subject: A Business Development Plan Can Help A Budding Enterprise [print this page] While business development is a carefully thought out strategy mainly used to grow a medium to large business, it can also benefit a small business. Of course, there are many elements that go into creating a comprehensive business development plan. A small business consultant can help you focus in on certain key elements of business growth. These key elements include customer service, increasing customer loyalty, targeting your prospective customers, lead generation, and providing incentives.
A business that neglects customer service is destined to fail because customers provide the revenue of a business. While this of course is obvious, many businesses, while paying lip service to the idea, neglect to make customers feel important. Here are some simple things that can immediately improve customer service. You should always answer your phone and keep your promises.
If a customer has a complaint, it is important to listen. Try to solve the problem amicably. Always try to be helpful to your customers, by enabling them to select the product that will help them most, for example. According to business expert Fred Reichheld, who wrote the popular book, Loyalty Rules, a 5 percent improvement in customer retention can improve the perceived value of your business value by 75 percent.
How, then, do you go about getting customers to know, like, and trust your business enough to be loyal to it? Train your staff to treat customers well and to be helpful and courteous. Train them to be knowledgeable about your products and services because ignorance or common courtesy will turn customers off. Word of mouth spreads rapidly, especially when customers are treated badly or given incorrect instructions or information.
The way to best position your brand is to have a clear vision of how your brand fits into the market. How does it cope with the competition and what is the best method of product distribution? What is the least expensive supply chain? Once you understand these crucial factors, position your brand to offer the same things as your competition but with an added or improved benefit.
Targeting your prospective customers means understanding the many factors about your customer's lives, then creating an idealized image of your average customer and designing services based on your projections about your target market. Speaking in public about your business, writing articles about your industry, networking with those in your field, engaging in promotional events, and advertising are just some of the many ways available to generate leads. You should have two types of incentive programs, one for your sales staff to want to sell more and one for your customers to want to buy more. Incentive programs can be as simple as offering more commission or discounts or as complex as arranging contests for cash prizes, trips, or products.
As a business owner, you have to think of your own unique techniques that you can use to grow your small business. Be proactive about devising ways that you can improve customer service. Simply starting up a business is not enough for success. You have to design business development programs.
by: Nick Messe
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