But now for the good news…
A lot of businesses are doing just fine. They’re not doing fine because they are lucky. They’ve adopted a strategy of Accelerated Innovation. And it isn’t a one-time flash-in-the-pan. It’s simply the only way to do business these days. They’re taking consistent, effective action to become known as the leaders in their particular fields.
They…
- Continually improve their marketing messages…They realise their clients are moving targets. What appealed to them today might be different tomorrow. So, they reassess their messages and communicate what’s relevant, right now. They zero in on the issues, challenges, problems and pain that are most prevalent.
- Develop competitive new services…The wonderful advantage professional service businesses have is that they can create new services on a dime. Very little expenditure of time or money is required; it just takes some insight, creativity, and effort to put their ideas into action. They don’t settle for their existing services because they’ve come to know the most profitable one may be the next one they develop.
- Implement strategies to increase customer spend… It always costs less to sell current customers new services than to find new customers. Successful businesses have established ongoing client contact programmes, and continually offer something new. What are you doing to keep your customers happy and loyal?
- Find new ways to connect with prospective new customers…They grow their mailing and e-mailing lists, providing free samples of valuable information or products and they keep their online content fresh and relevant. They focus on providing value and gaining credibility so when prospects are ready, they’re seen as the obvious choice.
- Plan their business growth…Most business owners spend longer planning their holidays and over 90% of businesses fail inside 10 years; whereas successful business owners take a couple of days out of every year to create their 5-year business development plan and a day every quarter to review progress and plan the next 12 weeks.
- Partner with other business owners…The concept of joint-venture partnering has never been more relevant than now. Smart business owners are not just selling their own products and services…they’re selling each other’s as well…and reaching a much wider audience. Partnering through strategic alliances, host-beneficiary arrangements, co-sponsored workshops, internet-affiliate deals, endorsed letters, etc., are some of the powerful ways to do this.
And that’s worth thinking about…
This article comes courtesy of ActionCoach If you’d like some help selecting and implementing the most powerful accelerated innovation strategies for your business, reach out to us!
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