Business development Archives

When you outsource business development, it’s a good idea to bring customer experience (CX) into the mix too. If you’re already familiar with the term then you’re on track for successful business development. But if it’s new to you, or it’s not something you’d considered before, now is the time for you to find out more about it so you can take your business to the next level.

In this blog, regional director Sarah Yandell explains customer experience and shares her knowledge of the 80/20 rule too.

What is customer experience?

Sarah: Customer experience, sometimes abbreviated to CX, is the whole experience that a customer has of your business. Customer service is part of it, but CX is broader. For example, standards like answering a phone call in five rings or sending communications promptly are good customer service. But customer experience covers things like how easy it was to find the phone number, and whether good FAQs removed the need for the call completely.

The choices you make about your CX should reflect your customer base. For example, if you hear from most of your customers via social media, prompt replies to direct messages are more important for CX than manning the office phoneline.

Why does customer experience matter?

Sarah: CX is an important part of business development. In order to grow your business, you need to ensure that every one of your customers has the best experience possible. This is because your customers are your greatest asset. They are the ones who will buy your products and services; they’re also the people who will recommend you to their wider network. If a customer has a good experience, they are more likely to buy from you again.

I’ve run a number of businesses over the years, including heading up the Suffolk and Essex office for Get Ahead. One of the most valuable ideas I’ve picked up is the 80/20 rule, which we can apply in a variety of different situations.

In the case of customer experience, we need to remember that 80% of our business comes from 20% of our customers. It’s important to look after all of our customers, but place our biggest focus on the top 20%. This is because the top 20% are the ones who will help our businesses to grow.

Who makes up the top 20% of customers?

Sarah: Who these customers are depends on your business. A good CRM (customer relationship management) system will usually show you who your best customers are and how much they spend with you. However, it’s important to remember that CRM is only an enabler. Your CRM system will show you who your best customers are but it’s up to you to use that information in the correct way. This will help you make any customer interaction as personal as it needs to be.

For example, if you offer business coaching, your CRM might show you that your top 20% are employed by big organisations. Their individual coaching sessions might grow into all-day workshops for whole teams, bringing you more work. In this example, you would tailor your customer experience to meet the needs of people in the corporate world.

Or you might run a café at a leisure centre, and note that your top 20% are parents bringing their children to after-school clubs. While a leisure centre setting suggests you’d be making money from bottled water and bananas, this is not the reality. Instead, comfy seats, good coffee and staff who like a chat will create the right experience for your best customers.

What does CX mean for business development?

Sarah: Once you’ve identified your 20%, you can use your knowledge of them to improve CX and develop your business. You might like to think about what customers expect from your website and how they like to communicate with you. Think about what their overall goals are and how you can help them achieve them. This information will help you come up with the business development strategy that most likely to work.

For example, networking is an important part of my own business development. I’ve seen that this is where I meet clients who end up using services from Get Ahead in a regular, ongoing way. I believe it’s because they get to meet me face to face – an important customer experience that helps us both build trust and establish a strong working relationship.

Outsource business development to Get Ahead

If reading Sarah’s insights have got you thinking about how you could improve customer experience and develop your business, Get Ahead can help. Our experienced business development managers will delve deep into your operation, finding out what makes it tick so they can find the best way to move it forward. They might also make suggestions for how you can strengthen your CX, boosting your business at the same time.

When you work alone, it can be difficult to give your clients your full attention while also driving business development. However, with the right attitude and priorities, it is completely possible! Read on for our top business growth ideas for solopreneurs.

What are the barriers to business development for people who work alone?

When we work alone, it’s really difficult to scale up our businesses. We have limited capacity, and once all our working time slots are full, there are no more hours available for us to earn from. This means that marketing, cold calling and other business development approaches probably won’t deliver what we need, because our businesses aren’t scalable.

On the other hand, we want to grow our businesses. No business owner is prepared to stay put forever. Instead, we need to take courage and think differently!

