This was the topic of my presentation to an exciting group of entrepreneurs earlier today. Think about this topic and the things I shared with them, I realize this information would be useful to a lot of people. Some of those people are reading this directly, and some others need to refer people to this link so that they can come and read as well. In the next few days, I have a few “How to’s” in my mind to share. These are really easy things that if you know and practice can make a lot of difference in your business and in your life.
The first ground rule however, if you truly want to learn, is to first empty your cup. You will not learn anything new, if you assume you already know. Knowledge or the assumption of it, is the greatest hindrance to more knowledge. As teacher students – the most excellent type of student, the one that listens to become a teacher, we must constantly humble ourselves and learn. We must not let knowledge puff us up and make us resistant to new information. The day the seal of knowledge locks our ears, is the day we become useless and irrelevant to new possibilities around us. 20yrs experience as an employee does not equate to years of experience running a business. Sometimes the way up, is down. Never let any level of knowledge rob you of what you don’t know. There is no fool, like an old fool. Once you have laid aside your prejudices, let’s delve into how you can expand your business.
At the heart of every business is the exchange of value for revenue. Every business sells, either a product, a service, an experience or whatever. At the other side of every seller is a buyer. Business growth and expansion invariably is connected with increased profit. With these realizations clear, there is a simple formula that shows clearly how businesses function and how they can be made to grow.
No of Leads X Leads Conversion = Customers
Customers X Number of Transactions X Price Per Sale = Total Revenue
Total Revenue X Margins = Profit.
People get into business for various reasons, but the lifeblood of any business is profit. Profit is what makes a business able to continue and last. It’s like breath, we don’t live to breathe, but if we cannot breathe, we are not living for anything. Profit is the lifeblood of business, it’s the attribute that makes you able to continue to pursue all the other grandiose possibilities. It’s the bottom line. To keep our business growing and sustainable, there are 4 key factors we must pay attention to.
1. Generating Leads
Leads are the raw materials customers are made from. You can’t have more customers than the leads you are generating. Your leads are the people who indicated some level of interest in your business. They are the people who strolled into your shop to ask for your product on display. They are the people who responded to your advert or your promotion. They are interested buyers. If your business ever grows, it’s because you were able to generate in 4 key segments of your business. The first and foundational place is generating leads.
Do you measure your leads? Do you know how many leads you generate daily, weekly, monthly? How many people’s interests or curiosities are you steering towards your product? Do you have any lead generation strategies? Why will anybody be interested in your product? Are you running any promotions? Any adverts? Don’t be giving your smiles in the dark, create awareness for your product and generate leads. There are many ways to generate leads, many really cheap ways. I can offer you personalized support.
2. Sales/Conversion
After you have ensured that the leads keep rolling in, the next real challenge is conversion. This is where the concept of law of averages matters. Every human being starts out in life with a particular average. Your average is the number of people you need to wade through to get a yes. When we start out, it’s small and worrisome, but as we understand the terrain and sharpen our skills, or averages rise. If 100 leads come in monthly and you are able to convert 10, your average is 1/10. Once your leads are coming as you plan, you need to ensure that you develop your average. Invest time in understanding the needs and requirements of a buyer and make use of it.
Sales conversion is a big topic on it’s own. It’s something you need to learn and develop more. It all starts with knowing that this is a crucial factor and measuring progress as you progress. Conversion is where the efforts in lead generation are seen to be worth it.
3. Customer Retention
After I buy from you, if I buy from you 🙂 what in your business will make me come back? How do you ensure I come back? Organizations are perfectly designed for the results they achieve. If there is no advantage to coming back, it means the business owner has designed the business for people not to come back. If you want to expand your business, you need to have customer retention strategies. Offer discounts on repeat purchases, give gift vouchers when people buy certain quantities, create an environment people want to come back to.
Retained Customers are your biggest assets. Let your design show that you value repeat business. Loyalty programs e.t.c.
4. Referrals.
It is interesting how this very wonderful concept which is critical to the success of many greats before now, can be so miss understood. The highest level your business can go is not only if you retain customers, but for your customers to become advocates and champions of your products.
