Revenue Generation: Critical to Your Business's Success

There are many factors that can contribute to the success or failure of a business. A crucial one is revenue generation. Last month we touched on Five Business Dangers. The two that affect a business’s revenue are marketing and sales. We will dedicate this month’s topic to making distinctions between your Marketing and Sales efforts. It’s especially important that your company defines the role that its marketing and sales efforts need to play. For most companies, a mix of marketing and sales will be important. Depending on the product (or service) a company offers, a well-written product information or description may be all that is needed to generate a sale/transaction – think about the first iPhone and the long lines of willing buyers waiting to get their hands on one.

It is also important to think about KPIs (key performance indicators) for your marketing and sales efforts. People and positions also play a significant role and clarity for these is critical in driving success with your KPIs. Here are a few thoughts to help you define your marketing and/or sales:

1. How are leads or opportunities created and by who or which department?
2. How much support is needed to sell what you offer? Think Customer Service or Sales, or even something like Sales Engineer (a salesperson with engineering expertise)
3. Is what you offer acquired transactionally (no or little help needed)?
4. Is what you offer best supported through establishing a relationship? Think recurring revenue, professional service, repeat customer, referrals, etc.
5. For either marketing and/or sales, what processes (steps) have you put into place?

Are the answers to the above questions unclear? If so, your team will be challenged to enhance your revenue performance.

Read more on our website!

Your Gateway to Performance Improvement and Business Success

If you’re feeling some pressure to address the success of your business, don’t wait – it doesn’t take more than a brief phone call…

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their needs. He can help you examine the health of your business and find critical areas which once addressed will result in performance improvement for your business.

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David through the website. Your life is waiting.

Performance Improvement: The Roles of Marketing & Sales

It’s common for salespeople to be responsible for their own lead generation. This being said, it’s not unusual for marketing to be charged with generating leads – web leads, phone calls, etc. It can be extremely helpful to think about the KPIs for marketing and/or sales and to define the leading and lagging ones for each or both areas – leading ones are precursors to lagging ones, that often entail top- or bottom-line results. An example of lagging KPIs is revenue that has been received by your accounting department.

For another company it may be sales revenue that is ‘booked’ through a PO (Purchase Order). Marketing efforts may often be gauged by the number of web leads, phone calls, or responses to a vanity phone number in the call to action of a given marketing offer.

Building or enhancing your revenue performance will depend on how well you define your marketing and/or sales process and efforts with established KPIs. Next will be the execution of each area (think strategy and tactics). To get into the specifics of your business’s marketing and/or sales efforts, we’ll need to rely on your candid assessment. Is it time to take stock to figure out where success or the lack of it is coming from?

In subsequent months we will examine, separately and in depth, Marketing, Sales, and each of the other Five Business Dangers. We will also provide a free assessment tool that will highlight specific gaps within the Five Business Dangers.

Read more on our website!

Your Gateway to Performance Improvement and Business Success

If you’re feeling some pressure to address the success of your business, don’t wait – it doesn’t take more than a brief phone call…

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their needs. He can help you examine the health of your business and find critical areas which once addressed will result in performance improvement for your business.

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David through the website. Your life is waiting.

Your Path to Performance Improvement Starts with the Five Business Dangers Assessment

Did you know that in the first 5 years, approximately 50% of new businesses are at risk of failure (according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)?

With 600,000 new businesses starting each year in the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that only about one third of them will exist by year 10. 

If your business has made it past year 10, congratulations! You must be getting more right than wrong. Whether your business is in start-up mode, first stage growth, second stage growth or at a sustainable stage, the five business dangers are areas to keep your eye on as you strive to keep your business successful and profitable.

Want to go in depth about the Five Business Dangers and take our free assessment?

Learn more on our website!

Your Gateway to Performance Improvement and Business Success 

If you’re feeling some pressure to address the success of your business, don’t wait – it doesn’t take more than a brief phone call… 

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their needs. He can help you examine the health of your business and find critical areas which once addressed will result in performance improvement for your business. 

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David. Your life is waiting!

5 Business Dangers to Avoid to Ensure a Successful Growing Business

There are many factors that can contribute to the success or failure of a business. Your business needs to be nurtured and supported, in some ways no differently than your health and well-being. Our health, something that we are born with, can be improved, maintained, and under certain conditions lost. There is no guarantee that early health will hold on its own and therefore we tend to support it and feed it, often through sleep, nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices. A business is no different – it needs to be fed. So, how do we do that with success in mind?