Top business growth ideas for solopreneurs

Be so good they can’t ignore you!

If we’re going to grow, we have to be unquestionably, unapologetically good at what we do. This puts us in a strong position to charge a higher rate. It can also help us establish ourselves as thought leaders, helping us to build a reputation that can help us launch other revenue streams that do not place demands on our time.

Remember that your expertise is valuable

Whatever we do, we probably find it enjoyable and easy – that’s why we do it! But remember too that the reason there is a market for our services is because not everyone can do what we do. Our knowledge and expertise have value.

Once we’ve established this mindset, it’s easier to see other ways we can share our expertise and grow our businesses too. Could we accept a speaking engagement? Better yet, could we accept two speaking engagements? That way, we can say almost the same thing to two different audiences and earn twice the revenue for one-and-a-half times the input.

Create other revenue streams

We’ve established that regular work is limited by the number of hours we have available. But that doesn’t mean we can’t generate income in a way that doesn’t eat into our time. For example, collating expertise into a book enables us to earn from book sales while we are doing our regular client work. Depending on our business, we could sell branded products, or develop paid-for content too.

Offer packages

Creating a package of top services is a great way to move away from the hourly-rate model that is holding back our business growth. For example, if you offer web design, consider offering web design and hosting as a package and gain a regular monthly income from it. Packages usually mean better service for your client because they have peace of mind knowing that everything is covered. And it’s good news for your business growth too – more money goes into the business on a regular basis while still leaving you time to do what you love.

Work with other people

Even with these ideas, there will still come a time when we cannot keep doing everything ourselves. When this happens, it’s time to accept help. Some business owners choose to employ staff. Others choose to outsource the tasks they find most challenging (see previous remarks about no one being good at everything!) – this frees them up to focus on their core business.

Outsource business development services

If your business would benefit from extra support, we hope you’ll consider Get Ahead. Many of our clients are in the scale-up phase of business growth, using outsourced support as an affordable solution as they grow. Explore our site or follow us on LinkedIn to find out more.

Virtual sales team – what’s most effective for business development?

An increasing number of businesses are choosing to use a virtual sales team. From digital marketing to cold calling, there are a variety of way for business owners to drive growth and connect with new customers.

In this blog, we talk to Vicky McKenna, regional director of Get Ahead Oxfordshire, who shares her insights into our most popular business development services and which one might work for you.

Why are so many businesses choosing to use a virtual sales team?

Vicky: One of the most interesting statistics to come out of a recent Get Ahead survey is the 11% increase in clients choosing our business development services. This indicates two interesting business trends:

Firstly, more businesses are aware of the need to put their energy into business growth – they’re actively pursuing it instead of just accepting the status quo and crossing their fingers. This is good news – it raises the bar for business leadership, as well as meaning that more businesses are likely to succeed in the long term. I’ve always been horrified that 50% of businesses fail in the first three years – active business development could reduce that figure considerably.

Secondly, the increase in outsourcing business development shows that business owners are looking at what the competition is doing. We’ve already seen this race in social media, which has gone from being a nice-to-have to a business essential. In the same way, strategic business development is becoming the norm. More business owners are realising that what they have is worth shouting about, as long as they shout louder than the competition!

What are the most popular business development services?

Vicky: Our survey of clients – who have businesses of all shapes and sizes and are located all over the country – shows that 38% come to us for digital marketing to drive their business growth. This includes email marketing, SEO, pay per click and more. We don’t know exactly why this is, but we are aware there are many aspects of digital marketing that make sense to outsource. For example, I couldn’t jump straight on Mailchimp and send out a marketing email – my role is talking to clients on an individual level and matching them to virtual experts. If I need to send out a marketing email, I outsource it to one of our team who’ll put it together in less than an hour.

The second most popular is social media, which 28% of our clients ask for. While most of us know how to write a post and share it on Facebook or LinkedIn, we also know what a drain on time social media can be, and how hard it is to post consistently. For this reason, our clients find it’s more efficient to outsource social media for business development.

