During the chaos of the holiday season, it’s difficult to pause and identify plans for business growth in the new year.
Based on our experience working with outdoor adventure companies, we’ve identified 7 key strategies that many successful businesses have in common. See which ones you can adopt and blaze a path for growth.
1. Simplify Your Offerings
This may seem obvious, but many businesses may face a mental block at this fundamental step. Ask yourself this: Who is your ideal customer? What is your core competence? Offer clarity to your customers in regard to your offerings, pricing, policies, and more.
If you try to offer something for every single person who shows up, you’ll just be turning away from your authentic customer base. Studies have shown that too many choices in products and prices can slow down or even discourage the purchasing process.
2. Group Sales!
Group sales need to be an active part of your sales strategy. This isn’t about selling cheap, discounted items — group sales have proven to be the most stable channel to drive revenue regardless of weather, consumer demand and more.
Use these tactics to make a group sales initiative a success:
• Hire a relationship-oriented seller or sellers who recruit group leaders and focus more on face-to-face selling.
• Treat group sales renewals with the same focus as a season-ticket renewal campaign.
• Host mini-events with business groups, churches, nonprofits, youth sports and schools. Have buy-now incentives for that night only.
3. Clear Up Processes for Staff
Your staff is your greatest asset and are the face of your enterprise. Their appearance, professionalism, and organization are what transform a first-time customer into a champion who shares your service with everyone they know. The key to driving this organic process is to be organized and have processes in place that educate your staff and help them understand how their role fits into the team. Create manifests ahead of time that clearly communicate who needs to be where.
4. Keep long-Term Goals in View
In the outdoor adventure industry, margins are tight, and overhead can be overwhelming. It’s easy to narrow your view to the upcoming season to ensure survival, but this focus is the difference between growing companies and stagnant ones.
Growing companies have a plan beyond the upcoming season. They set goals, forecast growth and have the steps laid out to achieve that growth. Remember: a goal without a plan is a wish, not a goal.
5. Have the Ability to Capture Customers & Revenue Online
In all likelihood, you already have a website. But, there’s a big difference between having a website and having an Internet presence.
When your customers search for you online, they want the experience and service that you keep telling everyone about. They want to do their research and book online seamlessly. If you haven’t already, you need to give them that option.
Talented web designers are out there. Find one and follow this advice: keep it clean, simple, and inspiring. If you want more insights into how to streamline the online booking process, read our Free Conversion Checklist.
6. Be an Expert on Trends & New Markets
The Stand-Up Paddleboard (SUP) movement is an interesting case study in the Outdoor Industry. There are two different perspectives when it comes to a new product or trend like SUP:
1. There is the perspective that gets defensive, digs their heels in and scoffs at its trendiness, laughing it off as a passing fad.
2. The second perspective is optimistic; it sees the trend as a new way to get people outside and a new way to get people to experience their amazing company.
The businesses that adopted the second perspective have been rewarded as much as SUP has continued to grow with no end in sight. What is the latest trend in adventure parks and ziplines? Season passes is one trend that seems to be picking up speed, for example. And what a great way to capture off-season revenue, following similar models to ski areas.
7. Embrace Technology for Business Operations
If you’re still managing your business with pen and paper, you’re limiting your ability to grow and are wasting precious time and energy with inefficiencies.
There’s a reason that a majority of your competitors have transitioned operations to software and technology. There are many benefits, but most importantly it forces standard processes for:
• Collecting money
• Managing reservations and client information
• Automating tasks that may take hours to complete
• Improving communication (and marketing) with customers
• GROWTH! You have consumable data at your fingertips in your database of reports and dashboards to make better decisions.
As intimidating as it might sound, it’s affordable and easy to make the move.
At The Flybook, we earn our value by matching your company’s pains with a proven solution. With clear success stories in the outdoor adventure industry, our clients love how we can open their time and energy to growing their business, not just sustaining it.