The majority of businesses we speak to want growth and typically have been battling hard to achieve it.
But in doing so, some businesses have become busy fools, they’re pushing a massive boulder up a hill day in and day out, but they don’t seem to be getting any closer to the top.
Doesn’t matter what sector you’re in
Doesn’t matter whether you’re B2B or B2C.
Doesn’t matter what your offering is.
When you’ve become a busy fool it’s hard to see what’s right in front of you.
Read below the common mistakes we see businesses make that have a significant impact on their ability to grow.
1. Endless Debate
We’ve seen businesses with the best intentions of wanting to change, develop and grow completely fail as they endlessly debate about how to move forward whilst still standing still.
There can be serious consequences to doing nothing as we explained in our previous blog ‘The cost of doing nothing’.
Waiting for the right time, waiting until you have more headspace, waiting for everything to be perfect – is like waiting for 24 degree sunshine in Bognor Regis in January. It just isn’t going to happen.
That doesn’t mean rush to market with a second rate offering, it means make considered and informed decisions and incrementally roll them out, review, refine and readjust plans as needed.
Doing so will give you answers to your debate a lot quicker and they’ll be based on fact not fiction.
2. Lack of Consistency
Businesses who don’t have a clear and well defined marketing strategy, tend to fall into the trap of implementing ad-hoc campaigns and tactics.
Typically, this is to fill a hole / lull in sales and they need to see results immediately.
Marketing is not a tap that can be turned on and off – so when the ad-hoc campaigns don’t deliver immediate results, some businesses write off marketing – ‘it doesn’t work for us’.
Businesses need to have a consistent strategy running in the background in order to achieve a steady influx of leads and a healthy pipeline that delivers growth.
3. Habit
The most dangerous phrase in the English language is ‘this is how we’ve always done it’.
We all know about the big players that have gone under because they weren’t quick enough to react to changes in the market and consumer buying habits.
This isn’t just something that happens to big players – every business is under threat if they believe doing what they’ve always done will help them to thrive in forever changing markets.
4. Guesswork and Assumption
This can make it very hard to take a step back and remove your own bias and assumptions about what the target audience wants from your product or service and how best to deliver it.
Doing your homework by looking at the market, identifying the challenges and goals of your audience, learning from your competitors, critiquing your brand, positioning, current marketing and internal processes and structures will give you the evidence you need to make informed decisions, which in turn will increase your probability of success.
What Next?
We help our clients avoid these mistakes by giving a non biased view of their business, what is working well, what isn’t and what drives their customers to buy from them. The result is a consistent and coherent marketing strategy based on fact not assumption or habit that is focused on helping their business to grow. Read our client interviews to see the results for yourself.
We’re ready to answer your questions. Get in touch with Douglas at doug@wearecatalyst.co.uk or 0121 296 5275 and he’ll be happy to help.