Growing Your Business: The Seven Ways to Increase Revenue

June 5, 2024 Julie Entwistle MBA, BSc (OT), BSc.

The first step in building your business is gaining clarity about why your business exists, and where you want to take it. From there, you dive into effectiveness and implement strategies and methods to ensure your time is going to the right activities.

Then? You are ready for growth. Growing your business before those foundational elements are implemented will cause chaos and result in struggles with quality, sustainability, and team.

So, you are here. Let’s talk about growing your business.

Sales are the business machine. Like the human brain, without sales, your business can’t survive. Your job as an entrepreneur is to continuously seek ways to keep the engine on. Now “sales in” that equals “expenses out” doesn’t work either. As the owner or director, your job is to turn those sales into resources that the business can use to stay alive, or better, thrive.

There are seven ways to increase revenue. Improving just one will have a drastic impact on your business, and of course the returns increase exponentially if you implement more than one.

Way # 1: Make More Sales

Yes, that’s right. Captain Obvious says if you want to increase revenue, make more sales. Just increase the volume of what you have been doing. If you are in healthcare, law, or accounting, how can you get more clients. If in manufacturing or product sales, more customers?

Consider the question: What new strategies can you implement to attract more people to buy what you sell?

Way # 2: Sell More Often to the Same Customer

A happy customer already knows, loves, and trusts you. They bought from you once. And if you are operating your business effectively, you have their information. How can you innovate your business to generate more revenue from them? In healthcare, we know that people need more of what we offer if we can get them in the door. In law, the same person might come back a few times as life continues to happen.

Consider the question: How might you increase the frequency of purchase by your existing customers?

Way # 3: Sell Something Else

This is cross-selling. If you have an established business, you have a bank of future revenue already. Selling something else to the same person is one way to increase revenue without the demands of finding new customers. The people that know you, trust you, and love what you do, may buy other things you sell. Do patients need ancillary services? Can the customers you have buy the maintenance plan? What about adding accessories to the main item? This is why clinics have multiple providers, and maybe even offer orthotics or bracing. Or why a law firm may offer multiple real estate, wills, and family law services.

Consider the question: What else would someone who is purchasing my “thing” be interested in receiving, acquiring, or need?

Way # 4: Make Larger Sales

Larger sales can come from offering incentives for bigger orders. Part of this may come from increasing volume (like when you sell more to the same person), but it could also come from bulk of offering packages or group programs. For example, if two sessions are more cost effective than one, you can incent the client making that choice.

Consider the question: how can you increase the average dollar value of each sale?

Way # 5: Increase Pricing

Personally, I have been going to the same gym for over 15 years. I still pay the same price. Now, the way the service is delivered has changed, but the prices have not increased. If my trainer wanted to increase revenue, he could do a price adjustment. I know that healthcare professionals struggle with this. They know that people struggle to afford them in the first place. But, the important thing here is that your competitors dictate your pricing. So, to charge more you need to be different from them. More value? Higher quality? Exceptional service? Unique offering?

Consider the question: how will you justify price changes to your customers?

Way # 6: Make More Profitable Sales

The strategies up to here have been about increasing top-line revenue. But making or retaining more money comes from the understanding of what you are selling, and what returns you get from each revenue stream. This analysis is two parts:

Part 1: Review your customer/client behavior.

Which ones are the most profitable? In healthcare this might be the regulars who don’t cancel, or who refer others. In other businesses it might be who returns items, or whose average purchases are higher or lower than others. If you are a lawyer, what type of client stays in inventory longest, or whose situation perhaps doesn’t have the same returns for your time?

Part 2: Review your products.

Which products or offerings are the most popular? In healthcare this might be time with a certain therapist, or the sundry items they buy with their service. If you are cross-selling, what does that look like by each line of business?

Consider the question: Do you know the profitability of your clients/customers and products/services?

Way # 7: Reduce your Selling Costs

Of course, revenue is necessary, but if you spend 100% of it on getting it in the first place, you have gained nothing. So, understanding what it is costing you to get that revenue is another way to keep cash in the company. Have you reviewed the cost of your sales funnel? In healthcare this is often online, through social media, or by being at events or presenting at conferences. How are those sales efforts working for you? Are your marketing costs targeted and successful? The saying goes “50% of marketing works, we just don’t know which 50%.” I say, you need to know.

Consider the question: How are you tracking your selling costs?

Final Thoughts: Driving Sustainable Business Growth

There is no option to sit or stand still in business. It moves quickly, more so now that technology is driving more and more consumer behavior and business operations. Are you keeping up with your sales to fuel the machine? Reach out if you want to talk.