One of the great learnings to emerge from the current pandemic with SMEs here in the South West is that the negative impact on certain market sectors, e.g. Aerospace, has vividly highlighted the golden rule in sales – don’t become too reliant on just one or two major customers.
It is all too easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when orders just come in through the door and then suddenly start to dry up overnight, when your main customers’ business starts to slow down.
If any one of your customers represent more than 10% of your annual turnover, then you need to be aware and start to hedge your bets, whilst still planning to grow with those existing customers.
You need to spark up the marketing engine and get yourself a market diversification strategy in order that you can effectively promote your capabilities to new potential customers.
Although it sometimes happens by accident, market diversification comes in many guises – the key points to recognise:
- It requires a plan
- It requires investment in marketing
- It requires an offering that is better than the local competition
- It requires you to continue to focus on doing what you do best
Your marketing process needs to have the capability to generate sufficient new enquiries of the right type – so don’t adopt the scatter gun approach and end up with busy fool syndrome – focus on one aligned market sector and segment where your capabilities are really valued.
