Six Ways to Tell if You’re Getting Your Money’s Worth:

Despite many experts who insist that “Sales and Marketing are different,” why aren’t they just as accountable as Finance is for accurate results and Production is for working products? When good products and services are well marketed and sold smart, profitable growth happens. But when they are not, it’s a disaster.  For example:

• A distributor negligently promises to sell a manufacturer’s new product line to her current buyers without learning that different employees at the customer make these decisions
• A manufacturer says that his research shows buyers consumers want new improved products. Their outside rep company agrees to get paid on commission and invests months of selling only to learn that the research was never done.
• An ad agency develops a campaign to reposition a services firm based on bad historical sales data only to have it flop and fight to get paid.

Despite “everyone’s” best efforts, why do 95% of new products and services fail, and why do so few manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and services firms feel that their sales and marketing arms got their job done?

When was success impossible and when is a sales and marketing leader deficient? How and when can a business leader know that their sales and marketing leadership simply didn’t do the job or even try? Here are six key responsibilities any P & L leader should demand are completed and done well.

1. Understand, agree on and communicate your firm’s Best and Highest Use and product/service features, benefits and advantages. Provide your firm’s Best and Highest Use to your partner in writing and demand they do the same for you
2. Define, quantify and target a niche of buyers assuming reasonable market penetration of a sizable, addressable market. Expect and confirm you can identify at least 100 prospects for each buyer you must close.
3. Devise a simple growth strategy reflecting a clear understanding of your buyer’s behavior. Ensure you agree on exactly who your buyers are and the simple process you know they will follow to buy from you.
4. Develop and execute thoughtful, practical and cost-effective sales and marketing tactics. Have measurable programs for finding, keeping and growing your customers.
5. Build and your through a practical budget and timeframe for implementation by accountable individuals. Budget and adhere to hard costs of finding, keeping and growing your customers.
6. Stay disciplined to capture and analyze feedback of your results. No program ever goes as planned, but failure to respond to market feedback equals failure.

Will taking these steps ensure that your sales and marketing programs work for you and your partner?  No, but if these steps aren’t taken, its failure was a function of negligence in addition to incompetence. Need help telling the difference between negligence and a good effort that can be fixed? Contact me at 412-973-2080 or at abirol@andybirol.com  for more of my help.

Looking back, it’s been a great privilege to help you grow by over $400 million and I look forward to continuing to do so. Being recognized as an asset to Northeast Ohio’s economy was a great honor and I hope that you will reach out to me whenever you and your business needs my specialty of empowering optimism and helping you and your business discover and leverage your Best and Highest Use®.

My role as a catalyst for many NEO business owners to develop the courage and conviction to invest in themselves has been my life’s work. I have profoundly enjoyed helping stalwart business leaders see past their limitations and grasp and commit to opportunities to take their businesses to the next level. While there are many organizations and associations I have helped lead, my biggest contribution has been working directly with the business owner to accomplish their ends, rather than by joining organizations to create the means for economic development.  By taking this contrarian approach and investing hundreds of pro bono hours annually, I was able to have a direct effect on many small businesses that I could not have had by working “within the system.”  As the number of business owners I helped grew, my work was recognized by all of Cleveland’s mainstream business media and organizations that focus on small business.

My biggest challenge was continually finding the strength and conviction to help these businesses take responsibility for their own success despite extreme economic pressure to do the opposite.  While thousands of businesses went bankrupt, I fought with and for scores of firms that survived and are contributing taxes, employment and hope to a region reeling from economic decline.

If I have one parting wish for Northeast Ohio, it would be that it rejects its reliance on traditional practices, leaders and ideas for solving the insidious challenges it faces and engages new methods, voices and solutions quickly.

If you run or work with a small business, how many times have you said or heard the phrase, “We all wear several hats” to explain how work gets done? In these times, everyone is working harder and doing more with less. But in this ADD world of constant distractions, when are multiple hats more of a burden than a blessing?

Why Must We Wear So Many Hats?  It will always be a challenge for a small business to get all its work done. Staffing up to run sales, production and the office in turbulent times often means sharing work. Today’s organizations may be leaner and flatter, but all the technology, systems and controls have created the need for many specialists whose unique skills are only needed on a part-time basis. So, sales staffs take on marketing responsibilities, software specialists manage hardware and the back office also serves as the front office. So, when is it an excuse and when is this fair?

Wearing multiple hats in a small business works when staff is proactively dealing with tasks and challenges. For example, if people know whose part-time task it is to communicate with customers before there is a problem or evacuate the building before there is a fire, multiple jobs are fine. Also, if multiple hats give a company the ability to focus on root causes, that’s fine. An example of this would be a cross-functional task force, assembled to reduce the reasons mistakes are made.

Wearing multiple hats is an excuse when staff is called upon randomly or by “who has time” to reactively solve a recurring problem.  If your people are pulled out of their office jobs to make deliveries whenever sales people exceed quota, this would be an example of poor planning. Also, if part of someone’s job is to regularly redo the work of another, this is dealing with a symptom rather than the root cause of someone else’s poor performance.

