Tuesday 16 March 2010

I Am The Problem

7 symptoms your business may be aware of - but has not got around to letting you in on the secret.

1. Micromanagement
You have stopped trusting the team. You are spending so much time micro-managing details that:
  • Your team now resent your continuous interference, And:
  • You have stopped working on the business improvement projects that only you can deliver.
2. Knee Jerk Changes to the Offer
Sales slump and you are making changes to your firm's offer without pausing to speak to:
  • Customers (new, existing, lapsed) or to
  • People who enquire but do not buy.
3. Cost Focus
Instead of assessing value and returns on spend, your focus is on cutting costs - regardless of the implications. Typical areas to explore are:
  • Advertising spend vs Lead generation
  • Staff down-time vs Staff training
4. Sales Failures
Your obsession with detailed problems and issues has caused the entire firm to lose confidence - which leads in turn to further sales losses as prospects fail to be enthused by meetings, telephone calls or emails that feel negative.

5. Marketing Fairground
You sample every shiny new marketing gimmick - but without thought and without considering how long it might take to make a real difference. You are jumping on each initiative that is appealing but failing to be consistent in anything.

6. No Customer Insight
Your prospect understanding is either non-existent or was compiled in a different economic environment.

7. Fad Focus
Business improvement has declined to the point where you have engaged every freelance you know to work on their specialism in your business - for just long enough to not quite deliver any improvement:
  • Teamwork
  • Coaching
  • Board mentoring
How many of the sad 7 are you guilty of?
1-2 - It is not too late - you need to start
working on your business instead of in it.
3-5 - You need help - and you need to find support that you wi
ll engage for at least 3 months whilst you stabilise the business
6-7 - It may be too late, but you need to act now to ensure that you start the recovery process before the financial symptoms start to dominate your thinking.

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