How To Use Business Growth Strategies To Become A Superior Competitor  

 

If you are in a competitive market long-term, you will likely go out of business because eroding margins are the consequence of destructive competition.

Therefore, you need a powerful strategy for business growth to become a superior competitor.  

The good news is there are three strategies we will cover in this blog that you can repeatedly use:

keep creating new ideas and innovations to acquire new clients,

get them to purchase more,

and increase the number of times they buy each year.

Learn how to get out of that long-term competitive race with a superior, long-term strategy for business growth.

Our strategic framework will elevate your products and services over the competition—no more short-term tit-for-tat competitive strategy. 

You will have a process that will deliver endless business growth strategies, opportunities, and revenue growth, making you the market’s value leader.

Without the hype, buy now marketers we see so much of today.

 

This Strategy For Business Growth Blog Will Briefly Cover:  

1. How to make better decisions more often. It covers expertise and critical thinking from one’s perspective and vision.

2. Then, three ways to increase revenues and what you can afford to spend to acquire a new client.

3. And then, we will discuss only three things — business growth strategy, creative insights, and marketing strategy —

you can repeatedly use to keep improving value and increasing revenues and profits. 

Let’s talk about decision-making first because you may want to change how you approach decision-making.

And we know you must make many daily decisions as a business leader. So, let’s start with a question.

 

With So Many Growth Strategy Decisions, How Often Do CEOs Make The Right Decision?

The answer is 52%. You only have to make the right decision 52% of the time to be a top decision-maker — 2% more than the flip of a coin.

Remember New Coke or the Edsel car? Billions were spent and lost by brilliant people making poor decisions.

Why is this number so low? The first reason may surprise you. It’s due to our reliance on expertise.

They specialize in their industry, markets, and products to get to the top of their company and industry.

They have built a kind of wall around their perception of the world.

They know the norms of their industry and are comfortable. So they are comfortable making informed decisions.  

 

Many Executives Have Put Themselves In A “Limited Perception Box.”

Executives often limit their business and industry worldview.

This limits their situational perception, which is a significant reason they can’t get past 52%. 

For example, If you looked at the front of a house, you would have a real, accurate perception of that house.

If someone else looks at that house from the rear, they would have a different and precise perception of it. 

 

Here’s a fun perception example that I like from Edward de Bono.

This group of 12-year-old boys tends to pick on or tease Bobby because the group thinks it’s fun.

They show him two coins one day, a large one (worth $1) and a smaller one. (worth $2).

Bobby picks the large one, and the group laughs and has a good time at Bobby’s expense.

They do this several times over the summer. 

One day, an older man sees what’s happening and afterward tells Bobby that the smaller coin is worth twice as much as the larger one.

Bobby says I know that. But, if I had taken the $2 coin, they would never have kept offering him the opportunity again and again.

Perceptions can be valuable and increase opportunities.

This short story shows how vital your perception is,

and the broader your perception, the better you will be at solving problems, coming up with new ideas, and making good decisions.

You can’t limit your perception of your industry, market, or how you think about your company.

 

Why “Perception” Matters When You Are Trying To Create Business Growth Strategies

 If I asked you what you do, you might answer: I own a hardware store, I am a doctor, or I manufacture light fixtures, or whatever.

You probably would say yes if I asked if you wanted to grow the business. 

So, now let me REFRAME your answer by changing your perception,

Let’s say your first answer was. “I own a hardware store, and I sell products and services.

That perception may then limit your market growth.

But what if you reframed your answer to, “I own a marketing company that sells hardware and services.”

Now, you have a different and much broader perception of what you do and how you would approach your objective or goal differently.  

 

Your job is marketing which means you focus on increasing sales and profits.

You can now focus on ethically building your company, sales, and profits, not as a hustler.

This change in perspective gives you a broader perspective and have you searching for ways to market your business by focusing on your clients.

Note: your focus is now on the client because a client is someone you care about and want to help solve their problems. A customer is a transitory perspective.

 

There Are Only Three Traditional Ways To Get Additional Revenues.

1.  Increase the number of your clients. Start by looking at the “lifetime value” of the client.

If you sell a product for 1,000 dollars, the client makes a purchase once per year,

and the average customer remains a client for five years; the lifetime value of that client is $5,000. 

I assume you would prefer the $5,000 to the $1,000. So, you now know you can spend up to $5,000 (less your costs) to acquire a new client.

If you could increase the number of clients by 10%, you would increase your revenues by 33.5 percent.