Three things to do to make sure multiple hats work:

1. Make sure people clearly understand the outcomes you expect. The mark of any good small business employee is their embracing of the goals of the business. If they are not working toward selling, delivering, developing or protecting the business, then why not?
2. Staff must be personally accountable for their actions. Small businesses cannot provide direct supervision of anyone. The best staff works under general supervision and manages themselves.
3. Any small business needs to ensure it is structured to implement its tactics. For example, if the firm wants to meet the unique needs of different customer segments it best not be organized regionally. Too often small business stays organized to implement old tactics despite claiming it is pursuing new opportunities.

Small business will always wear and lament they wear too many hats. Make sure the multiple hats are helping more than they are hurting.

If it’s painful watching another small business struggle as the economy rebounds. It’s torture if it’s yours.

Why won’t your customers buy from you when they are increasing their spending with others?

When will they realize that imitating your value, products or services “in-house” is penny wise and pound foolish?

The economy may be recovering but not in the same way as in the past. Most of the buyers I’ve interviewed for my clients are buying again but with new criteria. Instead of reverting to their old ways they are pursuing total cost of any solution. And if they believe they can do it themselves, they will. So instead of fighting against the tide, why not accommodate your buyers and get them to pay you for doing so?

Here are three ways:

1. Provide a Do It Yourself (DIY) Option.
   

   Some of your customers have more time than money. Help them "DIY."

   Now, more than ever, there is segment of customers who have more time than money. They want to do all the work themselves. They want to accept all the burden of learning and doing by trial and error.

   QuickBooks Software is an excellent example of this. For less than $200 a business can keep its own accounting. What can you offer in your business that allows a customer to do it all?

   One suggestion: Offer an entry-level service or product. Let your customers adopt your product or service in its simplest form. Then you can graduate them to a more robust version where they will need your help.

2. Offer a Do It With Me (DIWM) Option.
   If a customer really wants to do it themselves but can’t, they might be interested in your guidance as they produce your product or service. If you can teach someone to fish and feed themself, make it a money maker for you.One example is a Jo-Ann Fabrics sewing class. After purchasing a dress pattern, you can have a teacher guide you and your project, reducing errors on your road to success.One sign that your prospect may want the DIWM option is if they have an equal amount of money and time to invest in working with you. Don’t offer them your entry level DIY service here, but clearly one for those who are ready for slightly more. But save your advanced expertise for the next option.
3. Always offer the DIFM (Do It For Me) Option.
   While DIFM is not as popular now as when credit was free-flowing, many businesses will once again realize that they should refocus on their Best and Highest Use® and leave everything else to experts. When customers realize that they have less time than money, they will outsource tasks to vendors whose clear value justifies spending the extra cash.An example of this would be how most firms still outsource all their transactional HR needs like payroll, drug testing and 401(K) reporting.Always keep this option open because as the economy improves there will be buyers that have more opportunities to outsource work sooner than others.

So here are your three ways to help your customers to spend money with you:

• DIY (Do it Yourself)
• DIWM (Do it With Me)
• DIFM (Do it For Me)

While, it will always be tough to run or watch a business lagging behind in profitable growth, now you have one more tool to offer to a prospect who respects your value.

So when are you going to start DIY, DIWM or DIFM in your business?

While you know how your company creates profitable growth, do others?

In spite of all your meetings, strategic planning efforts and company mission statements, are you sure your constituents get how your firm makes money?

Are all your internal departments making, spending and saving money towards the same goal? If not, many inside and outside your company may be squandering your resources or working at cross purposes.

Here are the 10 ways to tell if your company’s plan profitable growth is a secret. 

Is your growth plan a secret? Asks small business growth expert Andy Birol

1. Few of your management team and none of your employees understand your company’s business model or know how your business makes money.
   When asked, they revert to talking about how long you’ve been in business as proof that legacy means current success.
2. Your customers do not know why you cost more than the competition.
   After you explain all the disadvantages of buying competitors don’t provide, your customers still don’t acknowledge your added value.
3. Even you’re not sure what it costs you to find, keep or grow customers.
   In response to such questions, you find yourself dieseling, much like a jalopy that continues to sputter after the key is out of the ignition.
4. When asked by a reporter which market segments offer your firm the best opportunities for future growth, you don’t answer them, not because it’s a secret but because you aren’t sure.
5. Your sales force blames your high prices for not hitting their sales quotas while they brag about the excellent service they provide.
6. Your compensation plan doesn’t reward your executives for achieving your company’s profitable growth.
   Instead of planning to spend their bonus on a trip to Hawaii, you find out they’re booking a weekend in Topeka and not taking their kids.
7. One of your vendors suggests that if you dropped your prices you could sell a lot more of your products and thus buy more from her.
   Clearly they don’t see the value your firm is adding to what they are supplying you.
8. Your closest friends give you bad or unprofitable referrals.
   At a recent get-together, your friend tells you about meeting three of your most desirable prospects. But he didn’t think you would want to pursue selling them.
9. Your spouse cannot explain why your company is the premium provider.
   When asked by her or his friends to describe why your firm is so expensive, she or he turns to you to explain it correctly. And when you encourage her to do it alone, you constantly interrupt her to correct his or her mistakes.
10. The reasons your customers say they buy from you do not match the reasons your sales force says sells your customers.
    As the old saying goes, people don’t buy shovels, they buy holes. Sadly, you worry your customers are asking for premium swimming pools and your sales reps are selling low-cost excavations.

