Wednesday, March 5, 2008

How to Take Effective Action to Generate New Business

Over the years I have heard tales of woe and success from around the country concerning business owners and their efforts to generate new business. Their solutions have been many and varied but in their mantra of reasons “why” they are not increasing the volume of their business is a common thread which winds throughout all inaction in that area.

Why wouldn’t someone take effective action to generate new business? Is it that some of us feel we just can’t squeeze another free minute out of our already jammed days? Or is it that over our years in business we have achieved a level of success large or small, which we have settled into and from that vantagepoint we cannot recognize that there may be solutions, which work that we haven’t tried?

Some business owners are amazingly creative in their efforts. But they may also have stacked up failures or their successes have been hit or miss because they lack a basic understanding of what it is that actually produces a result in the Public relations and marketing arena. Their mantra then becomes “I’ve tried it all, what else is there to do? There is no real solution.”

How many of us have gone out on marketing calls, have had what seemed like a great “meeting” only to never hear from them again? How many of us have experienced the up and down roller coaster of generating new business and then, from the increase in business which winds us up with us directly on the day-to-day production lines, seen our new business again wane? We can sometimes feel like we’re riding a wave, a wave over which we have no control.

There is a solution, which works. A simple solution that involves taking the time to put together a realistic plan for the future that encompasses not just the actions needed to drive in new business but also the actions needed to ensure that you can deliver what has been promised.

The steps, roughly, can be said to be:

1. Determine what needs to be produced in each area of your company over the next six months in order to meet the goals you set for your business this year.

2. Starting with the areas that handle the actions necessary to drive business into your company, work out a plan that meet the target.

3. Now you need to work out how this much new business will be serviced. This may include the addition of new personnel, more space, and more equipment.

Once the above is done, ensure that all of the plans align with each other and that based on the data to hand they will result in meeting the targets you have set. Now as the owner all you need to do is simply ensure that each step of the plans are executed completely and on time.