Bill The Builder

Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category

The present economy certainly creates some unique challenges. From budget cuts to changing attitudes of customers. OUTSTANDING businesses must adapt to the changing times, trends and best practices.

In every economy there are four catalysts that leading businesses understand. They have never changed and never will. Some of the world’s most OUTSTANDING business leaders took advantage of these catalysts in tough times to launch their businesses. Some Icons that remain include Hyatt, Burger King and FedEx.

Burger King, with its flame-broiled burgers, is an OUTSTANDING recession startup. The company began in 1954 when James McLamore and David Edgerton opened a Burger King restaurant in Miami, Fla. During yet another recession in 1957, the company introduced its signature burger, the Whopper. Today Burger King is OUTSTANDING in 65 countries.

Hyatt opened its first hotel’s doors at Los Angeles International Airport during the Eisenhower recession. The chain rose to worldwide fame in the following decades and now operates more than 365 hotels in 25 countries.

FedEx began operations on April 17, 1973 as Federal Express. Founder Frederick W. Smith had hoped to get a contract with the Federal Reserve, when he didn’t he set and ambitious goal and challenged his team. The company delivered 186 packages to 25 cities on its first night of operations and now manages more than 7.5 million shipments everyday worldwide.

All three of these companies capitalize on the 4 momentum catalysts we will explore here.

Efficiency

The key to sustainable profitability is lean productive operations. One of the biggest roadblocks to sustainable business momentum is wasted effort. Systems support good habits and good habits make us consistently effective. When you have discovered activities that produce results it is critical that you implement systems and processes that accommodate those activities.

We recently discovered a niche group with a need for our keynote and event services. To our surprise these groups proved highly profitable. Unfortunately we had not made effort to reach these groups. We immediately began brainstorming ways to connect with them and began the process of building this group into our marketing campaigns. Reaching these groups required no greater effort, just differently focused effort.

I often hear people say, “marketing doesn’t work.” This usually means they aren’t using effective methods or are not focused in their efforts. I may be aggressively growing my network and contact list by thousands. But if my efforts are not targeted I may never see much ROI. In example, imagine I am in the business of low glycemic snacks. My list of thousands of contacts contains 40 percent between the ages of 18 and 28; these are clearly not my target audience. Effort is being made. The right efforts are being made. But when results aren’t produced we assume the system is broken.

Here are three efforts that will sharpen your efforts and improve your results.

Sharpen your skills.

Make sure you know how to use your software and resources. The better you know your tools and resources the more you can accomplish in less time. Familiarity with tools and resources reduces errors and makes you appear more polished when dealing with customers as well.

Prioritize and schedule your day’s activities by priority.

A good rule is to identify your “in stone” appointments first thing. These would include scheduled meetings, conference calls, client appointments or any event that is planned. Once you have identified those, determine which ones need preparation and how much time is needed to prepare; plan preparation into the day’s calendar. One last tip is to plan for known necessary duties. You know you will have email to tend to, so plan for it. A great plan for me has been as follows:

1. At the start of the day I check my inbox

• Make quick responses if possible (I follow a 30 second rule)
• Delete obvious spam and update my spam filters and rules to reduce it in the future. (avoid spending too much time on the spam control, but it is worth a little effort)
• Mark or flag important emails for immediate attention
• Move any mail you can to appropriate folders for organization and latter review

 

2. I watch my incoming mail notifications throughout the day. Be wary against non-productive interruptions.

3. I spend a few minutes on email at lunch time.

4. I do a mid-afternoon sweep of email to keep it under control

5. Before ending the day I clean up email with the following:

• Forward anything I can to another responsible party
• Deal with any 30 second responses
• Organize messages into appropriate folders where possible
• Determine if new rules and auto responses can handle some of my email and set those rules when practical.
• Consider forwarding qualified emails to a remote email for after hour response when possible.

 Prioritize, plan and polish your efforts every day to stay on the cutting edge.

 Innovation

FedEx is known for its commitment to efficiency and performance. Innovation is the key to staying on the cutting edge. By constantly analyzing our efforts and improving ensures we stay fresh and productive. Innovation is also a great way to stay relevant and trustworthy for our client base. I hold monthly meetings with my team and accountability partners to address 3 questions that keep us relevant and sharp.

 Are there new or better resources or tools that might help improve our customer relations, productivity or profit margin? These may be improved tools, lower cost tools or simply trends that position us as cutting edge when used.

