Proven programs that grow great businesses for great people who care.
Stakeholders can be useful to you but can go wild as well. Photo by cone_dnm
Stakeholders: can’t live without them and sometimes can’t live with them.
They are customers, providers, allies, employees, colleagues, the government, the media, competitors, influencers and many, many others. After reviewing a stakeholder map example that had 105 entries, I came up with at least 50 more. [Read more…]
Partner or Strategic Business Alliance? Photo by Giorgio Montersino.
Get a partner or set up a strategic alliance — which is better for your business growth? Many business owners want a “partner” to share the load. Partners exert a lot of control no matter how little of the business they own. Use a strategic alliance instead to grow your business and keep more control.
“If we are together, nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.” Winston Churchill
In 2005, companies reported that 18% of their revenue was generated through strategic alliances. The economy has changed but there are still thousands of alliances formed each year and are critical as we re-think business post COVID-19.
According to Ard-Pieter de Man and Dave Luvison, authors of Collaborative Business Models: Aligning and Operationalizing Alliances (from Business Horizons Volume 62, Issue 4, July–August 2019, Pages 473-482), “the big challenge is to align company interests with alliance interests”. This peer-reviewed article is definitely worth reading and thinking about especially for larger organizations.
It pays to know more and think more before deciding that a strategic alliance is right for you.
CEO Jan Triplett talks to owners about sales value.
There are good, better and best sales. You may have thought all sales are equal.They’re not if you are trying to build a successful business that is sustainable, profitable and transferable.
Sales people (even if it’s the owner) need to concentrate on finding and getting sales that add the most value to the business. This requires a sales process that doesn’t just look at the dollars coming in from this sale. It also can’t include only the costs — money going out, time to get and manage the sale, profit level, and any “hassle” factors.
The value of each sale must also be measured by:
Sales commission, bonus, and career advancement should be based on the salesperson’s ability to bring in good sales and to prevent spending time and effort on bad sales.
I have seen it written that 50% of all sales leads are not followed up. That sounds bad. What I don’t know, because they don’t say, is how many weren’t followed up on purpose. Maybe they were right!
Choose sales opportunities at your own risk. Choose wisely and succeed. Choose poorly and there are long term consequences.
Don’t go after every sale equally. Evaluate and prioritize those new leads, upselling opportunities, or repeat sales in terms of those with the highest value.
Also, make sure your sales process gives you and your salespeople a way to quickly identify bad sales opportunities that should not be pursued or only under restricted circumstances.
The less the sales value, the more likely it’s a bad deal or at least should not be given the same time, effort and resources.
In the end, it’s the quality of each sale, not the quantity of sales that matter.
Here’s to your success!
What motivates business owners? It depends on where they are in the owners’ hierarchy of needs.
You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”. He identified how a person’s needs dominate motivation and behavior and that there is a specific order in which they should be met.
His theory suggested that the basic needs (physiological, safety, love and belonging) had to be met before the individual will desire and pursue higher levels of needs (esteem, self actualization, and self transcendence).
If a need is not met, the individual will feel tense and anxious. Although people may have several needs at any time, one will dominate their actions. [Read more…]
Measure sales carefully to be profitable.
Your sales projection formula is key to more accurate financial projections and to the success of your business.
Sales projection formulas are always wrong. Here are six ways to improve them.
Positive Conflict™ requires thinking outside the box. Illustration by Mamadob.
Conflict is valuable in the workplace. In fact, it’s actually good for business.
You might not have thought of it as being positive but it can be when people use care with each other and stakeholders. They also have to put something like the BSC’s Fight Fair™ strategy in place.
I just had the opportunity to spend two days working with the staff of an Inc 5000 company on improving their communication. This is a high quality small business but staff members and the owner wanted to make sure they were dealing effectively with the internal and external conflicts that come up in every business. [Read more…]