Morning Session 1: Growing Your Business
Critical strategies to increase sales, profitability and business value
Sponsored by Shepherd & Goldstein LLP
Increased sales, profitability and business value is of course the dream of most business owners. But wishing for it or trying some of the latest new management fad techniques for a short time don’t get them any closer. It takes having a concrete business plan, a very specific strategy and action plan, and lots of discipline.
This session will include time-tested strategies, a collection of guidance and recommendations from some of business’ most critical thinkers, actual business development consultation experiences of the speaker with small to medium-sized and family-owned businesses highlighting successes and failures, checklists and other handouts to assist in implementing some of the strategies and action items discussed during the session, with an interactive background of ongoing question and answers throughout the session between the speaker, guest consultant(s) and the audience.
The Plan
• Review the importance of having a written plan. Make sure it is short, concise and a workable document, no more than two pages. Save the 100-page-plus document for when you write your first novel.
• Learn the critical question that needs to be answered before any planning begins.
• Go through the mechanics of a SWOT analysis: identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and learn what to do with them and how they are part of the plan.
• Understand the importance of time – there are no quick fixes!
• Know the causes of business plan implementation failures. Then don’t do them!
• Leading change – the eight steps to transforming your organization.
Developing a team
• The customer is No. 2. Is this against all that you have read and learned? Learn the reasons some business owners put the team No. 1 – the importance of happy and smiling employees.
• Learn the five things that need to be in place to build a strong team culture. Hint: one of them is having a plan.
• Bringing FUN into the workplace.
• Review the process of getting team buy-in and commitment. If the front line doesn’t get it, you’re fighting a losing battle.
• A frank and quick team member job evaluation. Low-hanging fruit for quick and immediate improvement to help lead the charge of providing better customer service.
• Facilitating a team advisory board. How to conduct, questions to ask, and what to look for.
• Training, empowerment, communication and continuous improvement mentality. The new standards that every business needs to follow for continued success.
Building a customer-centric business with maximum value
• Assess where your present service level stands using a questionnaire that addresses: general customer orientation, management style and culture, and customer service systems and procedures.
• Determine your customer’s needs by running a customer advisory board to find out first-hand what they like and don’t like. How to conduct, whom to invite, letters of invitation, questions to ask and what to look for.
• Setting up performance standards. Getting team involvement.
• Identifying the moments of truth. What are they? And why are they important?
• Breaking down walls. Managing your business through the eyes of your customer.
• Perceived indifference: The importance of this service aspect over and above price and quality. How getting this wrong can cause you your greatest loss of repeat and referral customers. The 19-point checklist – a guide to corrective action.
• The importance of internal customer-serving processes and systems.
• Customer and/or product profit analysis – Pareto’s Principal.
• Firing clients … but doing it nicely. Why it’s necessary, a sample letter and an opportunity for profit.
Differentiating your business
• Brainstorming your unique core differentiator. What “specialness” compels people to buy from you? What can be done to differentiate your offering from everyone else?
• Sustaining competitive advantage. Review the three ways businesses’ compete in the marketplace and which is the better long-term strategy.
• How the use of packaging, educating and value-adding makes a difference.
• Guarantees – a sales opportunity! How an effective guarantee or warranty can help win new customers and cement existing customer relationships.
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