In third place is customer relationship management and sales campaigns. As with digital marketing, these are areas where it’s useful to have an expert take the lead, which would account for their popularity among Get Ahead clients.

What’s the best business development approach?

Vicky: We’ve seen that digital marketing is the most popular, followed by social media and CRM. However, the best business development approach is the one that works for your business and delivers the best return on your investment.

Different businesses grow in different ways. Some gain more customers, while others evolve, improve or find their niche. Each of these approaches needs strategy behind it to be effective – the strategy will also highlight what business development approach will be the best for your organisation.

If you’re ready to develop your business but you don’t know where to start, Get Ahead can help. I’m part of a team of regional directors – each of one of us helps clients identify the right solution for their unique business and we can help you too. Explore our site to find out more and get in touch whenever you’re ready!

Business travellers are a great source of ongoing bookings for hotels and bed-and-breakfasts. In this blog, we look at how to attract business travellers and why it makes good business sense.

Why should I try to attract business travellers to my hotel?

Business travellers present a fantastic opportunity to hotel owners. Unlike holidaymakers, who often only stay during high season, business travellers need accommodation all year round. If you can become the accommodation of choice when a organisation’s team are working in your local area, you can achieve sustainable levels of occupancy even during low season.

Another advantage of attracting business travellers is that managing one relationship can translate into lots of bookings. Contrast this with holiday bookings, where you have to from scratch with every guest who arrives.

How can I attract business travellers?

To attract business travellers to your hotel, it’s important to market your offering to them in the right way. The marketing you do to attract individuals and families on holiday will not necessarily appeal to your potential business guests. Instead, devote some of your marketing efforts to connecting with businesses.

Adapt and refine your offering

Before you can offer your hotel as the ideal accommodation for business travellers, consider whether it has what a business traveller needs. If it doesn’t, change it! For example, consider offering a streamlined check-in and check-out, so business guests don’t lose valuable time doing paperwork. Be prepared to offer an early breakfast or late dinner to fit in around unusual arrival times. Perhaps you could turn a quiet corner into a dedicated office or meeting space for your business guests. If your internet speeds are slow, invest in an upgrade so business guests can access whatever they need to work during their stay.

Create packages

Creating a special package for business travellers makes it easier for procurement managers to see the value you’re offering. Choose the right price point for a room, breakfast and Wi-Fi, maybe with a transport option to connect guests to the station or airport.

Target businesses on social media

Once you’re business-traveller ready, it’s time to spread the word! Share dedicated social media posts, not just offering accommodation but highlighting the reasons why your hotel is a great choice for business travellers. You might also consider posting on LinkedIn, the business-to-business social media platform, to connect with the sort of people who might be looking for accommodation for their business travellers.

Network

A great way to meet other businesses face to face is to go to networking events. Networking events help you build up your business family, and meet the kind of business owners who might need what you offer.

You could also offer your hotel as a networking venue, giving event attendees the opportunity to see what you have to offer.

Advertise

A carefully placed advert in a business publication could help you attract commercial travellers. And if any businesses have their head office or training centre near your hotel, reach out directly to let them know you’re ready to welcome their employees whenever they’re in the area!

Outsourced support helps hotels attract business travellers

Get Ahead has a strong team of marketing experts who would love to help you increase your occupancy all year round. If you need support with any of the suggestions we’ve made in this blog, we are here to help. We’ll use our marketing expertise to connect you with commercial travellers and gain all the benefits of repeat business.

Explore our site or social media channels to find out more about what Get Ahead has to offer.

Hotel digital marketing covers everything from your website to social media – any kind of marketing you do online, essentially! One of the most important areas of digital marketing for hotels and holiday rentals is review management.

In this blog, our digital marketing expert Mel explains why reviews matter and explains ideas for getting guests to leave reviews. She’ll also share tips for how to manage reviews once you’ve received them.

