Growing any business requires a clear strategic plan. Even with the best products in the world you need to develop a strategy to grow your product-based business and stay ahead of the competition.
Here are our top tips to boost your growth:
Nurture your customers
Keep your existing customers coming back to you for their products. This one is especially important if the product you offer can be easily purchased elsewhere. Customers are price-sensitive, but you don’t have to be the cheapest supplier to get repeat orders. Many customers will pay a premium if they know they are getting quality products and excellent service.
Investing in your customer service and nurturing relationships will keep your customers returning.
Ask for referrals
One of the most cost-effective ways to get new customers is to ask existing customers to recommend you. If a customer lets you know that they’re happy with your products, then ask if they know anyone else who could benefit from having you as a supplier.
You could even consider offering reward discounts for customers who make successful referrals. Referrals can be a very valuable source of revenue that doesn’t eat into your marketing budget.
Participate in trade shows and events
Attending trade shows gets your product in front of a wider audience, in an environment where they can see and touch the product. Visibility is one of the keys to good marketing, and participating in trade shows is a great way to get your product visible.
They’re also great places to network with other people in your industry, and to get an idea of upcoming trends and challenges that your competitors and customers are facing. Understanding these issues helps you to innovate – which is our next tip!
Embrace innovation
Whether it’s developing new products or finding new uses for existing ones, innovation is a key driver of growth for any business.
Innovation is all about finding solutions to problems. What problems do your product solve? Does it solve more than one problem, or can it be adapted to do so? Are there complementary products and services that you can offer to your customers?
When you provide products that consistently solve your customer’s problems, you’ll gain a loyal customer base and set your business ahead of the competition.
Expand your manufacturing process
Getting your manufacturing process right is essential for growing your business. Gaining more customers means producing more products, and you need to be ready to scale.
Expanding and refining your manufacturing process can ensure that you’re using the resources you have in the best way possible. It also involves identifying ways that you can improve or streamline the process. What that looks like is different for each business, but options like automation, outsourcing, or investing in additional machinery are all ways to get ready for growth.
Be ready to hire or partner with others
As your business grows, you might find yourself needing help or expertise that you don’t have in-house. Be ready to invest in hiring people to fill the gap. Of course, hiring more people can mean more operational and human resources admin which might not be where you want to invest your time or money.
Another option that can help you scale even quicker is to partner with a company to outsource the work. You can outsource elements like your product development, manufacturing or sales processes. This way, your business can grow faster and benefit from the advantages that partnering with a larger-scale organisation can provide.
At Nexus IE, we’ve helped ours clients grow their product-based business and we look after the entire product lifecycle. Our experienced and friendly team of manufacturing, support and project engineers can assist with everything from setting up your supply chain, assembly and testing, installation, and user training. We also offer help with after sales service and support of equipment globally.
