Everyone including myself is out there trying to get their business in front of more people. Social media, direct mail, all these help us get our brand and company out there in front of our potential customers, but sometimes getting more exposure may not always be beneficial for your business. Here are some reasons why it may harm your business:

1. Strain on resources

I believe that this issue affects small businesses more than larger ones because of our resource constraint. A lot of business owners only have so many hours a day, and hiring new staff involves lots of time to train and also a committment to actually provide an income to them even though your business may not be stable. If you are planning to run a major campaign, make sure you organise your resources beforehand so you can meet the demand and retain more happy customers.

2. Wasting too much time qualifying

This is especially true for service based business or businesses with high customisation of products. Usually these types of products or services attracts a long qualification process before a sale is made. Activities such as preparing quotes, educating customers and meeting and speaking with potential customers can take up a lot of a business's time without any guarantee of a sale. Running an ad that is not targeted may result in many customers walking through your door that may not buy, but waste a lot of time going through the sales process. To counteract this make sure your ads ask for a specific type of customer, or you find ways to automate your qualification process through a online form, before you even pick up a phone.

3. Standards fall

I've seen some great business go downhill because the exposure has caused them to be more complacent, or simply their staff cannot give the same level of service or quality due to having more customers than they used to at the same period of time. Most important thing to remember is your unique selling point, don't lose it once you get more demand and more customers. You'll need to prioritise what standards are kept and make this clear to your staff if you suddenly get an influx of demand. 

Too many sales can be something that can be quite challenging for a small growing businesses but there are steps you can take to make sure that this is reduced. I'd love to hear any experiences you've had with this and how you overcame it in the comments section below!