Ways to grow your business in a recovering economy

When the economy started heading south, most companies fell into one of two categories characterized by their reactions to and strategies for dealing with the developing economic conditions.

Business executives in the first group felt there was little they could do to influence prevailing conditions. Whether by design or default, they abandoned their “climb to the summit” — their quest for sales. They set up “base camp” in an attempt to weather the economic storm and hang on to the business they had.

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To maintain some degree of profitability, they trimmed expenses wherever they could: advertising, marketing, and personnel for instance.

Business executives in the other group took a more aggressive stance. They decided to continue the climb - to forge ahead and do whatever they needed to do to not only maintain their market position, but to grow it. They planned to reach the summit regardless of prevailing conditions.

They revamped selling processes to increase efficiency and restructured selling strategies to increase effectiveness. They looked for things they could do that would grow revenue and profit in the near-term while keeping an eye toward the future.

Now that the economy is showing signs of recovering, the campers must turn their attention to increasing revenue (since they’ve already cut expenses to the bone). They must look for ways to not only capture their share of the re-emerging market, but they must figure out how to recapture any ground lost to the climbers. The climbers, of course, wish to not only maintain their lead, but to increase it.

Campers and climbers alike are apt to be operating with fewer resources than they had a year or so ago. The resulting challenge to growing revenues and profits is threefold:

â€¢ Devise more effective ways to identify and qualify business opportunities
â€¢ Implement more efficient ways to develop opportunities and bring them to closure
â€¢ Strengthen customer relationships

Opportunities abound in the recovering economy. Do you want your share? If so, ask yourself, “What am I doing to improve my selling strategies and enhance my selling skills?”

The more detailed your answer, the more likely it is that you’ll get your share…and perhaps a bit more.

Joe Marr is a public speaker, sales and management consultant and trainer, and runs Sandler Training - Ann Arbor. Contact him at (734) 821-4830 or visit his Web site.