Small Business Growth: a Combination of Marketing and Sales

Small Business Growth: a Combination of Marketing and Sales

If you do good business, referrals will follow. This is how most small businesses gain their first few customers. But, referrals only get you so far. If you want your business to grow beyond the $1m annual revenue mark, you need to explore new growth tactics.

We use the word "growth" here to categorize anything that brings you new customers. We will break it down further to discuss different growth tactics. Marketing is one tactic: allowing customers to find and contact you. Sales is another tactic: reaching out and connecting with customers interested in your business.

Ideal Growth Channels for Small Businesses

"When small service-based businesses use a mix of sales and marketing, they see real traction".

Let's break this down a bit.

We'll start with Sales. Or, more specifically, outreach. 

An outreach campaign starts by identifying potential customers. Then, you make a list and contact those people. The only real cost is your time. This approach is relatively simple and works very well in business-to-business applications. However, it is much more challenging if you're strictly in business-to-consumer.

A Small Business Sales Campaign in Action

Let's use a Plumbing and HVAC company as an example. They install heat pumps for residents in a major city, such as Vancouver. Recently, their market has become more competitive, so they're looking for creative ways to find more customers.

They know that property managers and home builders need heat pumps installed for their customers. So, our Plumbing and HVAC company puts together a list of these companies to contact.

By researching online, they identify these companies' contact details. Their website, phone numbers, email addresses, and maybe even their owner's name.

Great.

Next, they start contacting these people. They call each person on the list and introduce their services. They tell their "lead" that if they need a heat pump installed (or serviced) to get in touch.

See how easy that was? A few hours of work and a handful of cold calls have created 100 potential customers for our small business. Now, to keep these customers engaged, they follow up every few months to see if they can work together.

See how sales can easily increase potential business for your company? 

Now, let's chat a bit about marketing.

Using Marketing to Grow your Small Business

Marketing takes a bit more know-how to "set-up". One could argue that it's a more hands-off growth tactic.

There are many different forms of marketing you could use. Digital marketing is an ever growing marketing channel. Print advertising is another. With serviced based businesses we also see out-of-home advertising work quite well.

We'll break down each of the different marketing channels more in another post.

Let's discuss how marketing can grow your small business.

Our Plumbing & HVAC company has found their first few jobs through outreach. They're getting referrals, and keeping busy. Now, they're ready for more consistent growth and new business. They reach out to a local marketing agency, who helps them put together a simple marketing plan.

Creating A Marketing Plan

"A marketing plan outlines key goals, success metrics and different marketing channels they'll use".

We know their goal is to gain new business, more specifically phone calls. They are aiming for one new phone call a day. They research marketing channels they can use to reach these goals. In this case they've chosen the following channels;

1. Email marketing campaigns to their list of current and past customers

2. Paid ads on social media to people who have never heard of them

3. A website showcasing their work and services

4. Connecting with people who follow them on Instagram and Facebook

5. And to increase awareness in their local area branding their company work trucks.

Their marketing plan outlines a budget of $1,000 a month, a duration of 12 months, and specific content for each of these channels. Over the course of the year, they use their success metrics to gauge which channel is working best, and where most of their customers are coming from.

By combining sales and marketing, they've increased awareness of their local service business. They have more regular interest coming in about their services, and have grown their customer base. This has led to an increase in revenue, and (if they're playing their cards right) more profit.