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Want more money in your company? News flash! Wishing and hoping won’t get you there. First and foremost, you need to focus on your processes i.e. how you acquire customers, how you deliver value, and how convert orders to cash. Secondly, you need to focus on how your customers value you and your products and services, how you treat these customers and how you retain them. Thirdly, you need to focus on how you grow your employees; how you attract, retain, incent and reward great people. Sound overly simple? This model is a tried and true method; and is called The Balanced Scorecard. It involves satisfying your owners, customers, employees and managing your processes.
This shift — from focusing on just goals to focusing on what you must do to reach them — is not limited to business. I recently discussed this concept with one of my TAB Members who wanted to improve his golf game. We determined that he needed to focus on reducing his putts from 36 to 30 per round of 18 and hitting his tee shots so that he landed in the fairway on 15 holes instead of 10. Oh, and he also needed to think about his stance, grip, backswing follow-through, keeping his head still… just like your customer acquisition process needs to include marketing, first impressions, rapport building, needs identification, etc.
Think of it this way. When you go to a cabin in the mountains, you don’t just hope you get heat from a fire, you make the effort to gather the wood, lay it in the fireplace, light it and then continue to stoke the flames so the heat continues to radiate! Likewise, in your business, don’t just check your monthly financial statements, but instead stoke your success by making the effort to continuously improve your processes, grow your customer base and treat your employees as an asset!
By Bob Dodge
