Do I have your attention?...Good!
Overview
We tend to get lost in Corporate America with the ABC's of business. Our processes slow down the sale, we find ourselves wading through what we want to be successful, and lose focus on what got us to where we are as a company. We often lose sight of the big picture, take a defensive stance on our industry, and before long we are wondering why our sales have become slowed or stagnant. This blog post is designed to point out what I am seeing in both small businesses and billion dollar companies that I have been dealing with recently. As much as I would like to state extreme differences, both are suffering from the same ailments.
Defining the Drug Dealer
The drug dealer knows their client base. When their clients are ready to make a purchase, they are ready to transact the sale. The drug dealer knows their product, and more importantly, knows their competitors products. They are always looking to make their product better and expand their offering and reach. The drug dealer closes the sale, and is always in a position to close. Closing the sale always takes precedence, and they market their products at all times. Presentation being their key to capturing the sale, the drug dealer keeps their product in a manner that can be transacted at a moments notice to maintain and build their customer base.
The 3 P's...People, Process, Product
I didn't make these up. Actually, I am an avid fan of the CNBC show, "The Profit", starring Marcus Lemonis. I would encourage every business owner, manager, and even employee to pay very close attention to his teachings, as they are spot on for almost every industry. He constantly talks through the show about people, process, and product. As long as any business can work through issues in these three areas, they can be successful. Most businesses also fail because of one of these three areas as well. How would you rate your business in these three areas?
- Is your product (goods or services) viable within your industry and more specifically your market verticals?
- Do your current processes allow the transaction of your goods and services to happen seamlessly throughout production, sale, and shipment?
- Are your people the right people, and are they informed on the products or services? Are they tenacious and diligent throughout the sales process?
http://www.cnbcprime.com/the-profit/
People
The people portion of your business is the toughest area to hone and stay on top of, and let's be honest with each other, it is by far the part of business that can create the most pain. We see businesses moving in a direction where they are devaluing their staff, and causing most of their own headaches to happen. I met recently with some executives of a multi-billion dollar company to help them work through some issues they were having with client engagement, raising their average customer sale, and presentation. The following day, I found myself meeting with a friend of mine who is starting his own business. My advice was the same for both, which caught me off guard. We've allowed ourselves to get trapped by the CFO's and accountants, and focus so much on squeezing every last penny of profitability out of every item, that we've lost touch with ensuring our people are in a position of knowledge to create the value needed to capture the sale. In the case of the multi-billion dollar company, we found the sales associates had absolutely zero knowledge or ability to engage a client on their second most profitable product line, which was creating stagnancy within their sales numbers.
We also found that the environment was one where the "numbers" weren't being met and the key focus was solely on those numbers with absolutely no plan or training program to solve what they were characterizing as a people problem. Through a series of questions, we quickly realized that the true issue was not the people at all. The people were eager to learn and truly wanted to succeed. When they realized there was a commission in place to reward their successes, they realized their salaries could be increased by nearly 50% if the right processes were in place.
How do you get the right training in your sales department? Quite simple...Grant Cardone http://www.grantcardone.com/ . Is there a second choice? Only for the first loser. Is he expensive? Sure is. Is the ROI worth the investment? I wouldn't recommend him if it wasn't. Grant had a show on National Geographic called "Turnaround King", and is regularly seen on major networks as a consultant regarding sales processes. Get your people trained, ensure they have the tenacity and a commission schedule that will keep them driven. Have all of that already and aren't seeing success?...Fire them and have them take your sales manager with them. Sales is everything in business, and if the sales aren't being achieved, change must happen. If you aren't paying your sales staff a competitive wage, or worse assuming that sales reps should all make the same amount of money, as they hold hands, whistle and skip; then the failure is staring at you every morning in the mirror.
Processes
Processes by far are the toughest area to conquer in business. Do you have the right CRM? Is your staff using the tools and resources that are being provided? Processes are an area where most businesses struggle. I've seen companies that have an expectation that their entire staff utilize greater than 5 tools on a daily basis to provide key analytics to a management team that will then have a meeting to determine what meetings are necessary to make a determination on which processes need to be further implemented to provide further analytics for future meetings. Confused?...I am too. Bottom line on this, and please listen closely...If any staff member is using more than 5 programs to complete all of their tasks on any given day, the failure is in the management. You are using WAY too many programs in your business or have your staff multi-tasking way too much. Does the occasional use of Microsoft Word or Exel count? Not at all. However, if your staff is consistently bouncing between programs throughout their day, there is a great chance that your processes are broken. Secondly, your processes should be one that allows the transaction to complete smoothly first, as your client relationship depends on it. Bad processes lead to a staff that is sharing their internal frustrations with their clients externally, or are allowing the client to realize a lack of organization in your processes. The responsibility of management and ownership is to provide streamlined processes which will allow a smooth sales transaction both internally and externally. Ensure overlap isn't happening by using a program like https://zapier.com/ to tie your programs together. Not seeing your programs listed in Zapier? Great!...we just identified that you are probably using the wrong ones!
Lastly, are you using a marketing automation program to get the phones to ring? That's where we come in. We provide the marketing automation that ensures you are in a position to make the sale. We use HubSpot http://www.hubspot.com/ to take your business to the next level. Whether you are a small organization or large, we have the ability to ensure you are staying on top of your competition at all times. We'll tie all of your marketing automation together with the rest of your processes to ensure you are receiving timely reports regarding where your sales are coming from and how to increase your sales exponentially. Inbound Marketing by Kpahi. We'll show you how to reorganize your payroll to make sense of the program you need to make your sales grow.
Product
Products (Goods & Services) can be an interesting area to analyze. I've experienced companies with terrible products and great margins, due to having the right people and processes. I've seen companies with great products and processes, that have a toxic work environment due to employing the wrong people. Lastly, I've also seen great products fall by the waste side due to having the wrong processes in place to transact the sale.
I'll cut right to the chase on this area, as it is a broad area and very simple to explain. If you aren't making a net margin of 20% on a specific product, get rid of it or raise your prices. If the industry can't handle your retail costs, you are in the wrong industry, or your industry has fallen victim to the global economy. Don't compete with the foreign worker that is being paid 8% of the wages to create the same or similar product, rather find a different market vertical and go. If you have the right people and processes, the product will sell. If the product isn't selling, it's either the wrong product or one of the other two areas is failing.
If you don't know your margins, your processes are failing. A business should know their costs down to the penny on every item, which includes the payroll to take the product from transaction to shipment. If this isn't the case, fire your accountant and/or CFO. If they are reasoning their failures through lack of process, you should have never hired them. We often find that the accountants and CFO's are the driving force between lackluster results and stagnant sales, due to their overwhelming the work environment with garbage information. Bottom line is that your staff should never know the numbers, because it isn't their place to be accountable to the big picture, rather their piece of the pie. I often find that the lowest person on the totem pole is worried about numbers due to the failure of management making them available to them. This will inevitably allow that person to create an excuse for failure (which is what the failed CFO needs).
Do I think that all CFO's and accountants are failures? Not at all. They are a necessity for every business. Just be sure to put duct tape over their mouth, lock them in their office and NEVER allow them to interact with the people that are responsible for growing your business.
Did I piss you off? If so, you probably aren't the right client for us at Kpahi. Besides, I'm not your friend. I'm a business resource that shows companies how to make sh** gobs of money. If you're looking for a friend...buy a dog! www.humanesociety.org . When you are looking to make money and get back to the drug dealer way of doing business, give us a call!
