Part I: Keys to Successful Growth and Sales Strategies

We had an opportunity to catch up with NAWBO member Kimble Bosworth, President and COO of Proforma Printelligence, a print and promotional company that helps clients attract new customers. Kimble was honored recently as Woman Business Owner of the Year at the 2015 Celebrating Women awards. She shares her best advice for entrepreneurs such as creating your own advisory counsel and fun ways to engage with customers—it’s not all work and no play!

You’ve had an amazing year. What are the keys to your successful growth?

“We were so fortunate to be a part of the Catalyst program, which started in August of last year. During the class portion of the program, Michael Burcham really challenged participants to rebuild their business from the ground up. Every two weeks focused on a different building block of a successful business model. The first three months of the program, we saw our sales almost double. It was such a hard process, but so worth it.”

The key things we had to do differently:

  • Set aside time to work on the business, not in the business.
  • Really identify strengths—capitalize on them.
  • Really identify weaknesses—address those.
  • Identify your ideal customer—and don’t be afraid to let go of the ones who aren’t.
  • Delegate—whether or not you are a control freak.
  • Spend time training instead of fixing the mistakes.
  • Spend more money on employees than you think you have.
  • Don’t make stupid mistakes just because you are too stubborn or too uncomfortable to make changes.
  • Hire professionals to do the things you’re no good at. Even when you think you don’t have the money.

Tell me about your sales strategy and why it’s important to share it with others.  

“We have two separate components to our growth strategy—marketing and sales. When we first started our business, we had very little marketing capital and were forced to bootstrap our marketing efforts. We created a social media strategy that brings customers to us at no cost. It involves a 13-week process of becoming a part of that company’s social media sphere of influence. We engage with them in a non–salesy way and prove our value to the point where they reach out to us an ask us to work with them.

As our business grew, we got creative with our sales efforts also. We did not have the resources to hire a sales team; so we reached out to the businesses that were engaged with our potential customers before they needed us—designers, ad agencies and creative consultants. We pay them referral fees to send the newly branded customers to us for their branded merchandise. We have become an enhancement to their services and a revenue stream. We also loop them back in to those customers when new design or creative services are needed. These agency partners are our sales team. And we are their ‘sourcing’ department. This coopetition works well for both partners.

What I soon realized is that both of these strategies also work for other industries. That’s why I share it with others. I remember the pain of not having the resources to grow this business as fast as possible and the frustration of not being able to get the word out about what we do. It means a lot to me that sharing this best practice can help even a few people can avoid that pain.”

Next week – Kimble’s Advice for keeping customers actively engaged and future book plans!

This interview was conducted and written by our talented NAWBO member, Julie Lilliston, of Julie Lilliston Communications