Accelerating business growth

Have you resigned yourself to being satisfied with no growth in this sluggish economy? Have you seen your sales slip? We all know the challenges we face in this economy. Customers are spending less, building less, cutting costs, offering fewer improvements. Here are three ways to grow your business, even in this down economy.

Improve Your Market Share
You can improve market share by knowing your brand, knowing your competition, knowing who the customers are within your market and dazzling them. Also, buy your competition. If you have the financial means, poor economies are exceptional times to buy businesses as long as you have the capital and business acumen to adequately evaluate the opportunity.

Start out by knowing your segments. Are they broken down into residential sales, HOA sales, commercial sales, golf, etc.?  Take each segment and evaluate what your market share is and which segments offer the best opportunities. Take some time and write down as many projects as you can list within your market and determine who services these accounts and determine what segment you can truly grow.

Simultaneously, make sure you fully understand who you are as a business. Are you a landscape construction business or maintenance business? Do you offer irrigation services, lawn care, tree work or chemical applications? Determine what services you have that standout and what your competitive strengths are. Know your brand!

Devise marketing materials that promote the services your company does very well. Craft your marketing strategy to explain how your services can be beneficial during a rough economy. For example, show customers how you can save them money. You will want to craft this in a way that maintains or improves your margins. Can you eliminate annual color beds in favor of perennial color? Develop sustainable landscape recommendations that allow projects to save on water costs? Or can you eliminate groundcover and add fresh bark mulch?

Odds are that many potential customers are being overlooked by your competition while their businesses struggle. Or perhaps they are apathetic with their services and indifferent to their clients as they drop prices and lose margins. Realize that this is a huge opportunity for you. Pay close attention to your competition and the businesses they service. Understand that much of your competition is focusing on business issues that have nothing to do with serving their clients. So if they offer lackluster service, know that this is an opportunity for you to display exceptional qualities to new customers and improve your market share.

By knowing what your market is, what you do well and working hard to uncover prospective customers, you can grow market share. Stick to your brand and dazzle customers.

Create New Business Segments
Creating a new business segment can be a fun opportunity. Look for possibilities that are a good complement to your business and that offer strong upside. Look for a niche that makes you money.

There are many possibilities, possibly including: artificial turf, chemical applications, design/build work, golf courses, hardscape work, irrigation, landscape maintenance or construction, plant nurseries, putting greens, residential or commercial work, homeowner associations, hotels, resorts, sports turf, or tree divisions.

When considering a new segment or business niche it is very important to find the opportunity that best fits your business and complements your core business. You may be a sports enthusiast. Try specializing in sports fields. Perhaps you love golf; consider specializing in the design and installation of home putting greens. Use this as an opportunity to follow your passions and your customers will notice.

Understand the risk of not keeping your eye on the ball in terms of developing your brand. Make sure that you have fully analyzed your company’s ability to perform. Any new initiative must be complementary to your core business.

Grow Your Base
Explore all opportunities available within your current customer base. Know them as well as you know your own business. Often, a business is able to grow by merely taking better care of their existing customer base. Let’s face it, every business has a customer. Figure out why they chose you and make it a special experience for them.

Make sure every customer you have knows how much you appreciate their business. Ask your employees to treat them extra special. You may want to seek the advice of your staff and ask them what would be a fun way to recognize your customers and make them feel special. The tighter bond you build the more likely they will help you grow your business.

Can your customers describe you? If not, they cannot describe you to a friend.  Make sure that your clients know what you do for them and like it. Turn them into advocates for your business.

As mentioned earlier, many businesses don’t pay attention to their customers during difficult business times. Therefore, this is the best time possible for refer-ability. Spend more time with current customers and you’ll find that they can sell for you. If customers really like you and believe in your services, the better their recommendations will be and the more likely they can sell you to a friend.

Strive to attract – rather than chase  – customers. Sell mutually beneficial services and long-term relationships. Craft discussions to focus on your worth and not just cost.

Keep in mind the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of your customers will generally provide 80 percent of your revenue. If you are a small business and lack large resources, focus on the 20 percent of your customers who really make it happen for your business.

Stay in touch with them through very positive courtesy calls. Plant the seed that you are excited about your brand and always eager to improve your business. Remember, if you take exceptional care of them they will be a strong advocate for you.

Is there a lost customer that you can go back to? When times were booming you may have taken in stride the loss of a customer. Now the market is much smaller and the surviving customers are more valuable. Figure out how you can patch up your differences and win them back. And when you get them back, handle them perfectly. Always think beyond price.

Don’t be satisfied with your business and presume that there are no opportunities in this economy. Devise ways to make this tough economy work for you and your business. Do this by staying focused, creative, exploring any reasonable opportunity that is complementary to your business, and, last but not least, take special care of the customers you  already have.

The author is a past president of the California Landscape Contractors Association.