Why do hotel and holiday rental reviews matter?

Mel: Arguably, reviews matter more in the hospitality industry than anywhere else. This is because people usually go on holiday to somewhere new – that’s part of what makes it a holiday! What this means is that your guests have to rely heavily on reviews to help them make the decision about whether or not to stay at your hotel.

If the potential guest finds it’s a toss up between two hotels, they’re going to choose the one with the most positive reviews.

Remember, every interaction is an opportunity to show your personality. Reviews will give potential guests an idea of what to expect…and so will the way you reply.

How can I encourage guests to leave reviews?

Mel: Ask them! Most people love to be asked – they feel great having their opinion valued. Asking also shows that you’re confident in your services – let your confidence shine out!

A good time to ask is when guests check out. The sooner they leave the review, the more honest and specific it is likely to be. You could have a QR code on the front desk for guests scan – that way, they can leave their review while waiting for their taxi.

How do I manage reviews of my hotel or holiday rental?

Mel: Naturally, we all want a lovely collection of five star reviews! However, we also need to be realistic. Not all reviews are going to be positive – some might be mixed and others downright bad.

Working in digital marketing, I’ve noticed that every single review is an opportunity to show how good you are at what you do. Even a bad review gives you the chance to reply and show how good your customer service and problem-solving skills really are.

How to deal with positive reviews

These are the easier ones to deal with! Even though they usually require less attention, it’s still a good idea to take time to reply and thank the reviewer for their praise. This shows your upbeat side, and also demonstrates that you love interacting with people – two characteristics to make a future guest feel welcome.

How to deal with negative reviews

Mixed or negative reviews always take more time to deal with. Summon your inner strength and try not to take them personally. Instead, try to see them as opportunities to show how well you deal with problems.

The most important things to do are reply politely and appropriately as soon as you can, and try and get the conversation away from the review site so you don’t end up having an awkward discussion in public. If you can, use the phone or email to discuss the problem instead. Try and remain professional and don’t get into an argument.

If you learn anything valuable from the negative review, let the reviewer know that you appreciate their feedback and will be making changes. Take the opportunity to show the original reviewer and any future guests that you listen, you care and you solve problems effectively. You might well be able to turn a negative situation into a positive one!

Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to have negative reviews taken down. Most review sites, including the biggest ones like Google and Facebook, will only take down a review that is unreasonable. Resist the urge to turn off the “leave a review” option if you get a bad review. Instead, continue asking people to leave reviews and let the good ones dilute the effect of a few bad ones.

Outsource your hotel digital marketing and review management

Another review management solution is to outsource it. Let a digital marketing expert like Mel deal with the reviews from her own home while you concentrate on delivering a fantastic experience to the guests who are with you right now.

A huge advantage of having a remote worker manage the reviews is that they look at them as an outsider. It’s easy to take reviews personally, and fixate on one bad one even if you’ve also had twenty good ones! But a remote marketing expert can help you regain your sense of proportion, as well replying to the straightforward reviews and prompting you to address the more complex ones.

Why not explore our social channels to find out more about what Get Ahead has to offer? And to find out more about outsourcing your hotel digital marketing, talk to your local regional director today.

PS – we’ve put together our top resources for hotel owners in one ebook – download it here!

If you’re full of plans but think you might struggle to execute your business idea, don’t worry – Get Ahead are here to help!

Christmas is a great time to reflect on the year just gone, and identify profitable areas for the year ahead. If you spent Christmas dinner bending your family’s ears about your new business plan, your new year’s resolution is probably to put it into practice.

In this blog, we look at why it’s great to have new ideas and how to get the right support to put them into practice.

New business ideas are great!

The Get Ahead team are always meeting entrepreneurs and start-ups. We’ve heard some fantastic ideas and we love the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs when they describe their plans.

