If you’ve been trying to grow your business, but you still aren’t seeing any progress, you might just be your own worst enemy.
By continuing to engage in these activities, there’s a good chance prohibiting your own growth:
1.) You’re still using paper
Notebooks are great for taking notes in meetings or jotting down ideas you randomly have, but if they aren’t transferred to a CRM system or put into a process to actually be completed, they get lost.
I typically keep my meeting notes organized in Drive, based on the client. Then if I, or one of my colleagues, need to go back and reference they’re all easily accessible.
2.) You aren’t using a CRM system
It’s 2019! Having business cards lined up on your desk just won’t cut it anymore. And being afraid of making the jump into learning CRM is no longer an excuse. Having a managed CRM system lets you bring your team together and keep track of your prospects, lost deals, and clients.
By going with a CRM like HubSpot, you also get marketing automation software. With marketing automation software, you’re able to not only track sales activities but also inter-weave marketing activities so you can close more deals, faster.
3.) You don’t have a follow-up strategy
CRM can remind you to follow up, but what you do is mostly up to you. Create a strategy and enforce it in your system so your team can learn it. Don’t let valuable prospects fall out of your pipeline! Everyone you meet could be a prospect or a networking partner if you refine your follow up process.
Use workflows to stay top of mind with prospects downloading your content. With these, you continue to drip relevant content on contact over a period of time, continuing to warm them up until they’re ready to purchase.
4.) You don’t have a positive, ongoing relationship with people who are already customers
Often customers are in need of more services but they 1.) don’t know you offer them 2.) flat out forget about you. Continue to check in with your customers even after the sale is complete. Remind them you’re still around and learn about their business so you can be there to help when the opportunity arises.
Try these 11 other tips for encouraging customer retention.
5.) You don’t welcome change
With growth comes change. If leaders and employees aren’t open to change, your business will always be stagnant. Start small — like refreshing marketing material or something that isn’t permanent. If you’ve been on the fence about creating content on LinkedIn, this is your push to START.
Overall, you have to look to drive growth. Continue to innovate and stay on top of trends. Understand your marketing and your customers. Some growth opportunities will require a large investment of effort and studying. Others will require time to develop and their value to blossom.