2. Increase the average size of the orders

Start by satisfying the client with add-ons or solving the client’s problem better or differently, which might require additional or different items.

Maybe the way they sell cars.

After you agree to purchase the car, they show you the sunroof to make your driving more fun, the better radio that brings in more stations, and more. 

3.  Increase the number of times they buy each year

Create other ways for clients to use your products or services.

A great example is American Express or Visa, which enables you to purchase plane tickets, theater tickets, and a frequent flyer miles incentive program.

Or maybe a special spring and fall sale at your store for current, specially invited clients only.

Those are all excellent traditional things you could do to improve your revenues. But an even better approach will give you continuous revenue growth.

 

How To Achieve A Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Generally, if you are in a competitive market long-term, you will likely go out of business because of eroding margins

due to the problematic competitive nature of competition. 

But, there are only three strategies you can repeatedly do to keep coming up with new ideas to get new clients and get them to purchase more,

plus increase the number of times they buy each year.

Revenue Opportunities Start With Your Strategy For Business Growth. 

Using your new perception, create a new strategy for your business

based on your goal or a problem that needs to be solved to reach your objective or goal.

We could talk for days about what strategy is, but Richard Rumelt, author and professor,

explains a practical and straightforward definition that makes a complex description simple and easy to understand

 

A strategy Process Is: 

1. Identify and define your problem or objective.

2. Diagnose the objective or situation (data is essential but not sufficient) because you rarely come up with new insight

because your mind is dealing with the information you already know

3. Innovate through insight and creative thinking. There are many innovative techniques you can use to create new ways of solving problems, and knowing how to reach the objective,

4. There is never enough time or money to do everything, so you must prioritize and ensure the solution conforms to your strategy

4. Prepare a coherent plan and execute it.

There is never enough time or money to do everything, so you must prioritize and ensure the solution conforms to your business growth strategy.

 

Then Creativity And Innovation:

I need to talk about innovation briefly because many people think they are not creative, but everyone is creative.

Again, Edward de Bono shows why your mind is set up to be creative.

It requires you to learn innovative techniques to put your mind in gear to do the creative work.

And it’s a great way to get business growth strategy ideas.

Humor is a beautiful example of how the brain works.

Humor indicates how our information system gives rise to perception and how you can see the world differently.

You might enjoy this example from a Winston Churchill story. 

A woman MP meets Churchill in the hallway (after lunch and a few drinks) and says to him,

“If I were married to you, I should put poison in your coffee.”

And he replies, “and if I were married to you, I should drink the coffee.” 

Our information system gives rise to perceptions and how you can see the world differently.

Perceptions set up in one way can suddenly be reconfigured in another way. Humor is the essence of creativity. 

One can use many creative thinking techniques to create different concepts, insight imaging, and ideas and turn them into innovations.

For example, the random word technique is an easy and quick way to get many ideas.

See our blog post, “How to turn negative problems into positive results. or Michael Muchalko’s book, “ThinkerToys.”  

 

Then Marketing Strategies For Business Growth

Marketing strategy and tactics are the third groups of tools we can repeatedly use to reach our objectives.

It begins with the same strategy format explained above — objective, diagnosis, insight, and a coherent execution plan — but is applied to marketing strategy.

Apply a market strategy to every tool used. For example, you need a marketing strategy in b2b for your website, blogs or ads, publicity, and other marketing tools.

You might want to see our blog posts on websites and value propositions.

For example, over one million blog posts are created every day.

How would a potential client find and read your blog post?

You need material the client is looking for, not necessarily the material you want to give him;

you need to be different and have a strategy and some creative insights to make it effective.    

Also, because your perspective is now broader, you can use marketing strategies and tactics – from any industry-

to get new clients, get them to purchase more items, and buy more often. 

 

Conclusion

Long-term, it is difficult to compete profitably in a competitive market because of eroding margins.

However, you can win this competitive race with better thinking, a broader perspective, and tools that can be used repeatedly.

To achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, you need to start with your business strategy for growth and keep adapting it to market and buyer changes.

Then use your creativity — everyone is built to be creative. It is a learned skill, not a talent. Learn to create ideas and then turn them into innovations.

Then create your marketing strategy for each objective and program  — like website, blogs, advertisements, publicity, etc. — you will use and make sure you also have a coherent execution plan.

How will you use this approach to strategy for business growth to drive more revenues and profits?

Tell us what you think  Also, if you would like more information like this blog post, sign up for our free blog post program.

PS. You might also be interested in the blog post, Why Your Business Growth Strategy Is Your Story.