Increase your market share

Every business needs to think about getting the most out of its marketplace. If you're not increasing turnover every year, your business is shrinking in real terms.

Many businesses simply try to pick up extra sales wherever they can. While this opportunistic approach can be effective in the early days, it is unlikely to sustain longer-term growth.

There are several strategic options you can pursue to get the most out of your marketplace such as:

• selling more to existing customers
• focusing your customer service and marketing efforts on retaining customers
• expanding your customer base to include similar people who are not currently customers
• selling through new channels or into new markets
• using your core competences to create new products or services

This guide describes methods you can consider to increase your market share and how to plan, manage and monitor the growth.