{"id":49684,"date":"2021-02-09T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T17:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=49684"},"modified":"2022-11-02T02:41:04","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T09:41:04","slug":"proven-strategies-to-prepare-your-smb-for-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/au\/blog\/proven-strategies-to-prepare-your-smb-for-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Proven strategies to prepare your SMB for growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Uncertainty. It was the dominating feeling of early 2020 when the pandemic hit, with over half of SMBs worried about reduced customer demand according to our latest Small & Medium Business Trends report<\/a>. But for these two SMBs businesses, that feeling quickly transformed into momentum as it became clear business growth was set to accelerate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, it was definitely a bit scary,\u201d says Nick of those first nerve wracking weeks in March and April. \u201cBut fortunately we have a big enough workshop that we were able to keep people at work and just rotate the sales staff to maintain COVID safety.\u201d Existing CRM platforms<\/a> came to the fore with sales people able to maintain real-time 360-degree views of the customer from their mobile devices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe pandemic brought into sharp relief a whole bunch of things we\u2019d been putting off \u2013 this or that could wait till next week or be put on the back burner for another month. Suddenly the time to do those things was now and we ran with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher also experienced the impact of the pandemic as a call to action for the business. \u201cWe were feeling cautious, like a lot of businesses. But optimism has always been at the heart of Lawpath and this was like a great opportunity to explore what might be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Test the water with both feet: using tech to scale at speed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

ModularWalls has long embraced digital technologies<\/a> on its path to growth so turning to tech to facilitate further growth over the pandemic was an easy choice. \u201cLots of people were finally doing their home improvement projects and taking advantage of government stimulus offers and less red tape \u2013 we had to be ready for that,\u201d says Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the Lightning platform<\/a>, Nick and his team developed and launched the \u2018Quick Quote Calculator\u2019 as part of The Neighbourhood \u2013 ModularWall\u2019s support site. It\u2019s a simple tool customers can use to generate a quote using the visual options that are so important to showing what ModularWalls can achieve. \u201cPlus it helps us capture more customer data that we can then feed into the Marketing Cloud<\/a>,\u201d adds Nick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the result? \u201cWell, at first everyone stressed out a bit because our lead rate \u2013 which had been increasing organically quite successfully \u2013 dropped from about 150 per week to less than half.\u201d But something more important was going on. \u201cOur conversion rate jumped dramatically from about 20% to around 40%. Engagement was way up and we were generating far more qualified leads. We were finally getting through to the right people with the right information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constant and careful analysis of the customer data was critical. \u201cWe were revising all the time,\u201d explains Nick. \u201cWe\u2019d check where customers were dropping off then make changes to ensure the customer was more successfully engaged and moving further along the journey. Then when they got to the point of calling us, we were having much more productive conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes you\u2019ve just got to be prepared to test the water with both feet,\u201d says Nick of his all-in, double-down approach to business during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawpath also had the technology in place to not only roll with the pandemic punches but use them to their advantage. \u201cLawpath was born digital,\u201d explains Chris. \u201cSo we were well placed for remote working and digital communication.\u201d Not working in an office environment did change a few things, however. \u201cWe did ramp up our comms and project management tools so our sales team had easy real-time access to all the info they needed via dashboards and didn\u2019t have to rely on those spontaneous office conversations you could have to share information.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the tech and the know-how in place, Lawpath found the pandemic was a way to get in front of people who might not otherwise use such a service. \u201cThe shift to everything being online really changed the way people thought about professional services, especially legal.\u201d In an industry often associated with gleaming offices and financially inaccessible services, Lawpath presented a fresh view of what was possible when it came to getting legal advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClients were much more comfortable using video conferencing to have meetings and discuss their legal issues \u2013 that way of communicating just became normalised so quickly. We were able to get our message out much more easily than if we\u2019d depended on a big office environment with in-house filing systems and fancy conference rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic amplified the need for Lawpath\u2019s flagship legal advice plan and they also established an online document witnessing protocol (approved by the Law Society) which meant people didn\u2019t have to meet face-to-face to legally sign and witness documents. \u201cThat was a great example of how we were able to use digital technology to adapt on the fly,\u201d says Chris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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