I was having a conversation last week with my Dad, who is retired but still has one of the better small business minds that I’ve seen. I value his counsel, and (occasionally) his often blunt and sometimes harsh assessment of my abilities in the office (my Dad, you see, is a tough man to impress).
Anyway, as I was complaining about the state of the economy and the headwinds we’re surely facing as a small business, he reminded me that I have not paid enough time or attention to business development this year. And unfortunately, he’s right.
I get so busy running the company and working with clients that I often put our sales on the back burner. Of course, I’m always available to speak with a prospective client when they call in, but it’s generating those perspective clients that I too often forgo.
We have several inbound marketing strategies that we employ, with the most important one being a paid search (Google Ads) campaign. It drives highly targeted leads to our business, but it requires effort and time to work properly. I tend to spend most of my time ensuring that our client’s Google Ads campaigns are performing at their best, and sometimes I don’t devote enough time to our own campaign. As a result, it hasn’t been performing as well this year as it has in previous years, and I need to change that.
It’s hard to admit when you’re wrong or deficient in something. And with raging inflation, climbing interest rates and record-high fuel prices, most businesses are surely facing economic headwinds right now. We’re no different. But this serves as a good reminder to not make the same mistake I’ve made, and forgo your business development needs. Even in times of economic struggle, it’s critical to reach out to prospective customers and let them know what you can do to help them. I know I’ll be redoubling my efforts in that regard.
Speaking of that, should you find yourself in need of more phone calls and clients, give us a call at 877-924-1543, and we’ll be happy to discuss what we can do for you.