June 23, 2015 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As a business owner, do you want more, or do you want what you already have to be better? A savvy business owner, entrepreneur or manager will often go with the latter if they have to choose between the two. The better the quality of your marketing campaigns, leads, customers, your relationships with them, as well as your product itself, the better your results and reputation. You can stretch budgets farther, retain employees and customers more easily, and save a lot of time in the process.

Focusing on quality should be foundational for any business and extend from the design of the website to the latest product hitting the shelves. The quality vs. quantity debate can be relevant to every aspect of your business. Do you want to optimize your sales processes, marketing efforts, employee happiness and every other attribute of your business? Of course you do. Here are seven ways to focus on doing better instead of just doing more.

1. Supercharge sales with higher quality leads.

The quality of your customer data affects every subsequent step in your buyer funnel. It’s about more than just accuracy. Low quality leads waste your team’s time on research, data entry and chasing dead ends. High quality leads facilitate better reporting, automation and segmentation. LeadGenius is a solution that helps you consistently identify your best possible buyers and add high value data points to your existing customer records.

Related: Your Survival Depends on Following Up on Internet Leads -- Fast

2. Ensure all products/services are flawless.

One quality good or service is often worth at least 100 mediocre alternatives. Have you ever noticed that luxury boutiques have many fewer shelves than the big box stores? Not only do boutiques usually have higher quality, but they also have more loyal customers, higher sales points and are generally a much more reasonable venture for a startup or small business owner.

3. Don't take SEO shortcuts.

If you know about search engine optimization (SEO), you’ve probably heard about black hat tricks. These are illegal moves to falsely bolster the apparent popularity of a website, and they’re almost always a short-term hack until search engine algorithms catch them and penalize them. A common trick is duplicate content and/or duplicate sites. You might suppose having multiple sites with the same content can boost your SEO rankings, but it can ultimately be your undoing. Focus on one very high quality site instead of several lower quality ones.

Related: 4 Techniques for Earning Links to Your Site

4. Nurture relationships with premium employees.

Both superstar employees and mediocre ones may leave your company, but the loss of top employees could hurt much more. You know who your most talented workers are, so do what it takes to keep them long term. Offer workplace programs and benefits that show employees you respect their personal growth and long-term professional goals. This will help to ensure they don’t move on before you expect.

You must, of course, embrace both your most talented employees and those who have a lot of growing to do, but don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Spend the time and money that’s reasonable to avoid the disruption that comes from top talent departure.

5. Go with targeted marketing campaigns.

Be a sharpshooter with your marketing. It’s more effective to take the time to research, pinpoint and create a marketing campaign for an appropriate demographic rather than pay for thousands of inserts in the biggest newspaper in town. It’s the difference between hunting your prey in the wild and setting up for that perfect shot, or wildly shooting a machine gun into the woods.

6. Be wary of customer service automation.

Customer service (CS) automation is rarely the best choice, and that’s usually reserved for enterprises truly can’t offer good customer support in any other way. Instead of taking the easy route and letting callers get lost in a sea of pressing buttons, take the time to continuously train the best customer service representatives to get the job done right. Getting overwhelmed with calls? That’s a good sign that you should perhaps hire more CS agents, not dump everything into automation.

7. The danger of collecting social media fans.

Collecting likes is a perilous trap that doesn’t necessarily mean your business is doing well. If there are no comments and little engagement ,then you’re not connecting with your audience. If your page is a ghost town, what good are all those likes?

Focus on building relationships on social media, not a false sense of security. Quantity makes you feel good in the short term, but quality is where the magic happens. It’s the same in food, relationships and every other aspect of your life. What matters is the quality of your business and relationships. Focus on that and your business will naturally thrive from the inside out. It takes a little more time, but there are no real shortcuts when it comes to business success.

Related: With Social Media, Fakes Are a Real Problem for Your Business