Some business owners chase dreams without sufficient resources. There are examples where a business can improve its credibility superficially to get meetings with a large customer, and sometimes you hear stories of the business succeeding with a large order.
Unfortunately this is not the most common occurrence. To get orders there are benchmarks or rules of thumb on the resources needed not only to gain a customer, but to get repeat business.
For instance look at high street shops. Shops work on 3 key principles:
- They get lots of people walking past
- They get the right people walking past
- They have an attractive offer that entices people to walk in
If you are very specialist you may get away with a location that is a long way away from the centre of a city or a town, but in general, location is important to gain awareness and sales.
Whilst we do not all own shops - the shop and the location are resources. If you were a jeweller and wanted to attract the rich and famous then a location in central London, possibly Regent Street would be good.
Taking another example - if you want to tender for government work they will ask you to fill in a tender document for work of any size. The difficulty with this is that your business may be too small, or your track record to insignificant to even get an interview.
Can you improve your credibility artificially?
The short answer is no. However there are things that you can do right that make effective use of the resources at your disposal. In other words you match the resources to the best market opportunity available to you.
Plugging into your market is about focussing on key potential clients, working out what they need from you in terms of service, appearance, capability and your long term future. They must see you as a good bet and feel better about trading with you rather than someone else.
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