4 Strategies for Expanding Your Business in Different Locations
Do you have plans to expand your business in different locations?
Are you considering expansion into a new territory?
Are you looking for practical and proven steps to get you started?
In this article we focus on the important strategies needed to expand your business in different locations.
Progress and advancement are the lifeblood of great companies. If you’re not seeking progress and advancement, your company stands to face stagnation, complacency, and eventual demise.
Over the years my conversations with CEOs and business owners who seek expansion and growth have lead me to some fascinating findings. It seems that company expansion and growth is often threatened, slowed or stopped because of a failure to think, approach and look a t marketing and business in a different way.
Here are 4 strategies to help you think, approach and look at marketing and business in a different way and expand your business in different locations:
1. Identify your best clients
Identifying just exactly who are the type of clients that best fit your organization is a foundational element for expanding your business to new and different locations. Really understanding who makes an great client allows you to attract and serve this group in your new location.
When working with businesses that want to expand to new and different locations I generally advise them to identify the common demographic and psychographic characteristics of their best clients. Your best clients can be found by the following two behaviors: they are profitable and also refer business to you.
2. Attend networking events and conferences in that geographical area.
After identifying the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your best clients it’s time to intentionally go after only those prospects that fit that profile. Taking this approach allows you to significantly increase the likelihood that you will only work with clients that appreciate your uniqueness, refer you and most importantly are profitable.
By now you should know the typical events and conferences your best clients will likely attend from your research above. Your approach should be to start prospecting by attending these events and conferences in that new location gathering information and discovering who fits your profile.
You need to start building the awareness of your business, products and services that will lead to trust and the eventual sale. You may also want to go even further in your approach and generate awareness through local media publications and channels.
3. Networking with the influencers of those events and conferences.
So at this point you’ve worked hard attending events and conferences to get people to notice you and your company. You’ve got a little traction here and there, but I can tell you it won’t be enough.
You must start networking with the influencers. With a little help from the influencers (and their massive influence) you can move from “I never heard of you” and I don’t trust you to let’s do business.
Use this step with care. Remember that influencers are people just like you are. Networking is 98% about being a nice person and having good manners.
4. Speak at these events and conferences.
Speaking is a great tactic that is underutilized. Getting a stage presents unique long-term marketing opportunities for you. It places you face to face with a roomful of prospective clients who have signaled their interest in you and your topic by showing up.
You have the rare chance to meet and address people who want to learn about you and what you have to say. And you don’t have to find them—they come to you. As a marketing opportunity in a new location, what could be better?