 Are there processes that are unneeded or not returning a higher return than investment? Trimming the fat is critical in this economy. Trimming the fat may mean reducing the effort, eliminating the effort or refocusing the effort.

 What new information or ideas should be explored? I make note of new ideas, problems or observations made that might prove of interest to our business. Exploring these gives us the opportunity to innovate and lies to rest the bad ideas.

 Marketing

It is absolutely critical that we do the marketing regardless of the economy. It is equally important that we use the best and most practical techniques. I have noticed a revival of social networking across every business group. This is in part due to social media, but the reality is that when times are tough buyers are tougher. Customers want to know who they are doing business with. Networking gives us the opportunity to see, hear and touch. When done right networking allows you to connect with lots of people and be seen by even more. When I go to networking events I hand out full color mini brochures instead of business cards. They are information packed and interesting. I have observed others showing my little brochure to others in the group. I have had people approach me to ask for one.

The bottom line in marketing is impression. Make as many impressions as you can and the more impressive the impression he greater the results.

 Engagement

Perhaps the greatest weakness shared by the majority of business professionals is follow-up. We connect with people and then fail to follow-up with them. I know from experience, dropped balls and failure to follow-up is the single greatest deficit in any marketing strategy.

 Here are three ways to follow up and profitize your relationships.

 Add value

Once you have made a connection or have someone’s contact information immediately start making them glad they know you. Share your secrets, tips and tricks that will prove valuable to them. One of the greatest ways to create value for another business is to give referrals and leads. However, to do this you need to know and trust the provider you are referring.

 Inform

Make sure every contact knows everything they need to know to do business with you. What services do you offer? How are they provided? What payment options exist? Who else do you do business with? Why should any of this matter to your new contact? How can they contact you?

 Understand

This is a powerful follow-up technique. Send an email asking questions about the new contact’s business. Let them tell you about themselves. Read reviews and find out who they do business with. Ask yourself, why should all of this matter to me?

If you immediately start sharpening your momentum catalyst you will quickly start standing out.

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Today’s business culture is changing. According to Smallbiztrends 25% of business startups fail within the first year. More than 50% fail within the first 5 years and only 29% remain in business after 10 years.

So what do these numbers mean for you as a business owner or leader? These numbers mean that in order for your business to succeed you will need cutting edge support and guidance that will make you OUTSTANDING. Buzz words, trends and fads aren’t going to take your business to the next level. charlesspeaks.com has observed the top performing 29% of start-ups over the last two decades to identify the qualities of OUTSTANDING businesses. 

 Here are the top 4 qualities of thriving businesses:

 Innovative

These businesses live on the edge. They are using best business practices sitting on ready for any improvements and willing to try new things. They watch trends to identify the evolution of mainstream. At some point every trend becomes nostalgic or mainstream. Innovative businesses know how to identify the trends that will survive early enough to capitalize on them. Having an effective yet flexible project management methodology in place is critical in today’s culture of rapid change.

Relevant

Remaining relevant in these times requires the quality of innovation. In these changing times what was relevant yesterday is not always relevant tomorrow. OUTSTANDING businesses are constantly evolving to better meet customer needs and expectations. Relevant businesses listen to there customers and watch their competitors attentively. They know how to capitalize on trends whether they become mainstream or not.

 Efficient

OUTSTANDING business are there, they are approachable and follow-through on their commitments. In times when customers are more demanding and competition is fierce it is critical that you have access to the tools and resources needed to do business well and turn on a dime when trends demand. Your marketing, customer relations, processes and products or services need to scream that you understand the first two qualities covered here. If your business card is dated so is your service. Outstanding businesses can’t afford to use dated techniques, strategies or tools. Moving at the speed of innovation requires efficient processes and solutions.

 Outstanding

They are doing the marketing to promote themselves and they aren’t afraid to sell. They are networking and touching people. They have a well defined brand and they build it through creative marketing and social interaction. The top survivors are seen in the public; they are involved in the community and have a hero or celebrity status.

Bill The Builder helps you build on these qualities through branding and marketing efforts that are proven to create celebrity status and profits. Bill will help you develop an OUTSTANDING brand profile, winning customer profile and product and services resources that will cause customers to perceive you as a celebrity they can know and love.

 Bill helps entrepreneurs and established business leaders make themselves and their business more attractive so customers want to do business with you.

 http://www.charlesspeaks.com

charles@charlesspeaks.com

937-935-6789

443 North Main Street Suite 101

West Mansfield, Oh 43358 

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