Three Things Your Business Must Do
As the saying goes, "If you keep doing the same things over and over again, you likely will get the same results." Usually that means stagnant or no growth or worse. In my decades as a consultant, here are the three things that most businesses who fit that decription or who are starts-ups, small or mid-sized must do to change their results and grow revenues and profits.
I. Develop a Strategic Marketing Plan
Seems simple enough and certainly makes sense; however, moststart-ups and small and mid-sized businesses don't do it. That is just wrong. Accidental growth results in less revenues and profits than does planned growth. And a cohesive marketing plan built with sales help to achieve measurable results is a necessary step for growth. I am frequently surprised and frustrated by those who 1) don't do a plan or 2) don't build it correctly. So, here is how a plan is created.
Think of your plan as a pyramid where at the top is your objective. The one thing you want your business to achieve. Key to Success: It needs to be a number that can be measured in revenues. Some do a percentage that is measurable in relationship to last year's sales, revenues or profits. I do not recommend this, as we want real growth, not a percentage growth that can look impressive but can be a result of discounting and might actually be negative growth in terms of revenues and profits.
Next, create measurable goals. I recommend no more than three and no fewer than two. Again, the goals should be numbers as represented by 1) revenues, 2) profits and 3) new business. If you are going to have only two goals, you want them to be measured by revenues and profits, and most of your top and bottom lines should come from your current customers. (For most B2C businesses, at least 80 percent of revenue should represent value-added or up-selling sales to current customers. For B2B businesses that percentage can range from zero--common for small and start-up businesses--to 80 percent or more--common with manufacturers, software developers who license their products and suppliers and other established businesses.) The reason most business should derive from current customers is that the cost and time to deliver new customers is prohibitive to growth. Key to Success: Goals are analyzed every quarter to ensure you are on pace to achieve the objective. Check out Seth Godin's The thing about goals.
Third, comes your strategies. The strategies are designed to achieve the goals and while the goals should not change during the life of the plan, a strategy might. When we review the goals, if we find we aren't on pace to achieve the objective, we might discover it is because of a strategy. Key to Success: Usually, that isn't the case but we need to ensure that a strategy isn't at fault.
Finally, we choose the tactics to achieve each strategy. Tactics are tools such as those within social media, social networking and traditional tools such as PR, advertising, direct marketing, inbound marketing and so. Key to Success: The tools must be chosen for success but also to fit within our budget. When a business finds that the goes are not on pace to achieve its objective, usually the tactics are at fault.
II. Create Great Customer Experiences
No marketing plan, no matter how expertly created, will achieve the objective if your customers aren't happy, and satisfied customers don't fit that description. We must exceed customers' wants and needs, which results in exceeding their expectations. Key to Success:To do so, we must know what customers' wants and needs are, and we must be sure we have accurate information. That means customer research, which can be accomplished through a mix of qualitative and quantitative market research, using traditional tools such as surveys and focus groups. I also recommend you engage customers in real conversation and listening, using social media and social networking. Go where your customers are and talk with them. Create vibrant communities and listen.
III. Do It!
That's right--DO IT! Last week, I read a business owner's comment on someone's blog that essentially said he was tired of all the talk he hears on blogs and Twitter. He wonders if any of us have jobs or clients. He made a good point. Therefore, I resolve to share more success stories about my clients this year (with their permission). Additionally, if you read my last post, Do It Now! Create the Big Ideas in '09, you know that I have some big plans for '09 that I hope to share soon.
So, do the first two points above, don't think about doing them, do them. And I commit to you that I will share stories about real businesses using the strategies you read about here, which will be written by me and by guest bloggers, of whom we will have a number this year.
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