A Goal Without a Plan is Just a Wish: 13 Business Imperatives That Will Make or Break Your Business
By Walter Rogers
President and CEO
Baker Communication
In the last few weeks, we have begun to see a few hopeful signs of economic recovery. Markets are up across the board, corporate profits are up, retailers had a strong holiday season, and consumer confidence enters the New Year generally positive. This is very good news, especially for companies who have struggled for the last few years.
Having said that, it is important to note that, as the economy was struggling, the rules for success were changing. Even during the recession, high performing companies figured out how to grow, and they did so by adopting new strategies and leveraging new technologies to respond to the needs and expectations of their customers. As they were adapting to the altered economic landscape, these companies were also rewriting the book on what businesses must do to survive and thrive going forward.
We have surveyed these new rules and have identified 13 business imperatives most organization should pursue as we enter the New Year. We will cover them in detail in future CBS Radio broadcasts and articles, but here is a quick summary of each one.
1. High-Touch Equals Higher Profits
Once upon a time, building relationships with customers was all about controlling the quality and flow of the content you provided to them, but not anymore. Today, customers are focusing less on pure content and more and more the quality and "feel" of the interactions they have with you and your company. In most cases, experience trumps content today, especially since content is essentially the same from vendor to vendor in most markets. If you have been previously content driven, look for ways that you can use that content as the basis for interaction.
2. Everyone is Talking (and Blogging and Posting and Tweeting) About It
Though some people seem still not to have noticed, business today is being driven by social networking ecosystems. Both internally and externally, people are using social networks to find solutions and meet needs in real time. Social networking has revolutionized the way companies interact with customers, the way customers interact with each other, and the way employees interact with each other which in turn is transforming every customer facing activity from marketing to sales to customer support.
3. Social Networking: The New Water Cooler
Social networking systems are not just for posting pictures of family vacations anymore. Companies have discovered to power of social networking to connect their teams in fast, powerful ways that drive collaboration, coaching, and communication that result in new efficiencies and greater productivity.
4. Frictionless Mobile Commerce
How are you taking your business mobile? Customers today expect to be able to interact with you from any type of communication platform, any place, any time, and we are not just talking about phone calls. If your company is not able to accommodate the needs of customers who want to interact using smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices you can be assured that your competition will.
5. The World is Now Your Oyster
Going forward, companies will find it hard to grow business if they aren‘t operating on a global platform. Do you know where your global opportunities are? Do you know who your global competitors are? Do you know who they are going to be? Do you have a globalization strategy?
6. Stay in Tune with Your Channels
You don‘t have to be a multi-national corporation to create a global presence; there are potential channel partners all around that are ready and willing to work with you, if you have the skills and capabilities to manage the relationship and help them be successful. Do you have solid alliances that will enable you to drive business through the channel? Do you have a strategy for growing and managing successful channel partner relationships?
7. "Game-ization"
Companies have long-since used games and competitions internally to boost employee performance. Companies are now using games to collect and leverage feedback from customers through a process known as "crowd sourcing," which encourages collaboration among a richly diverse group of users and leads to new insights and innovations that can be deployed in the marketplace.
8. Promotion Trumps Branding
Building, managing, and protecting the brand has always been a high priority with corporations. However, recently the focus has shifted to deploying a variety of defined promotions and sales plays – often launched and driven by social media – to quickly connect customers with products and services based on the attractiveness and accessibility of the offer.
9. If One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words …
Just think about what impact Video has. Over 90% of all internet traffic will be video within 5 years. What‘s your video strategy? This includes a YouTube strategy, live video communication with customers, and live video communications used inside a company, just to name a few.
10. Put the Custom Back in Customer
Product individualization, also known as mass customization - whether a web page, communications, devices, or service, customers expect immediate and mass scale individualization… if you can provide it, they will choose you over your competitor.
11. Bring a New Rhythm to Sales and Marketing
The sales and marketing dance has always been awkward because both sides want to lead. Sales and Marketing Integration brings a new rhythm to the dance to create a seamless, collaborative process set to a whole new cadence.
12. The Beat Goes On
A sales process without a sales cadence is like a sports car without an engine; built for performance but going nowhere. In order to uncover more new opportunities and drive more revenue going forward, highly successful sales organizations are relying on structured sales cadence to guide and ignite the productivity of their sales teams.
13. You Are Only as Good as the People Who Work for You
Experts predict that up to 50% of employees will be looking to change jobs as economy improves. Companies will need to take steps to boost employee retention, while at the same time investing more in training and hiring strategies, to guard against a drastic loss of experience and productivity.
Action Items
- What new strategies and technologies is your organization planning to deploy in the coming year?
- Has your organization already identified trends that you can leverage to uncover new opportunities and close more business in the coming year?
- What is the biggest problem you need to solve for this year? Do you have a plan to address this issue?
Walter Rogers is the President and CEO of Baker Communications. Baker Communications is a sales training and development company specializing in helping client companies increase their sales and management effectiveness. He can be reached at 713-627-7700.
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