What do you mean by growth? As a Growth Marketing Consultant, whenever I ask my clients this question, they usually get perplexed.
A: Growth means I want to grow, move ahead, and make more money. How hard it is to get?
Q: Very well, seems like you are clear. So, you must have thought of the time period you want to achieve it in? 1 year, 3 years or 5 years?
Q: Okay, what about how you want to achieve this growth? New acquisitions or existing customer base? New regions perhaps?
Q: All right, let’s say we generate XX leads, do you have the infrastructure to follow-up with them? Your sales team is trained to have conversations with these new prospects and convert them?
By this time, the client gets an idea that her objective of growth needs more clarity. And it needs more commitment than hiring a Growth Marketing Consultant for it.
Define Growth
Growth for an athlete preparing for Triathlon is to reduce her timing for each discipline. Growth for a yoga practitioner is to hold onto an asana for a longer time.
Growth for your business could be more paying customers or more business from existing customers. As you start thinking about Growth, first define the one aspect you want to focus on.
More revenue seems the obvious choice, but there are more ways for your business to grow.
Brand Equity, deeper customer engagement, more referrals everything will lead to more revenue, the question is where do you want to start?
Time Period
I know it seems ridiculous to ask if you are looking for short-term or long-term Growth. Isn’t Growth always long-term?
Of course, it is.
But, your growth objective will decide the amount of preparation needed, which will, in turn, decide the gestation period before you can see any traction.
This time period will be in addition to the sales cycle of your industry. Therefore, add the preparation time and be patient during the whole process.
Resources and Logistics
Entrepreneurs and business owners usually miss this aspect of Growth.
Let’s say you started your Growth Marketing with a lead generation campaign and are able to generate 10 leads.
Do you have the infrastructure, process, staff to follow-up with those leads? Is your staff trained to handle such situations?
If you managed to sell the required number of subscriptions, will your software scale rapidly?
A good product will always sustain growth, but before it reaches that level, it needs a supporting ecosystem.
You don’t have to set-up the perfect ecosystem, but ensure that at least the most important components are in place or in the plan.
Your conversations with your Growth Marketing Manager or Consultant will be much more targetted and enriching, once you figure answers to these important questions.
It will also help you define the success KPIs and their definition.
In the end, it will give you the clarity that how prepared you are for Growth?
Which is really the most important question you should ask yourself.
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