Over the coming months, we will dedicate content to examining Five Business Dangers that if left unchecked will lead to the early failure rates:

1. Leadership
2. Human Capital
3. Marketing
4. Sales
5. Financial

Business success and performance improvement depend on the execution of each of these. To get into the specifics of your business we’ll need to rely on your candid assessment. Without going into details, how well is your business being supported or fed in each these five areas? Is it time to take stock to figure out where success or the lack of it is coming from?

Read more on our website!

Your Gateway to Performance Improvement and Business Success 

If you’re feeling some pressure to address the success of your business, don’t wait – it doesn’t take more than a brief phone call… 

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their needs. He can help you examine the health of your business and find critical areas which once addressed will result in performance improvement for your business. 

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David. Your life is waiting!

Ready to Retire? Read This First!

 

Have you thought of everything before retiring?

Are you and your staff prepared for a successful transition?

At a minimum, make sure you’re financially ready to leave. A thorough assessment of how your exit will affect your personal financial situation is critical. What will your primary source of income be? How about a secondary nest egg; for example, the equity you get out of the business? Will you be able to support the lifestyle you want?

There is much to consider before you’re truly ready to leave, including issues you may not have considered yet, like: 

• Are you prepared to accept that your sweat equity makes your business seem more valuable to you than it does to others?
• Are the buyer’s expectations aligned with yours?
• If you decide to stay on in a less involved role after selling, will you be able to give up control of your company? How will you feel watching others make decisions you would have made differently? 
• If you stay on in a part-time role, are you comfortable working a limited schedule? 
• Will you be happy walking away?

Tip: Take an extended vacation as a trial run before making any decisions. 

Read more on our website!

Give yourself time to plan

It may take some time to work out the best business transition plan for you and your company. Start early so you have time to figure out exactly what you want to achieve. Take time to personalize your plan to suit your future needs. This is your life, after all!

Start with a phone call 

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their needs. He can help you prepare to transition into this next phase of your life, whether you’re moving on to another business or planning to enjoy a leisurely retirement. 

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David through the website. Your life is waiting!

The Off Ramp for Your Business: Succession Planning

If your strategic plan is the GPS to your business, a business transition plan is the off ramp. The strategic plan got you here; but where you go from here is up to you. 

Your transition out of your business can be as short or long as you decide, but it will be a smoother if you set a timeline and have a destination in sight. Even better, plan who will be taking over, what their responsibilities will be, and when the transition will occur. If you have employees, their financial security may depend on keeping the business running as usual during the transition. 

What’s your destination?

And finally, what about you? You can’t just blindly leap into the future. You’ve taken care of or planned for everyone else — don’t forget to plan your own next steps. 

Leaving your company may feel more difficult than you anticipate. Make your plans early to ease your own transition when the end is in sight. Think about the kind of exit you want to make. Which way will you go? What will you choose to do?

You put a lot of yourself into building your company. Plan your transition to the next phase of your life with equal care and thought.

Read more on our website!

Give yourself time to plan

It may take some time to work out the best business transition plan for you and your company. Start early so you have time to figure out exactly what you want to achieve. Take time to personalize your plan to suit your future needs. This is your life, after all!

Start with a phone call

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their needs. He can help you prepare to transition into this next phase of your life, whether you’re moving on to another business or planning to enjoy a leisurely retirement.

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David through the website. Your life is waiting!

How Do You Include the Unknown in Your Strategic Plan?

While you can’t plan for every surprise, different situations carry different risks for different businesses:

• What if someone else has to carry on for you du e to a personal emergency?
• If your family situation changes, does your business involvement need to change too?
• What if your landlord decides to change the purpose of the property and ends your lease?
• What about an economic downturn?
• How will your business respond to a natural disaster like a building fire or tornado?

Your plans might differ based on whether the event is internal or external, involves a change in management, or immediately affects the safety or economic stability of your employees. You might focus on safety, restoring critical resources or operations, or the chain of command for recovery operations.

Being prepared is critical to your success

Knowing what to do during an emergency, and who will do it, can help minimize the impact on your business and employees. David can guide you through the process of completing a business impact analysis and developing a continuity plan to manage disruptions to your business. The hope is that you’ll never have to use it, but wouldn’t you rather be prepared?

Read the full article on our website to learn more!

Start Business Transition Planning: It’s as Easy as a Phone Call!

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their business needs, identify areas of improvement to support those needs, and lead their business to its greatest potential. He can help you plan for the future of your company with business transition planning in Ann Arbor and the surrounding area.

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David. In today’s world, you need to be ready for anything.