Here are our 4 tips to supercharge the growth of your business...
Whether your plan is to just continue growing and take cash from the business, to grow with a plan to handover the business to your employees or grow to create an exit strategy, your business has to be in the best possible shape to enable the right successor or attract the right buyer. Meaning your people, your brand and your business mix have to be on point; these are instrumental to its growth and are what will make it stand out from the crowd…crucial when you consider it’s estimated that c30% of brokers will be sold / acquired in the next 3 years.
Tip number 1: Optimise your sales opportunities
Engage your new business prospects in your brand, talk to them about challenges and issues you know they face, nurture them over time. Prospects are inundated at renewal time, so stand out from the crowd by investing in inbound marketing software or lead nurturing tools, you can automate content delivery, build trust and recognition of your brand and move away from the fruitless hours of cold calling.
Have a niche! A niche or specialism helps you to stand out, it provides focus to your marketing strategy and enables you to concentrate your sales efforts on specific areas; creating time efficiencies and improving success / win rates.
Leveraging your existing staff connections is also vital… it may be obvious, but every single member of staff will either know someone with a business or know someone connected to a business; encourage them to utilize these by offering incentives.
Tip Number 2: Supercharge your talent
Keeping your existing staff engaged in the business is essential, ensure each one has robust, detailed, training and development plans and that they are suitably rewarded, our salary guide can help with this. This creates loyalty and longevity amongst existing staff members and means they’ll promote your brand externally and are much less likely to move on.
Having an in-depth understanding of your employee’s skill set and aspirations means you can upskill existing staff in line with your business objectives for growth and keep them engaged in the business and their role.
Tip Number 3: Attracting the next generation of talent
In order to keep your business on the right growth trajectory, you must consider how you attract the next generation of new talent. Is your business attractive to the tech savvy, forward thinking talent pool, who recognize the importance of a strong brand and the latest technology? Is your talent attraction analogue in a digital world?
The importance of a strong brand cannot be underestimated, spend some time and resource thinking about your business, or more accurately the message you want to convey to both the market but also potential employees; think about how your brand is perceived externally.
Adopting a progressive approach to your business, that takes this into account, will entice the highest calibre of individual that can keep driving the business forward and optimize those growth opportunities.
Our final tip: Prepare your business for sale or succession
While it may not be on your agenda right now, it’s vital to have a plan that you are working towards, even if you postpone the date when you get there…Having a plan for your own future keeps you focused and moving forwards instead of treading water.
Ensuring your systems and technology are not in the dark ages will mean your business is more attractive to potential suitors and efficient to use right now. Archaic systems and old technology can be inefficient and costly, spending some time and resource updating them will pay dividends in the short, medium and long term.
A robust set of management accounts offers security to any potential buyers or anyone looking to join the business. A set of accounts that show weakness or prompts unwanted questions may create suspicion or negativity around your business.
Finally review your business mix, the composition of your business is fundamental to its value, a business made up of 50% commercial and 50% personal lines will be less valuable than one where the commercial lines element is significantly greater. Spend time analyzing what your business is made up of and if necessary consider changing the emphasis, so the balance shifts to 80% commercial and 20% personal lines.
What to do now...
So that’s our 4 tips; Optimise your sales opportunities, Supercharge your talent, attract the next generation of talent and prepare your business for sale or succession.
I would highly recommend giving time and resource focusing on these areas and you will surely see your business growth accelerate. If you would like some more in-depth advice on how to supercharge the growth your business, our Client Solutions Director, Colin McKenna can help.<br><br> m: 07384 548579 e: colin.mckenna@idexconsulting.com
