Imagine you’ve been running your service-based business for some time.

You have your customers, a structure up and running and you are already making some money because people like your service.

Where do you go from there?

This was exactly the question I asked myself and my co-founder. We had been running division5 for 4 years. Everything was stable, we had our recurring customers and we were able to provide a good service.

We hit a ceiling though. We were not able to grow beyond that, we simply did not know how.

That was the point where we started seeking new partnerships.

Partnerships as a growth means.

Partnerships were the first way that came to my mind regarding growing my business. We wanted to go in new markets and the best way to do that is through a partner which is local to that market.

Here are a few reasons why :

• Local partners have access to connections and people you would otherwise not have.
• Local partners speak the native language and are culturally similar to your potential customers.
• It’s easier to create trust if someone local would vouch for you.
• Local partners can help you with your pricing strategy as they know the market better than you do.

In our case, we struck a deal with Pirate.

They not only had a great brand in Germany, they had been also running one of the coolest business conferences in Europe creating a vast network of entrepreneurs and companies.

The problem with partnerships though is that you don’t really know how it’s going to go. In the best case scenario, everything would go as intended but there are many reasons why the partnership would fail.

Here are a few :

• Mismatch in values between the companies / shareholders.
• Misalignment in expectations.
• Communication problems between partners.

So as with every long-term decision, think carefully. In our case, we took our time to fine-tune our agreement, a few months actually. In the end, I am happy with the deal we did and how everything transpired.

Partnerships though take control away from you. Your growth depends on a third party. So I would heavily suggest you don’t keep it as your only means of growth.

Networking, networking, networking.

Yup, that’s right, in the B2B world networking is almost everything.

We tend to think that businesses deal with other businesses but in reality, it’s people who deal with other people.

In many cases, the decision on who to deal with is based on who you know or / and who you like.

Sounds unfair but it’s human nature.

So who you know plays a huge difference.  Everyone needs to network and this comes from someone was not a good networker.

When I first started, I was anxious to talking to people. I think for some people it comes naturally while for many others, it’s a skill to be learned.

So if networking does not come naturally for you either, don’t despair. See it as a skill. To get better at it, you need to practice it more. Show up in events. Talk to new people. Do this for some time and you will soon start seeing the results.

I eventually got better and if I could do that, so can you. 

Networking is great, it really is, it takes a long time though to start seeing results. So while opposed to partnerships, you have more control, it won’t lead to growth. You need marketing / sales processes in place to achieve that.

Marketing & Sales

When people hear marketing magic comes to mind.

It’s the classic word people use for many different things but few really know the meaning.

I like to see marketing as the process that gets people at your door. 

How you do that can vary. Some people go and knock from door to door spreading the word. Other people do some posts on social media. Many companies run ads on TV. The sole purpose of marketing is getting people interested in your service.

Sales on the other hand, is the process that gets people in the building. 

The sole purpose of sales is getting people to sign the contract and become a customer.

If you want to control growth, you need to create effective marketing campaigns that reach many people and have an effective sales process that converts them into customers.

Back in the day, this usually meant paying for expensive ads on TV. With the advent of social media, it’s much much easier to reach many people and get them interested in your service.

Here are a few marketing techniques that we follow at division5 that any service-based business can follow :

• Outreach via email or social media. 
• Content marketing
• Webinars
• SEO 

We have been seeing the best results through our outreach via social media but every business is different. You just gotta try what works for you. That’s also what we are doing.

As soon as you find something that works, do that more. Eventually, you will be able to control the growth.

No silver bullet

That’s right, there is no silver bullet.

If you want to expand in new markets, the best way is through partnerships. If you want to control the growth, you do that through implementing marketing and sales processes.

Either way, in B2B you need to learn how to network and spend quite some time doing that. What works for someone else does not mean it will work for you to.

Be curious, keep trying new things until you figure out what works for you.