Without new ideas, the world would grind to a halt. From the wheel to the internet, new ideas have continued to drive civilisation forward, creating new opportunities and new approaches to business and everyday life.

That’s why you should never stop having ideas. Even if you know your limitations, or you know what barriers stand between you and how to execute your business idea, don’t worry. There are loads of resources out there to help you fill in the gaps and realise your dream.

Barriers to putting your business idea into practice

You probably already know that nothing worth having comes easy. There might well be barriers between you and a successful business idea. For example, you might have had a cool idea but you’ve never run a business before. Or you might be so fizzing with enthusiasm that you’re struggling to focus on writing a business plan to secure the right start-up funding.

Alternatively, you might know your own field very well, but feel less confident about the other aspects of a delivering a project.

Some people are starters and some people are finishers. The starters are often bubbling with ideas, while the finishers are focused and methodical. The business world needs both types of people, and they have to be prepared to help each other.

How do you get over these barriers? Well, we’d suggest taking some time to be brutally honest with yourself. Accept that your business idea will need some hard work as well as enthusiasm. Identify what skills you already have available to you and be prepared to recruit or outsource the other areas.

Plug your skills gap and execute your business idea

If you’re a starter, you probably need some finishers around you to help you make your business ideas reality. Your best mate might be really supportive, but if they’re too similar to you, they might not help you move your project forward. Sometimes it’s better to choose people who are focused on the bottom line, who are not emotionally involved with the plan and simply want it to work for the sake of business success.

Practical support for start-ups

If you need practical support for your start-up, Get Ahead can help. Our team are all experts in their fields, including finance, marketing, admin, and social media. We can put sustainable systems in place, like setting up customer relationship management software and creating spreadsheets for you to populate.

We insist that every team member has at least three years’ experience in their field before they join Get Ahead. Many have more than three years! This means that if you get your business support from us, you’ll be working with someone who has not only built up experience in their particular skill, but also has wider business experience to share.

If you’re starting a business this January, Get Ahead could be the support you’re looking for. We strive to bring maturity, experience and perspective to every project, filling in the skills gaps and to help you execute your business idea.

To see how this works in practice, learn how we filled in the gaps for a team of cutting-edge software developers who needed help to market their latest product. Read our case study here.

Have you had a great year or do you still need to achieve your business goals? With the end of Q4 looming large on the horizon, it’s time to focus on anything you haven’t yet achieved and take action to complete your goals.

But to achieve our goals, we need the right mindsets. In this blog, we look at positive ways to approach the end of the calendar year.

Be brave and honest

When we don’t look at our goals, and don’t measure our business in any way, it’s easy to assume everything is going well. And for some of us, it’s easy to assume it’s all going badly, so we avoid looking at it because we think we won’t like what we see.

But Q4 is the time to see an accurate picture. Be brave and revisit your business plan and business goals. Are you on track? Are you where you expected to be? If not, what do you need to get you there?

Focus

It’s amazing what we can do when we focus. Turn off your notifications, put your phone into monk mode and clear down some of those tasks that have caused blockages in your working life. Check out our blog on tasks you can do in one hour – you might be surprised at how productive you can be!

Embrace new approaches

Often, the issue that is blocking us from achieving a business goal can be removed relatively easily. However, “we’ve always done it this way” can be a real barrier, preventing us from upgrading to a good customer management system or reorganising our business premises.

To achieve our goals, it’s sometimes worth looking at alternative approaches and embracing change. Talking to business coaches, Get Ahead regional directors or other business owners can give you a host of ideas to help you.

Be a finisher

As entrepreneurs and business owners, we love having new ideas and getting them off the ground. When we do this, we’re “starters.” A starter is a fantastic thing to be and without us, the world would be a boring place with no opportunities.

But the end of the year is the time to be a finisher. Finishers have the commitment and maturity to see their goals through to the end. Finishing can be less exciting than starting, but it is what makes the project worthwhile.

(By the way, if you’re not a finisher and know you never will be, consider outsourcing – see below!)

