6 months to expand your business

Here is an idea starter for you and your business. Each week, just read one idea.  There are 26 ideas so it will take you six months.  

Allow yourself to experience one of two things:

1. Let you mind ask, “How could we implement this idea in our company and industry?”

2. Let you mind use that weeks idea as a launch pad for a completely different idea that would work in your company.  Allow day dreaming or additional questions to think of new things.

Sales:

1. ·         Add sales force.  Hire more sales or marketing people.
2. ·         Reduce sales force.  Sometimes getting rid of people who are not performing inspires everyone else to do more.
3. ·         Launch new locations.  Can you duplicate what you are doing somewhere else?  Across town? In a different state? In a different country?
4. ·         Re-inspire the troops with a conference or training.  If people are your greatest asset, when is the last time you invested in them to keep them growing in skills and camaraderie?
5. ·         Increase your price.  If you could increase your price by 1% and not lose business, how much would that add to your bottom line?
6. ·         Decrease your price.  Retail companies do this every Christmas.  They offer a sale price for a set period of time to bring in more business.
7. ·         Bundle your offering with another product or another companies offering.  Can you add something else you offer or that someone else offers in attract more business?  For instance, one restaurant bundles appetizers, a main course and a dessert for a low price of $20.
8. ·         Bundle your offering with a service or another companies service.  Instead of adding more products, can your team or the team of another company add something that makes your product more valuable and desired?
9. ·         Systemize what your top performers do and use that to train the bottom 80% of the sales force.  Basically you are franchising your top sales force.  Your 80%ers will sell harder because they believe if they do what the top people do, then they will get what the top people get.  Their right!
10. ·         Engage a sales consultant or sales coach.  Invest in someone from the outside who can give you a fresh look at the strengths and weaknesses of your team and sale process'.

Marketing:

1. ·         Create a Social Media Marketing plan.  If you don't have one you are already behind.
2. ·         Create a short video.  If you go to: http://www.finishlinefloors.com/floor-finishing-ultra-durable-floor-finish.html .  After viewing it, go to:  http://www.finishlinefloors.com/floor-finishing-tile-grout-restoration.html.  You will see an example of two 90 second videos that have brought us business.  Since I systemized the general flow it made it just as easy to make two as it was to make one.
3. ·         Update your website.  It's just not that expensive anymore.
4. ·         Update your reference letters and testimonials.  Do not let six months go by without a new reference letter.  Potential customers are more impressed with a current letter than one dated two years ago.
5. ·         Hire a marketing firm.   It's just amazing what professionals can do for your business.  Don't feel like you have to do it all yourself.  And especially don't believe you can do it better than the pros.
6. ·         Write industry articles in your industry magazine.  If you want people contacting you by word of mouth, this is a great way to get it done. 
7. ·         Speak at industry conferences.  If you write articles, you are asked to speak at conferences.

Business Strategy

1. ·         Engage a business consultant or coaching program for executive team.  Same thing, don't assume you know everything or that you should know everything.  Consider fresh insight from the outside.
2. ·         Systemize repetitive processes.  Pretend you are going to franchise your business.  Write the process manuals.  This will help you recruit and train talent faster and position you to either franchise or open more locations.
3. ·         Know your financial numbers.  It's amazing how living on a budget can reduce unnecessary overhead.
4. ·         Franchise.  Not all business's can or should franchise but maybe your business can. 

                                  

Operations

1. ·         Systemize it.  I once helped a custom commercial art company systematize their systems.  If they can do it, you can do it.  It will dramatically help you control operations.
2. ·         Remove bottle necks in your process’.  Do some work flow analysis and figure out where your bottlenecks are.  My guess is you probably already know where they are.  So either remove it or add the resourced needed to open the flow.
3. ·         Remove dead weight employees.  People are people.  Just like the sales force, when you remove dead weight, the others are inspired to work hard.
4. ·         Reduce overhead.  Know the difference between luxury and functionality;  wants verses needs.
5. ·         Increase output.  As long as sales are there, what can you do to increase the output of your operations?  If sales are not there, what increase in operations create an added value to your offering?

Although any of us could just read through the list, which is what you just did, go back and meditate on one a week.  Even if you only apply one a month your business will look different by the end of the six month session.

5 Steps to Geographically Expand Your Business in 2012

Would you like to launch another office or expand your business to an other location when the market is down?

Some say, "NO" because they don't have cash flow now and are struggling to make it in this economy.

Some say, "YES" because they have a profitable model that is replicatable and have funds to invest.  They think, when everyone is scared that is the time to expand and grow.

If the latter is you, then here are the simple steps we learned the hard way on expanding our B2B company into other markets.



1. Find a sales person/force that is highly skilled at opening accounts.

That is different than a farming sales person who can maintain accounts.  This sales force must know how to cold call accounts, quickly process incoming leads from any social media campaigns you have done, and will willing to look for opportunities anywhere.

2. Send your best operations people to the new city to fulfill initial orders.

The worst thing to do is to give mediocre order fulfillment to jobs you are starting.  You want jobs done right so you can leverage referrals and get a positive word-of-mouth going about your company.

3. Hire operations people in the new city and have them mentored by the operations people from step 2.

Get quality people hired, trained and working for you.

4. Hire sales force and have them mentored by the launch team of step 1. 

The launch team knows the accounts they created and are best at coaching the local new hired sales reps the in's and out's of those accounts.

5.  Provide training on farming the accounts that are going while still working to get new accounts.

One of the best training systems we used was Strategic Selling by Heiman and Miller. They will learn how to establish themselves in a large account with strong multiple contacts.

EVERYTHING should be documented in procedures. Before we wrote procedures for our operations people it took 3 months to train them. Now- 2 weeks. In writing procedures I highly recommend Michael Gerbers book E-Myth Mastery.

Business Growth: THE #1 Differentiator

How can you differentiate yourself in a highly competitive field?  What if you are selling the exact same service?  What can you do to grow your business in tough times where the only differentiator seems to be price?

          Here is the first of three ways to make your company objectively different than your competitors.  Contrary to what manufacturers want you to believe these are also in highest impact order. 

Superior Sales Systems

          You may have the latest and most innovative system but without sales you have idle equipment in your warehouse.  Most companies focus on getting the newest gadget and fail to enhance the highest priority differentiator in any industry-sales systems.

          Many great inventions have gone with their inventors to the grave because they were not brought to the market.  Don’t let this happen to your company.  Focus on increasing your sales and marketing skills and systems.  Focus on creating actual sales systems that are better than your competition.  Then, even if you cannot afford the greatest new extractor or piece of equipment, you can beat you competitor.

          I own rental properties and have one where the weeds are getting out of control.  I went to the internet and found four companies that told me they were “The Best.”  I entered my information in their “Contact us” field and asked for someone to contact me so I could get that yard taken care of. 

• Company A called me within 10 minutes of my sending the request.
• Company B called me the next day
• Companies C and D never contacted me.

 

Company A got my business because not only did they call me right away, the sale person answered all my questions, set my expectations, and closed the deal on the first call.  The other three companies did not have a chance.  Who knows.  Maybe company B, C, or D have more efficient machines, more green chemicals, or better customer service.  They might have what they think is a competitive advantage but without superior sales force they have nothing.

Next time I will share with you what your second best differentiator is.