We are in the business of helping EOS® companies grow revenue. Over half of the businesses that come to us with that goal in mind are wanting to do so by generating more leads.
As we work with clients to develop an initial Revenue Growth Plan, it typically becomes clear that the quickest way to move the needle on revenue growth is by focusing on their clients, not on generating new leads.
Compare this to the process of dating. There are two primary outcomes for a single person to date:
- Long term: To find a long-term partner to share their life with
- Short term: Sharing time with different people that may have different interests and perspectives, but without needing to share the same long-term goal
Having spent my adult life on both sides of this coin, I see that both have their merits. I enjoyed the process of dating itself, and I am now happily married. If you’re looking for a long-term partner in life, it is important to find someone with that same goal in mind and it’s even more important to find someone that shares the same vision as to what a long-term partner in life really is. This is not as important for those that are just looking to enjoy dating.
In the interest of self-awareness, it is valuable for the dater to begin with the end in mind and know which one of these outcomes they are pursuing when they are dating.
So how does dating relate to revenue growth? The leads are like dates. Are you looking for leads for the sake of dating, or are you looking for leads that share your vision of what a long-term relationship with a client is like? If you’re trying to build a sustainable business, the long-term approach makes a lot more sense; it’s a lot less expensive and a lot more fun. According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in retention results in a 25-95% increase in profitability.
In our Revenue Growth Workshops, we help our clients look at the entire experience that a prospect or client has with their business — from the time the prospect knows they have a problem to the time that they become a client and are enjoying all of the services and solutions that our clients have to offer them. Businesses that initially think they need more leads typically realize that:
- The most efficient way to grow revenue is to look at increasing their value to their current client base
- The experience that they are introducing leads into is not optimized to win, retain, and scale efficiently.
Prioritizing what to do first is a very important decision. If you decide that you want to start bringing in more leads before you optimize the whole experience that they will go through, it can be very expensive and frustrating in the long run.
More often than not, we end up helping clients improve the experience that their current customers have with their business before looking to generate more top-of-funnel leads. Once the client experience is improved and optimized, not only can you generate more business from those current clients, but you’re also ready to close and retain the leads that you bring in.
Back to the dating analogy, if you are pursuing a long term partner, but don’t have a good vision as to what life looks like in that scenario, it might be difficult to find the right partner, and even more challenging to achieve long-term happiness.
