The new year is off and running. Your schedule is filling, and the work is ramping up. It’s a unique liminal moment when you’re entering the portal of the new year, and can still look back at the last one. Before challenges and changing priorities capture much of your time, there’s an opportunity to assess your progress from ‘what is’ to ‘what can be,’ to evaluate what worked well and what must improve. Last year, …
The customer-driven market is the future of business. Those who thrive in it anticipate disruption, partner with key customers, relentlessly challenge the status quo, and drive, rather than adapt to, change. Decisions related to these strategies rely upon urgent, unfiltered feedback from customers. How insulated are you from this direct feedback? When a small business delivers a poor customer experience, the leaders quickly learn about it. Complaints rise and customers leave. Post-purchase reparations are expensive, and goal achievement is …
When frustrated by lack of sales growth, business leaders tend to cite one of three excuses. To deal with the three most common no-growth excuses, try the following: “If we don’t offer the lowest price, we don’t get the order.” If you make no effort to learn about your customers’ business, and offer nothing novel or compelling to strengthen their competitive position, then they will focus on getting the lowest price from you.Your customers don’t …
Prompt, Strategic Opportunity Response Drives Growth You probably recall a time when you failed to act quickly enough to take advantage of an opportunity. We tend to realize missed opportunities after the fact. Everyone is so consumed with the tasks at hand that we don’t always recognize the full potential of a new opportunity when it appears. In today’s commoditized economy, urgently evaluating and responding to new opportunities with a value-based solution is a key …
