Business growth tips for SMB from author Eric Gilboord

It's Time To Think Differently
We live in a world filled with buzzwords and new ways to say things. A marketing phrase you may be familiar with is ‘‘thinking outside the box.’’ This means to stop thinking in the normal way, stop using the restrictions that we’ve all grown up accepting, and look at something from a different perspective.

One thing that I have taught my children to do when they get frustrated is to take a step back, catch their breath, and look at what they’re trying to do from a different angle. If you are having difficulty reaching a particular prospect and think you’ve exhausted all the possible avenues, chances are there is at least one other way that you haven’t yet thought of. New technologies like LinkedIn and Facebook can make it much easier to get to the contact you need.

This section isn’t about solving a particular problem; it’s about how you approach problems and opportunities in the sales and marketing of your business. We live in a very competitive environment and if you are not constantly thinking ahead, trying to outpace your competitors, they will be nipping at your heels and before you know it, they will be winning the race.

Your customers’ businesses are changing on a daily basis. As their needs evolve, you must try to provide the best products and services to help them win. Some small businesspeople dread change; others thrive on the challenge and the new opportunities it will bring. If you are the first to find a new way to do something, your customers will continue doing business with you and you could attract new prospects.

Remember, If you continue operating in the same fashion and thinking in the same way, you will get the same results. If you are content with the same results, don’t change a thing. But watch out, everyone around you will be changing. Do you really want to be left behind?

The next time you prepare a mailer, an email or advertisement, try something different. You know what kind of results you’ll get with marketing materials you are used to, but how do you know you can’t be more successful? If your business is small, you probably don’t want to gamble an entire marketing program on a new idea.

If you are afraid to try something new, test the new marketing piece to a small group before you run your mailing or test the new piece at the same time as you’re using your old one. Send out the new test piece to 10% or 20% of your database and the previously proven material with the rest. It may be a good practice to always test at least one new idea in a small way with every marketing program that you do. Run the same mailer with two different headlines and see if there is a difference in the response rate. This is a relatively easy exercise to conduct and could prove to be very rewarding if your new headline outdraws the old one.