Business Development For Dummies

Chapter 18

Standing Tall To Get More Customers: Vertical Industries

In This Chapter

Benefitting by going vertical

Applying your knowledge to a vertical

Implementing vertical-specific campaigns

For most businesses, expansion is the name of the game. Whether your focus is a little more revenue every year, a path to a great exit by selling your company or you’re into world domination, growth matters. When a business grows, employees experience a thriving, dynamic and exciting environment; if a business is static or in decline, things feel turgid, because in essence business is a game and you play games to win.

I write a great deal in this book about how to attract, acquire, retain and leverage your customers, but business development involves much more than just the next customer, and then the next, and then the next… . For example, Chapter 17 describes approaches for a first, next, next strategy, where each successive customer you acquire builds on the last and things get easier.

In contrast, this chapter looks at growth from the point of view of verticals: the specific industries your customers are in and your value to their specific situations, given that industry context. I discuss ...