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As a business growth is always important as nobody ever wants to be standing still. The moment you rest on your laurels or abandon your growth strategy, you start going backwards as your competitors take advantage of the new opportunities. Increasing revenue should always be at the forefront of your mind whether it’s through a dedicated growth strategy targeting a certain figure by a point on the calendar, or by picking up new customers or clients on retained contracts that enable you to measure just how much you’ve increased your revenue over the last financial year. Unfortunately, there are many business owners who are either unable to implement a revenue growth strategy, or don’t know how, and they rely on new customers or clients coming through the door in order to improve the company finances. What we’re going to focus on today is just why a revenue growth strategy is so important, and how you can develop one from scratch in order to take your business forward.

Why is revenue growth important?

So let’s start with what makes revenue growth so important. Well, first and foremost it shows ambition to your stakeholders, investors and staff. A company that is looking to grow is always far more attractive to potential investors, staff and customers than one that is standing still or, worse, going backwards.

It’s also important to keep increasing your revenue because it means that you are in a position to afford to keep your staff, your premises and all of your equipment; and even invest in new software or equipment - and staff - to help you continue to grow in the months and years to come.

Revenue growth is also important should you ever choose to sell the business. It’s a key metric for analysis business performance over time, allowing potential buyers to assess whether a company has had one ‘lucky’ year, or whether they have grown over a sustained period of time and are therefore worth the investment. Even if you’re not looking to sell up at this moment in time, a revenue growth strategy will enable you to monitor where your business is at the moment and where you want to get to, so that you’re an attractive proposition to potential investors should you ever decide to sell and step aside.

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How and why you need to develop a revenue growth strategy

There are some who take the approach that a combination of new and retained customers increase their revenue, so a new strategy isn’t important, and to an extent that approach is valid. However, a solid strategy built on logic and research, can help to ensure this revenue growth especially when you can’t guarantee that customers won’t terminate their contracts or you can’t win the new business you’re relying on. 

So here are just a few reasons why you need a revenue growth strategy, and how to develop one:

• Take your business to the next level. ‍

A forward-thinking business that invests time and effort into research and business strategy is far more likely to be a long-term success. 

Not only can you create a plan to increase the size of your company by putting plans in place to increase staff numbers (including recruitment plans and financial planning), you can also create a plan to increase the overall value of the business should you ever choose to sell.

• A clear path showing business aims and objectives to staff and customers.

When you have a roadmap in place to show where you want your business to get to in the coming months or years, it can help to motivate your staff and spur them on to produce the best possible work they can for the company for their own career prospects. A clear path can indicate opportunities for promotion and to work on new projects within the business, helping with staff retention and morale which will ultimately help you to grow.

Similarly, your customers will be able to pick up on growth plans and might even ask what your strategy is when you pitch to them, because they want to learn about the health of the business and how ambitious it is. A healthy business that is looking to go forwards is an appealing prospect to potential customers who know they have a partner who genuinely cares about the company and the work they are doing.

• Gives focus to directors and staff alike.
  

A revenue growth strategy is something that immediately engages those at the top and bottom of the business. From the perspective of a director, a growth strategy means that there are plans to continue taking the company forward and that it is their responsibility to oversee these plans and ensure they are delivered through new hires or identifying the right leads to pursue in their lead generation strategy.

As an employee, it identifies that the company has plans in place to grow and take on more work and more people. This gives peace of mind that jobs are secure, and that there is the potential to progress within the company in time based on performance and targets.

• Opens new avenues and opportunities. 
  

When you have a growth strategy it enables everyone involved to stay focussed and ensure that the business reaches its objectives. 

Whether it’s increasing staffing, developing a new range of internal tools and resources that can be used by staff or downloaded by visitors to the website, or even the type of pitch opportunities you’re looking to target, the plans enable everyone to see where the company is and where it’s looking to go.

• Set individual and team targets with tangible rewards.
  

Of course, any increased efforts should always be rewarded and a thriving, growing business should always remember those who have helped them reach their goals. After all, a business that increases its revenue would be struggling if staff decided that their efforts were for nothing and chose to leave, resulting in work and contracts that cannot be fulfilled.

In the growth strategy it’s important to set aside rewards for those who help you reach your targets whether it’s a cash bonus in their pay or team meals or nights out paid for by the company.

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Common and effective ways to increase revenue

So what methods can you put in place to ensure that you increase your revenue? There are a number of different things you could try, and each depends on your own business and level of expertise.

Here are a few of the most common and effective methods that businesses choose to implement into their revenue growth strategies:

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• Ensure your sales and marketing campaigns align.
  

When your sales and marketing teams are both working towards the same goals you immediately increase your opportunities to increase your revenue. Working on a combined approach means that the two teams can pool resources and distribute material geared towards increasing leads and sales based on a current promotion or seasonal campaign.

• Expand your business offering.
  

If you’re in a position where you could increase the range of services available then incorporating this into your growth strategy can be highly beneficial. Many businesses toy with the idea of adding a new service - as we did with Partner With Clarity Stack - and this can help you to reach out to new customers who may have considered you previously but felt it wasn’t quite right, but this service may be what they’re looking for (especially if it means they can get everything in one package, rather than multiple subscriptions with different businesses).

This will obviously require a great deal of research and you’ll need the expertise and resources to get this offering off the ground.

• Reach out to new market locations.

Targeting new locations can also be a highly effective way to generate additional revenue. If you’ve restricted yourselves to solely the United States then you might choose to reach out to an audience in the UK, or vice versa. 

Everyone in that country is a potential prospect as they’re unaware of who you are and what you do, but if you can get your marketing and sales teams to come together and target a new market in a different part of the world then you can reap some serious rewards.

• Become an expert in your sector.
  

Whether it’s speaking at conferences and events or recording yourself in a webinar, perhaps even publishing regularly on social platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter, if you can develop into an expert in your sector people will come to you - and your business - to find out more. 

New customers and investors are often drawn to companies who have respected employees in the industry capable of increasing the reach and brand awareness of the business into new sectors and geographical locations.

• Increase your client base.
  

Last, and it’s always easier said than done, increasing the number of customers or clients is a great way of increasing revenue. Targeting relevant opportunities and pitching for work will bring in a lot of additional revenue, but remember that it will cost you in terms of time and money in the pitch process so if you don’t win that work you’ll be out of pocket in that respect.

Every business needs to grow in order to make more money, but that may also involve taking on new members of staff or investing in new equipment in order to fulfill the work. These are all important considerations so be sure to think long and hard about each project you respond to.