The Three Most Important Levers for Business Growth

The growth of business and the increase of customers is the goal that every company has on the horizon and aligned with it there are endless marketing tactics, campaigns, and messages that can be used to achieve this fundamental objective for the existence of the company. However, there are only three strategic sources of growth of any business, regardless of the type of size of the company.

While there are three columns on which the growth of the business is based, it is essential that the differences between these three levers are known to carry out with a good foundation the choice of which of them are appropriate for your business in particular. Let’s look at these three sources of growth.

1. The growth of the market.

The objective of this strategy is to attract new customers that at the moment they do not use the product category to start using it. A right way to think and graph this is the increase in the "cake" from which you will eat the product category of your business. As an important feature, this is one of the most costly and difficult growth levers because customers will often have to be taught a new way of doing things.

A good example of this is Apple’s iPad, most people who initially bought an Ipad did not use a tablet before but probably did it with a laptop. Apple’s strategy is "pay a tuition" to attract people to the new category of Tablet PC. Typically, companies that focus on this growth lever often have their dominant market share in their group.

Of the three levers of growth, this is not usually the most appropriate for small businesses in a competitive category.

2. Increase the volume of purchases with your current customers

The objective of this level is to search among the four walls of your business and stimulate the volume of sales with your existing customers.

There are three ways to do this:

• Increase current usage: that is, get existing customers to use more of your product or use it more frequently. For example, a brand of mouthwash might encourage your current customers to use toothpaste twice a day instead of just once a day.
• Stimulate new uses: get existing customers to use their product for new purposes. For example, a product initially used as a glass cleaner promotes its use in the cleaning of sports shoes, plastic devices, etc.
• Reduce the loss of customers: prevent existing customers from canceling your service or withdrawing as users of your company. For example, Internet and cable providers have retention programs to intercept clients before they expire and offer them attractive promotions to stay.

This lever is the easiest to understand. If you are a small player in a competitive market, you will want to focus messages and tactics on stealing a competitor’s share (or two). Larger competitors have already invested significant resources in educating the market about the category their small business is part of; now you have to define a clear positioning statement, expressing why it is better and why customers should believe and focus his efforts in the action of taking away another competitor’s market.

The marketing activities are to make decisions and put disproportionate attention. You have to make sure that you focus on a bright source of growth that makes the most sense for your business.