Tips, Tricks & Tools for Growing your Training Business

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 | By Lisa Archer

During EMEA this week, John McGlinchey, CompTIA’s regional sales director, shared his experience in 10 top tips to grow business:

Social Media - Social media has become mainstream media. But we need to ask ourselves one simple question and that is, “have we mastered social media?” McGlinchey explains that we have a lot to learn in order to be effective. We need to realize that at the heart of social media should be trust and respect for our customers. We need to engage, reply and response to them and most importantly help them. Key to this is creating great content. You need to become a valuable source of information for them so they keep coming back. Make sure you ask feedback and use it to continuously improve. Avoid at all costs using social media to spam your customers and forget about search rankings.

Partnerships - Keep your eyes and ears open. The important partnerships are not always those that are most visible. Have a circle of critical friends who will tell you the truth, offer advice and introduce you to new and potentially lucrative partners.

Diversification - Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Focus on your core competence but look out and invest in new opportunities.

New Identity - Keep your business fresh and interesting. Create microsites and use these as a way to test out new ideas and gauge market response before rolling out through your whole site.

Your Team - Listen to your people. The people you employ are the key to your success. Get to know your staff; get to know their concerns thoughts and ideas. Make sure you praise them! Involve them in your decision-making process. Celebrate your successes with your team. Take them out and treat them well and make them feel part of the team. Put your people first!

Your Greatest Asset - Your customers. Are you looking after them, thanking them and understanding them? Look after your existing customers before finding new.

Testimonials - Ask customers, suppliers and partners for testimonials. This is so powerful and important for your business.

PPC - Run PPC campaigns, but make sure they are an integrated part of all your marketing.

Movement v. Progress - Don’t mistake your movement with progress. Check out what you are doing – don’t be busy being busy. Focus on the major things that are really going to make a difference to you business.

The Ant Philosophy - Think about ants. Constantly moving, letting nothing stop them. Create the ant philosophy for your business.

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