Expert Opinion: Develop your growth strategy

Ahead of their first Business Breakfast meeting of 2019 this morning, Stockport based Halliday’s are sharing their advice on how best to develop your business growth strategy.

Developing your business strategy for growth is key to standing out from your competitors and growing your business. If you haven’t developed a strategy before it may feel a bit daunting. We have listed a few words of advice and ideas to help you get started.

The best way to start is by focusing on your target market.

Ask yourself ‘who is my ideal client?’ and write it down. Test your definition by sharing it with your team and see if they can identify whether specific clients of your business are ideal, or not! Remember, your entire market doesn’t need to comprise of ideal clients but knowing your target market enables you to focus your business on meeting their needs.

Next, consider ‘what does my ideal client want?’ This exercise below will help you to identify priorities for your growth strategy.

1. List the things your target market wants from your business (not what they get – what they would ask for if they had a magic wand)
2. Score each out of 10 according to their importance to your clients.
3. Mark out of 10 how well you deliver these to your customers (try to be objective and score it from your clients’ perspective or work with a customer you have a close relationship with).
4. Look at the prioritised items on your list and highlight where there are any existing gaps.
5. What can you do to close these gaps and deliver what the customer wants? Don’t just look at what your competitors are doing. This is the opportunity to do something new – be creative and different!

Expert Opinion contribution from Hallidays