Every successful business has good times and bad. Cycles.
How do you handle the heat?
I like some element of heat. I work in the heat frequently. But the cool down is where the value then pays dividends.
I am referring to heat, challenges, frustrations, hard times in your business.
Revenue increase but profit decrease? Higher sales volumes but little cash in the bank? Full order book but can’t get delivery or service done? Team members, suppliers, equipment, …
How do you handle it when you have growing sales but can’t seem to get the profit to follow? In fact what’s up if profit stays stubbornly low even when revenue increases?
What do you do when you repeatedly lose valuable members of your team? You feel like you spend time recruiting people but the team has no more help because headcount stays the same. The team is still stretched, too busy, cutting corners to get work done.
When customers call to say delivery is late. There are errors. Delivery happened but no-one followed up … they were “dumped”. To say things are not going the way they intended … what actions do you take? What if you don’t know how to solve it, need more time in your collective lives!
When your production line breaks at the very moment it was working well or you were rushing to produce a big order …
We have all seen and felt this kind of pain.
These are all signs of a growing company or a business in need of some love.
Time to turn it around.
If you recognize events are not favourable and you want to improve, you are already half way to a solution!
The recognition and decision to act is the hard part!
There is improvement and growth available. A chance for you to be better, get to the next level, deliver something to fill the demand. Truly perform well.
BUT you have to take action. NOTHING will change if you keep doing the same thing.
I have heard a client many times say “I believed it was a phase, would fix itself.” It did not for them, and it is likely to be the same for you. For many it will only get worse.
IT WILL NOT IMPROVE WITHOUT YOUR HELP. You have to do something different.
Get ideas from someone else. Try a new technique. Stop something you are doing and start something new. Reach out to us for help. An action.
CONSCIOUS ACTION.
Even when you feel the situation is really bad it is likely that something good can still come of it. You can turn it around if you want to.
I have never had a client go out of business, although some came very close.
Step one is to deal with the immediate problem.
Then think positive – start to take advantage of the challenges presented. Use it to your advantage.
Get better. Stronger. More successful.
Start by exploring WHY the spark, or fire, has arisen and what actually came BEFORE it.
Something that appears to have gone wrong is seldom a sudden event, there is a sequence of small events or circumstances before. If you collect those, like a trail of breadcrumbs, you will identify the exact action you can take to get better.
You want to address the source of the problem. Not only the symptoms.
Diagnose everything that goes into making your sale – from prospecting for clients, to successful delivery, the payment is in the bank, the client has supplied a reference or evaluation after a service well done. Include all internal tasks, organization, administration, even reporting and management.
What does each one cost?
How much time is spent on each task and can you streamline anything? Can you make it easier for your team to manage? To keep track? To prioritize and wow the customer?
Are you charging for the actual value the client receives? Are any costing you more than you can sell for?
Ask current and past team members what they would recommend you improve.
What did you do AFTER you corrected the problem the customer reported? What did you learn? What changed? Did you improve the process, make it easier for everyone to deliver a fantastic experience, to enhance communication?
♦️ Thrill that same, or the next, customer.
♦️ Determine which product or service is not as profitable as it should be, and take action.
♦️ Create a culture, process, or program to help your people.
Make them even more convinced your business is the best place to work in the future;
♦️ and in the process convince customers never to go anywhere else.
The heat is the challenge, and mental stimulation, of changing, of getting better, of accepting that nothing should stay the same forever.
The heat is accepting that you must sell your product and services at true value.
