Only For The Bold

For those businesses that use the calendar year as their fiscal year, it is time to wrap your minds around your budget for the upcoming year.

Here is a challenge for you to chew on.  What would it take to double your revenue in 2014?

Now, if you say it can’t be done, then you’re right.  But, if you ask yourself “what would we have to do in order to double our business?”, then you are at least open to the possibility.

If you are going to double your revenue in 2014, determine your average annual revenue per customer.  You can attempt to double the number of customers you currently serve or double the annual revenue per customer or some combination thereof.  Some questions to ask yourself are:

a) how do I get more and better leads?

b) how do I improve our lead to customer conversion rate?

c) can we increase the number of transactions per customer?

d) can we increase the amount spent per customer transaction?

Here is a perspective that you can use in your planning activity:

1) Do more of some things

2) Do less of some things

3) Do some new things

4) Stop doing some things altogether

Let’s get started by looking at the top 20% of your client base.  Chances are that these customers account for 80% of your revenue.  Are there additional services or products that you currently offer that these customers would purchase from you?  If they are also focused upon growth, will the frequency of their purchases be increased?  Will they pay more for the existing products and services that they purchase from you?

Are there some customers that should receive fewer services from you?  Are there services that you provide for which you are not adequately reimbursed?

Who are the targeted companies that you should be approaching?  What new products or services can you add to your offering that are complementary to your current offering?  Is your current business plan in need of being revised?

Let’s go back to that 80/20 analysis of your customer base.  Which companies are candidates for pruning from your customer base?  Do you have any products or services that should likewise be expunged?

I’d encourage you to spend some time asking yourself how the business could be doubled rather than simply accepting that you can’t do it.  There will be smiles all around even if you only lift the business by 50%!

BIZBUZZ – PHIL KOTLER; MARKETING INSIGHTS FROM A TO Z

This is episode 5 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations that challenge business owners to consider new possibilities and to Act Boldly.  The following video highlights the comments from Phil Kotler that made the greatest impact on me in his book Marketing Insights from A to Z.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZBUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on Marketing Insights from A to Z, a book written by Phil Kotler, a well-known marketing expert.  Not surprisingly, the book deals with marketing material and it contains a number of amusing anecdotes.

I’ve got three insights that interest me.

The first is don’t limit your search for opportunities by starting with a consideration of your existing assets and resources.  Look outside your company for opportunities and then see if you have or can attract the needed resources and competencies to pursue the identified opportunities.

My next take-away is a quote from Phil Kotler.  He says the following: “don’t just talk about opportunities.  Success happens when preparation meets opportunity”.  Anyone who relies on good luck to be successful runs the risk of missing the boat.  Some time spent thinking about how to prepare would be time well spent.

My final comment deals with Kotler’s assertion that relationship marketing will determine the future value of the firm.  Relationship marketing has four characteristics, which are:

–    focus on customers and partners rather than products

–    put more emphasis on customer retention and growth rather than customer acquisition

–    use cross-functional teams rather than department level teams

–    rely more on listening and learning rather than talking

It seems that relationship marketing would likely increase the exposure to the opportunities that Kotler is encouraging us to seek.

That’s it for Marketing Insights from A to Z.

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZBUZZ.

Opportunity Awaits

The coming of the year-end brings to mind the annual rhetoric that surrounds New Year’s resolutions.  You know, …. I’m going to eat less, exercise more, do the things that I didn’t do last year and, oh yeah, be a better person.  I do know that the number of people who come out to exercise classes will go up in January.  Then in February, it will be back to the familiar committed faces.

As a business coach, I can’t help but equate personal resolutions to the goal setting process used in many businesses.  A New Year’s resolution speaks to me of an outcome (output) for an individual.  In the same way, a business entity identifies results that it wants to achieve in the upcoming year.  So, individual resolutions and corporate results can be likened to the outputs from some ‘work process’.

Within a business, the desired outputs (resolutions) are the key company results.  These are the outcome of the collective actions of everyone in the company, during the period in question.  The employees need to focus their attention on achieving the inputs (action steps) for which they are uniquely accountable.  The necessary action steps must be identified and completed in order to have any possibility of gaining the outputs.

A potential problem that frequently confronts the individual pertains to the resolution itself.  It might seem too daunting in the cold light of January.  We might already be thinking that we need to do some backtracking.  But first, lets ensure that our resolutions meet the SMART test.  That is, they have to be Specific, Measurable, Aligned with our values, Realistic and Time based.  If they are not, we should ask ourselves ‘am I really committed to these resolutions’?

With SMART resolutions now in place, our focus needs to shift to the identification of some number of intermediate steps.  These are the action steps needed to complete the resolution.  So, for example, I intend to exercise more frequently (resolution) but before I can do that I have a number of decisions and actions that need to be completed (for example – determine frequency, location and type of exercise).

When you’re thinking about your New Year’s resolutions this year, remember that action steps precede outputs.  If we only think in terms of outputs, then we are engaged in the activity of dreaming.  This might be enjoyable, but it is unlikely to produce the desired results.

Finally, keep things in perspective.  Make your resolutions and action steps SMART and remember that the objective of ‘eating an elephant is accomplished one bite at a time’.