Business Health and Nutrition

When you’re running a business, the company’s pain is yours as well. Whatever’s harming it or stunting its growth, you’ll be desperate to fix it.

Businesses are highly susceptible to ailments, especially during growth. Fortunately, those conditions are easily treatable, especially if caught early.

Here are some of the most common causes, the typical symptoms, and the best remedies.

Dried Up Pipeline

A dry pipeline is often painful and always irritating. When there are few leads, it can induce anxiety, restlessness, and sometimes panic.

Common causes:

Poor targeting

You pitch your messaging poorly and don’t place it where your targets will see it. That means it doesn’t reach decision-makers.

Unengaging output

When you discuss topics that don’t resonate, or you don’t present them well, you will get no attention from the people you want to reach.

Unclear identity

You’re cautious and conformist with your brand. If you can’t stand out from the crowd, you won’t attract customers.

Leaky Pipeline

The lining of your pipeline is too weak to contain prospects or progress them through the system. Accompanying symptoms include frustration and confusion.

Common causes:

Unexciting Content

Most decision-makers think less than half of thought leadership is valuable. Once you’ve earned their attention, you have to work hard to keep it.

Content doesn’t serve the whole buying cycle

Only 5% of buyers are actively looking. You have to appeal to the rest of the buying cycle to keep your pipeline healthy.

Sales and marketing are misaligned

Salespeople speak to prospects directly. They know what is hurting them and how they express it. If Marketing doesn’t hear and act on that information, they can’t keep decision-makers engaged.

Poor Retention

Your business excretes clients before it can realise their full nutritional value. Replacement costs time and money. Common reactions include weakness, feelings of helplessness, and even despair.

Common causes:

Staff shortage

Your client list has grown faster than the team has, staff don’t have the capacity for optimal service, and customers lose trust.

Unclear success criteria

You didn’t define very clearly and objectively with your customer what success looks like and how to measure it. You can think you’ve delivered, but your client can disagree.

Not seeking or implementing feedback

If you don’t encourage suggestions from your clients, or take action when you get them, customers don’t feel respected, and your offering falls behind your competitors’.

Treatment

Treating stunted business growth usually requires one or all of the following:

• A strong brand, including distinctive design and tone of voice
• Consistent marketing output demonstrating expertise on your targets’ problems
• Aligning your sales and marketing strategies, or better yet, treating them as one

It’s possible to use home remedies, but when you’ve poured everything into your business, you might want professional care.

Nutcracker’s founder has nurtured and grown a lot of businesses. If you want to know how to make yours as healthy as it can be, give Jenny a call on 020 3941 0305, or email jenny.knighting@nutcrackeragency.com.