In the account of one of the greatest sales men the world has ever seen that I read, his secret of success was simply giving flowers and recognition to customers when they give him a referrals. The little things count. Find a way of ensuring that people who experience you find it exciting to tell someone else about it. This singular concept is why Network Marketing is becoming a global phenomenum with unthinkable wealthy men and systems patronizing it. Referrals are good, and you’ll be surprised by how much more your business will grow if you empower people to promote our business to others.
If you are keen on expanding your business focus on any or all of these 4 areas. I wish you an expanded business!
23 thoughts on “How to Expand Your Business”
Dear Chair,
Apart from the fact that the presentation was concise,it is true gospel of business expansion,key to success.
It is to be learnt by heart because it is pragmatic and it sure works.
You are a blessing to this generation.
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These factors outlined are the crux of any business, thank you for the light Sir. I always learn from you as my expert!God bless
Tumb up 2 u,Deolu,
i appreciate ur write up.Keep it up.
Deolu,
Thank you for this write up . This will certainly help me so much in my MLM business. Keep it up!
You are a deep man….the conciseness of the writeup makes it sink the more…thanks…God bless you.
Hmn let it be noised all over that me, Olaoluwa am expanding my business based on this factors. Watch out for me.
much as i appreciate the wisdom in your words sir,i really wish i could agree with you in everything…but really everything isnt that cut and dry.i really wish it was.
i definately want to succeed,want to live my dreams,want to do it at my own terms.but there are so many factors that rule the market of buying and selling and a little luck(divine favour)dosent hurt as well.keep it up though.
Thank you Deolu for your expert advice on “how to” IRO business expansion.It is really timeless.I’ve applied some of the principles in my chrisB plantain chips and it is working wonders.Keep it up!
WOW!
What a wonderful presentation sir. Seriously there is no way those Young Nigerian CEOs would remain the same after your awesome delivery yesterday at the Made in Nigeria Entrepreneurs’ Forum. You were a blessing and greatly made a difference!!!
So true Chairman! We have to start adopting a “consultative approach” to our prospection drive. To succeed, we need lead geneartion, conversion and retention tools. I pray more people get to read our posts and take action after that.
Lead generation & retention are both important in business no doubt. If one is able to increase its retention & referall rate, we can reduce advertising cost as well, thereby increasing profit more and more.
As usual my Chairman….Well Done on this piece….
Chairman Deolu,appreciate this right up,loads of practical wisdom,many thanks….
Success and Prosperity principles must not be compromised… for a reality in anybody’s life. These are Pre-requisites for business expansion.
Chairman, many thanks.
thanks for being a God sent blessing to mankind.u are blessed.
@ Chief Aturu… thanks for stopping by and dropping a comment, I appreciate.
@ Mr. Gbenguz and all… thanks for the good comments, I appreciate it, it’s motivating to write again when people appreciate what is shared
@ Dr. Anne… sure divine favour helps… with leads generation 😉
@ IJ… this is the formula I use oh… and it’s so helpful.
I can usually do a full day training course on these things with practical examples role plays and things that make the skills easy to live by. I’m learning a lot on lead generation currently, my key strength is conversion and building systems for referrals and retention.
This is fantastic, i’m loving it. I will come back to study it again, thanks.
Success and Prosperity principles must not be compromised… for a reality in anybody’s life. These are Pre-requisites for business expansion.
dear chair,
this is powerful,i pursosefully came on board 4 dis
This is fantastic. thanks for sharing Chairman
Wow!!! The true fact is i am short of word,i don’t know the one to start with,to praise you for this magnificent write up or to thank you for the remarkable philanthropic knowledge you have impacted into me.I just want say thank you very very much because my joy know no bound.I got to know you,while reading an editoral write up on CNN website about you influence on the live of a particular young man called felix.I hope to keep in touch with you more and someday meet you in any of your seminar.This is my email id should in case of necessity joel.frank17@yahoo.com.tank a whole lot and God bless you.
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