Want more business? Focus on current customers.

Strengths: 400 active clients.
Weaknesses: Heavy concentration in
bookkeeping.
The light bulb moment: Opportunity: Educate bookkeeping clients on other services.

The SWOT exercise can prove beneficial. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A mini strategic planning element, SWOT frames your business from a different perspective.

The accounting firm in this example realized they could prospect for consulting customers from their existing database because many of those customers had no information about other offerings; the firm had no program in place to tell and resell their story.

Converting a bookkeeping prospect to an additional service may be far easier and less expensive than soliciting new customers. Yet this is a step many companies overlook as too obvious. Customer loyalty makes sense (dollars and cents!) even though it is not a standalone strategy for growing a business. Nothing sells itself.

Most service businesses can use success more effectively. How so? Instead of focusing exclusively on soliciting new customers, consider keeping and upgrading current customers. Here are three ways to build loyalty:

1. Start and consistently use an effective email program to communicate inexpensively and regularly with clients.
2. Develop a targeted advertising campaign to focus on increasing specific business segments.
3. Request referrals on a continuing basis and be fanatical about following up with any leads generated.

You too can increase your business. I’ll talk more specifically about each of these strategies in other posts. Meanwhile, think about your own situation. Could a SWOT evaluation be in order?