Systems and Procedures

Many businesses fall into the trap of failing to deliver effectively because they are inconsistent in some element of their business. When any process involves more than a couple of steps, most people “train” the person to perform the task and then monitor performance (although some do not even monitor performance).

They could improve performance substantially, for a very small change, by documenting the steps in a work instruction or procedure.

• These are not enormous sterile documents created in a language that only the author understands.
• They are simple check lists or step by step instructions that the person performing the task, once trained properly, can use to make sure that nothing gets missed and nothing is inconsistent.

Better still, display them so that everybody can easily refer to them and follow the steps.

Authority

At a local Chamber of Commerce meeting recently, a solicitor was making an excellent point. The thing that really struck me was the measured and carefully paced presentation. He made sure that we all regarded him as The Authority on that topic. It made me think about my own presentation style and the way my confidence and authority affect the people I am dealing with.

Who would you rather deal with if you were choosing an "expert":

• The person who mumbles and fails to make eye-contact whilst they are speaking?
• The confident individual who answers your questions succinctly and without ambiguity?

Do you make sure that your style of speaking to prospects fills them with confidence?

A warning: Do not ever over-sell or misrepresent yourself - that is the path to poor reputation and unhappiness.

Management Discipline

Many business owners have had successful careers in Corporate life. They are attracted to the freedom which comes from being in control of their own destiny. Sadly, too many take this to the extreme of ignoring all the good practice that they learnt in their Corporate past. They start to regard some of these disciplines as "only necessary for the Corporate Slaves".

The bad news:
Most Corporate review processes are part of the sensible disciplines of running a business.

The good news:
It is easy to create your own review process. All you need is a schedule of times when you review (and ACT upon) the information you should be gathering already in your business. The following list will get you started:

• Cash flow: Creditors; Debtors; Forecast;
• Sales: Forecast; Review plans;
• Marketing: Leads; Campaign effectiveness
• Price
• Operations: Delivery quality; On time; Customer feedback

Learn to ignore trivia

It is so easy to get bogged down with trivia - both in life and in business. When you find yourself spending huge amounts of time on topics that make little difference to your business success, you need to evaluate them in accordance with some simple tests:

• Will this matter in 12 months time?
• Will my business suffer if I fail to sort this out now?
• Will my ability to win new customers be damaged if I fail to sort this out in the next week or so?
• Should somebody else fix this - if only I would let them?

If all else fails, try changing your approach to problems - or read a smashing little book:

• Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... and it's all small stuff, Hyperion, ISBN 0-7868-8185-2

Seek and You Shall Find

Sat in your office waiting for the telephone to ring?

Or, out and about regularly, meeting people, networking and looking for opportunities?

Guess which option is most likely to lead to growth?

Too many businesses have decided that the economy is against them and that their sales will fall. Those companies have declining sales. Others have re-set their proposition and come out fighting. Some of these more aggressive firms are having a great 2009. Others are standing still. Some might be having a worse year than 2008. But all of them are a lot better off than businesses who have done nothing.

Which are you?

Price is a weapon

I continually listen to business owners telling me that they are being beaten on price. The bad news is that when they lose on price, they may well have lost the sale at the start of the sales cycle - when they failed to sell the problem effectively to their prospect. If that was several months ago, then they and their sales team have just wasted several months.

Are your sales team guilty of filling in the lost business analysis sheets with:
"Lost to Competitor-Y on price" in almost every box?
Have you looked at your sales process and the way your team conduct their discovery meetings?

Remember, when you start reducing prices instead of selling value, you are on a slippery slope. You must understand the value points your customers look for and make sure that your sales process presents your value to your prospects correctly.