Making a startup work is never easy. It requires you to understand everything from the economy to your target audience, among a hundred other things. But the principles of startup success remain the same regardless of the economy.
Here are 5 strategies you can use generate B2B leads and connect with your target audience in any economy:
1. Don’t become apathetic
Apathy will always hurt you. For example, just because you know charity is a good marketing tactic doesn’t guarantee that it will work. Sometimes, you may discover nobody cares about your philanthropic efforts and that’s because you haven’t given people a reason to care.
If you are numb to what’s going on around you, your digital marketing strategy will flop. If you don’t know what your customers really want, you will never give them what they crave. In short, you have to be aware of everything around you.
2. Combine experience with creativity
Entrepreneurs are often creative when they want their startups to stand out. What they lack, though, is the experience to turn that experience into something amazing. In their enthusiasm to achieve something, they will authorize something that really shouldn’t be authorized. Sobering experience must temper that natural enthusiasm.
Bad decisions are nearly always made without any real thought behind them. You need to take a step back and stop for a moment. Consider whether you are giving enough thought to a decision. Use your experience and the experiences of others to make better decisions for your startup.
3. Kill inefficiency by making your presence known
One of the biggest problems companies experience is their CEO being completely independent of the rest of the company. To overcome startup struggles, you should ensure you are on the shop floor. You should know what’s going on at all times.
Inefficiencies can slowly kill a startup. The only way you are going to know about them is if you happen to be on the ground floor with your troops.
It’s no coincidence that the most successful companies generally have the most ‘hands on’ CEOs.
4. Reward your best salespeople
Selling is the ‘make or break’ area of your company. A product that you are unable to sell will lead to disaster because you are not going to have the revenue necessary to actually sustain yourself. Your salespeople need to be motivated. In order to keep your sales team motivated, you need to reward them.
This doesn’t mean that you have to create a competition. That’s often counterproductive to success. Instead, provide rewards for the whole group when they perform well. It creates a sense of community and makes individuals determined to not let the community as a whole down.
This simple change in philosophy will significantly improve sales.
5. Learn and fail quickly
Turning your first profit is a momentous occasion. But what you really should be doing is seeing this as a learning opportunity. That money should be invested into experimenting with something new. You should be learning fast and failing fast because that’s the only way you can grow, move quickly and prevent startup failure.
But how can you test and fail while still thriving?
It’s all about managing the process in the right way. You need to begin by setting up a dedicated testing arm. Treat it like any other department by giving it a budget and telling the people responsible to go to town. The only catch is that they have to regularly report back with their results.
Startups are so obsessed with being perfectionists that they often find themselves unable to break free of their constraints and try new things. You have to be bold and willing to accept lost causes every now and then.
Don’t blame the economy
Entrepreneurs that blame the economy tend to be chronic failures. The economy may change but people remain the same. The principles of success stay the same. Blaming the economy only covers up your deficiencies and that’s not a good habit to develop.
What business is your startup in and how do you define success?