In the restoration business, it’s easy to get stuck in your ways and continue to do what you do because that’s how you’ve always done it. This leads to complacency, which can be the mark of death for all business owners and entrepreneurs. Complacent leadership affects your ability to adapt, improve, and modernize your business. Complacency can also cause mismanagement, leaving your business disorganized and potentially costing you money and missed opportunities. If you feel your business is in a rut, take a look internally to see where you can improve processes and identify new growth opportunities.
Here are five ideas to get you started with looking for ways to improve your restoration business to grow sales.
SMART Goals
If you don’t have a goal, then what are you working towards? While it would be great to turn a profit the first day of business, realistically that isn’t going to happen. Therefore, to look for and identify new growth opportunities, you have to set goals to work toward . Goals need to be SMART:
- Specific– Have a specific vision in mind. (Example: Get 50 new email subscriptions.)
- Measurable– Use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System that stores, compiles and aggregates your data so you can see marketing and goal performance.
- Attainable– Needs to be achievable.
- Realistic– Something that can be accomplished in a specified amount of time.
- Time-based– Having a deadline will keep you motivated as you work towards reaching your goal. (Example: Get 50 new email subscriptions in a 60-day period).
Employee Mentorship & Accountability
Another avenue for identifying new sales and growth opportunities can come from boosting employee morale. If employees aren’t satisfied in their work environment, don’t believe in the product, or feel like they aren’t being heard, the morale of the company will be low. However, if you invest in employee training, customer service, and have managers in place that are willing to listen to your employee’s ideas, questions and concerns, the morale will improve.
In the restoration business, your employees are at the front line speaking and selling directly with customers. If your employees feel asense of camaraderie with your company and believe in the product or service they’re representing, they will be more likely to work harder to help the company succeed. Setting company goals will also improve employee accountability and will help you determine what aspects of your company need improvement.
Understand Your Customers
To have a successful business, you have to know your customers. While you may understand your target customer and all the various segmentations of how your customer may interact within your industry, are you using that information to look for opportunities to see where you can satisfy unmet needs? While you want to keep generating new leads for your business, it’s less expensive to cultivate relationships with existing customers to make sure they come back to you for your services.
Inventory of Assets
Taking an inventory of your foundational assets, such as your equipment and building, along with your soft assets, such as customer service, culture, industry knowledge, and industry relationships can help provide opportunities for growth. Looking at all of your company assets can help you see if you’re using your equipment to its full potential. Are there services you could provide that you are not? Are the services you offer providing value to the customer? Is your current process creating by-products that you’re not fully monetizing? Are there other companies that could benefit from your services (non-competition)? A deep dive into your company structure, processes and assets can help you identify new growth and sales opportunities.
Get Organized
Next Gear Solution’s DASH system is a great tool that helps restoration businesses stay organized. Organization in business can help streamline processes, saving your business time and money. DASH utilizes the cloud, allowing all paperwork, contact information, and job timeline information to be stored and accessed in one place on any device. DASH lets you incorporate a customer relationship management system to manage marketing communications and access analytical information so you can identify new growth opportunities and track the progress of your goals.
Read more:
How to Improve Employee Accountability and Increase Profitability
Dehumidifiers and Dreams: Where Restoration Business Owners Need to Invest
Luxor CRM – Strategic Sales Management