While stories of disconnected companies can be hilarious, they are not funny when they are about yours. When your plan for profitable growth is clear to your team, their actions are more likely to contribute to your objectives.

Convey how your company will achieve profitable growth and make sure everyone around you understands.

Andy Birol’s business consulting and coaching services can help your business find more profitable and rapid growth. Real, sustained growth occurs when you apply your Best and Highest Use^® (BHU) and your company’s BHU to resolve pain or create opportunities for your customers.

Whether you run a large, closely held corporation, a shop with 25 employees, or a one-person company, Andy Birol will maximize your company’s potential.

• Option 1: REFINE – Observe, Assess and Refine Your Top Line Growth Plan
  1. You have a sales plan but aren’t certain it will succeed as you predicted through the recession
  2. You have products or services that aren’t selling enough to meet your forecast
  3. Your customers aren’t rebounding quickly or buying the way you expected as the economy improves
     (read more)
• Option 2: RECHARGE – Research, Refocus and Recharge Your Organization’s Growth Strategy
  1. You have a sales or marketing plan that has stopped working or is no longer generating the profits you expected
  2. You have products or services that no longer attract your customers or are not going to grow even if the economy rebounds
  3. Your customers are increasing their purchasing but not from your firm or your previous investments
  4. You are confident your team can implement a new growth plan if you and they believe in it
     (read more)
• Option 3: REGROUP – Triage, Reinvent, Reposition Your Organization and its New Growth Strategy
  
  1. Your organization is disconnecting from your target markets as its currently structured
  2. our customers are not only buying from your competitors, but are embracing different solutions from suppliers you didn’t see as competitors
  3. Your core value proposition is not getting traction and you know that left alone, your organization cannot discover, develop and implement a new strategy it needs for profitable growth
     (read more)
• Rapid Response Retainer
  You and your business are facing conditions no one has seen or predicted before. Customer demands (and receivables) are erratic but ever more costly. Your banks cannot run themselves but continue to make irrational demands on your business. Your employees are fearful of losing their jobs more than they are eager to hit your business goals. And your vendors are demonstrating all of this erratic behavior and losing your confidence in the process. RRR provides you with three months of unlimited email, phone call and fax coaching with Andy Birol. (read more)
  
• One-Day Company Diagnosis & Assessment
  Consider Andy’s One-Day Company Diagnosis and Assessment where Andy comes to your company and interviews your key executives and data in the morning to gain a better understanding of your challenges and
  opportunities. Together in the afternoon, you design a course of action to create or increase your Profitable Top Line Growth. You can expect Andy to review. (readmore)
• BGC Growth Assessment
  During this recession, have you wondered why some companies are flourishing and others are closing their doors? Why some entrepreneurs are overcoming this down economy and their future seems bright while others are floundering and remain helpless? (read more)
  
• Business Owners’ Roundtables
  Andy will customize a special event you can sponsor for your peers where he facilitates a discussion on timely business topics. (readmore)
• Sponsored Events
  Bring Andy Birol to your location to present his business growth strategies and education to your clients, potential customers or team. (read more)
• Speaking/Presentations
  Andy can customize one of hiscurrent presentations to meet your audiences’ needs. (read more)

Andy Birol is an author and a keynote speaker, but also he is an entrepreneurial growth consultant, helping owners
grow their businesses through his consulting and coaching services.

Call Andy Birol – get the consulting, coaching, or strategic marketing assistance your business needs today!

Before the financial crisis, most businesses could coast along and rely on their credit lines to make up for shortfalls in sales.

“Good” customers could be subsidized and customers who didn’t pay or went under could be ignored by just borrowing more cash. For the firm, slumping quarterly revenues and rising expenses could be carried forward by financial wizardry and leveraging a balance sheet.

While the lessons of doing business without credit and cutting expenses to the bone have been learned, how can one grow a business back to where it was and forward after the financial crisis? Without fads like buyouts, rollups and ESOPs, an owner, financier or organization should return to the oldest source of creating growth in the book. Sell more products and services and do so at a profit.

Why Profitable Growth Now? by Andy Birol

Profitable sales means focusing on:

• Higher gross margins from differentiating your value and de-commoditizing your products and services profitably
• Knowing that every sale you make is profitable by customer, order item or services
• Managing your balance sheet for liquidity instead of credit where the biggest assets are customers’ predictable purchases.
• Creating a wealthy company that can be sold for cash and secure the lifestyle of its owners now and later.

Profitable Growth is not a fad, or just a program to get by in the short term, but a way thinking about your business, investment or organization. It starts with knowing who is paying you for what value and continuously working to repeat this. It is a pay-as-you-go approach to growing your business that reduces dependence on borrowing money, and increases the wealth of a company and the security of its owners and all who rely on it.

Whether your business has major growth or returning to growth in its plans, this blog will focus on the tools, techniques and real-world examples for creating Profitable Growth!