Celebrate your achievements

When we complete our annual or Q4 goals, it’s time to celebrate! Be proud of what you and your team have achieved. We can all gain more from the achievement by learning from it – what went well and what was a struggle? The successes show us what we could be building on next year and may help shape our business purpose and brand. And the struggles will be easier next time if we learn from the experience.

Achieve your business goals with outsourced support

The Get Ahead team are great at unblocking businesses which have got stuck for want of the right support. Our virtual experts can take on the tasks you procrastinate about, or fill a skills gap to help you complete a goal or project. To find out more, contact your local regional director today, or explore our site for more business resources.

Many business owners experience barriers to delegation – potentially disastrous as your business cannot grow without it. Sometimes there is a deep-seated reason why you can’t ask for help; for others, it just hasn’t occurred to them!

In this blog, we look at common reasons business owners struggle with delegating, and consider the ways you could overcome them.

Common barriers to delegation

1. Imposter syndrome

When we experience imposter syndrome, we believe that we’re an imposter in our sector. We feel like we shouldn’t be in the role of a business owner, or we don’t feel like we’re qualified to work in that industry. Imposter syndrome – unlike actual fraud – is when we have all the qualifications and experience to do our jobs, but we still feel like we shouldn’t be there.

Imposter syndrome is a barrier to delegation because if we don’t feel entitled to do our jobs, how on earth can we take the lead when we ask someone else to do it? And how can we give feedback with confidence?

Sometimes, all we need to overcome imposter syndrome is a quick reality check. Look back at your qualifications, if you have them. And if you’re a graduate of the University of Life, spend time remembering how you learned all the skills that got you where you are today.

If your imposter syndrome is more serious than that, it could be helpful to talk to a life- or business-coach. We have quite a few in our business family – talk to your local regional director if you would like an introduction.

2. “It’s quicker to do it myself than show someone else.”

We’ve all said this at some point! But the truth is, showing someone else is a long-term investment in your business. Certainly, the first time you do it, briefing your staff member or outsourced support will take time. However, once that initial briefing is out of the way, your business now has two people who know how to do it, instead of just one. This means one less thing on your to-do list; it also gives the business flexibility as either one of you can take responsibility for it in future.

Accepting that you will “lose” an hour while you brief someone else on how to do it is easier when you also see the long-term advantages you’ll gain in return.

3. Micromanagement

Micromanagement is often a symptom of a lack of trust. If you don’t trust your staff or external support team, ask yourself why not. If their work is rubbish, stop micromanaging and hire someone else! And if the problem is with you, take action. Remind yourself that your team doesn’t want to do a bad job – they’re on career paths too.

Overcome barriers to delegation when you outsource to Get Ahead

If you’re struggling to ask for help, Get Ahead could be a good way to start. You’ll have a single point of contact in the form of your local regional director – they’ll be able to introduce you to the right expert who knows your industry and also has the right personality.

Often, they’ll encourage you to start small, perhaps with some outsourced diary management. If that goes well, you have the option to increase the amount of support you receive. You’ll never be locked into a long contract, and there’s always the option to add or subtract services as your needs change. We hope it will all go well, but if anything doesn’t make the grade, you can discuss it with your regional director. This means you don’t have to give feedback directly to your virtual expert if you don’t feel comfortable.

If you’re ready for Get Ahead to support you, get in touch today – we’d love to hear from you! And if you’d like more information on how to outsource successfully, download our ebook here.

CRM project management can make a real difference to the running of your business. With the right software in place, you can streamline interactions with customers and clients, forecast sales and quickly analyse your business performance.

In this blog, we look at what a CRM system offers and how Get Ahead can support you with yours.

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Lead generation services can take a lot of pressure off business owners. Outsource your cold calling and focus on all the reasons you founded your business in the first place.

In this blog, we look at why savvy business owners outsource their cold calling and what advantages lead generation services bring to growing businesses.