This is for areas beyond online lead generation where you are looking for a long-term solution to leveraging every aspect of your business. This 12-Month system is unlike busines coaching or business consulting in that it focuses on Technology, Kaizen, and Pressure. That’s pressure I put on you. It’s all about Executing Innovation and it works.
Is it time to Execute Innovation?
Innovation is a hot buzz word. Business articles and blogs are awash with the importance of innovation. At the epicenter of this babble about innovation is Apple computer.
What they fail to talk about what Apple excels at … EXECUTION.
I don’t care how cool and innovative a product is … if it doesn’t work it’s worthless.
What matters is EXECUTION.
Execution is vitally important for small business … for us it really is do or die. Sometimes you’ll even hear me suggest we need to follow the Ready, FIRE, Aim approach. Why? Because doing something is almost always better than waiting till next week… Or next month… Or next quarter.
Let me explain this from an engineering perspective (I’m a mechanical engineer by training). Every business wants to sell more, make more and grow, grow, grow. They almost always get obsessed with over-sized and over-simplified solutions like an INNOVATIVE marketing strategy (it’s all about social networking marketing) or they think they need INNOVATIVE products (we need a salt-less softener solution, EasyWater is eating our lunch).
There is a much simpler and smarter way to get results. Make small, targeted improvements and keep getting better. Improve a small amount in several key areas. For example if you improve lead generation by 5% it would make a slight difference. If you improve closing percentages by 5% it will help a little bit. If you improve mark up by 5% it makes things a bit more profitable. If you cut expenses by 5% you’ll have a little bit more in the bank.
This constant improvement is what the Japanese call Kaizen. It’s also one of the reasons that you will rarely see a Japanese automaker come out with a TRULY innovative design concept… Instead they focus on just getting better and better and better. One small piece at a time. (If you want to hear the story about where they learned how to do that back when GM had 90% market-share that will absolutely BLOW your mind, ask me next time you see me. I got it straight from the GM executive who traveled to Japan in the 70’s with the same question.)
Now in your business, what if you did ALL of these things?
If you had 100 leads and sold 50 water softeners last year for $1500.00 each you generated gross sales of $75,000.00 with 20% profit of $300 per unit or $15,000 in your pocket.
5% improvement means you make $750 more net profit … or does it.
If you improved leads 5% you have 105 leads.
AND If you improved closing 5% you would sell 55 water softeners.
AND If you increased selling price by 5% your softener would sell for 1,575 each.
AND if you increase profit margins by 5% you would make 315 per unit.
You gross $86,625 … net $18,191 … that’s $3,191 extra!
Those minor 5% tweaks resulted in an increase in Gross income of 15.5% and Net income of over 21%!
One key to this is having the technology and systems in place to track the crucial numbers in your business.
For most businesses your most important system is your Marketing System. Making incremental improvements in marketing performance through better execution is what I specialize in. If you’re not sure where to start or what I even mean by a “Marketing System”, check out my series of blogs on the topic. It’s well worth the read.
Even though I’m an online marketing ninja now, my dealerships would have never survived if we put all our eggs into one basket so I had to learn how to market in all areas first. Those blogs are the lessons I learned through that process … Innovation through execution.
Your Marketing System is just one example…
The 12-Month Tune-up was developed to look at all sides of the Business Triangle:
- Sales/Marketing
- Service/Operations
- Finance/Administration
And then through the use of Kaizen, constant Pressure, and Technology improve each area with one weekly, digestible, bite at a time.
To massive Success in the next 12 Months,
Bryan
P.S. Here’s what one of my Culligan dealer clients said:
“In 2010 we were flat. Our net gain was ZERO. We signed up with Coach “T” at the end of the year and now at the close of 2011 we have grown our customer base by over 5% and increased our monthly recurring revenue by over 10%. That several thousand more dollars EVERY SINGLE MONTH! We paid for Bryan’s services before the year was even half over. Thanks Coach!”
