The single most common question I get asked right now? A no-brainer: “How am I expected to grow my business in this economy?”. Here’s the answer in four words:By increasing market share.
Here it is in 15 words, if you like detail:
Sell more of your existing products (or services) to existing (and new) customers or clients.
In other words – and most importantly – stop with the new stuff.
The media love to tell stories of new product and service launches (Apple, anyone…? Google…?) – unless the numbers are enormous, there’s nothing very interesting in reporting that company X simply sold more of the same stuff this month as it did last month.
But – that is precisely your best path to business growth.
So unless you’re reacting to obvious macro-changes in your customer’s spending patterns, stop with the new product launches and the new service offerings. It’s difficult enough to sell new products to new people in the best of times, and these aren’t they.
Remember what you’re really good at and do more of it. We can all get back to the froth in a couple of years from now.