Extraordinary People

Measure the Results of Your Business System

Last time we talked about the importance of having a system and putting the system in writing in the 
article Run Your Business Like Clockwork.

Now let’s explore the value and importance of evaluating the success of your business system. Defining and documenting your business system takes hard work and dedication; but the work doesn’t end there.  You need to ensure that the system is effectively working for your business.  The best way to do this is to measure the results.

Would you spend £5,000 on a direct mail advertising campaign and then not measure its effectiveness?

• Did the phone ring?
• Did it drive traffic?
• Did it convert shoppers into buyers?
• Did it bring new people to your business that wouldn’t have known of you otherwise?
• Did the cost of advertising pay for itself with incremental sales?
• Did it further your brand awareness?
• What was the return on investment? (ROI)

Once your system is defined, documented and in place – it is time to evaluate the effectiveness.

Evaluating Systems

Systems should be dynamic. When you notice that you aren't getting the results that you expect from a particular system, you might be tempted to jump to an innovation phase, to step in and immediately implement changes you think will help. Resist this temptation! Don't even think about it until you've taken a good hard look at what's really going on.

When you document your systems, you must have clearly defined and quantifiable results so that you know how to evaluate your efforts.

It's the only way to truly determine if you're systems are effective.

Real Life Example of the Value of Evaluating Your Systems BEFORE Making Changes:

One of my clients owns a conference centre. After great deliberation, she and her key staff developed a system that was supposed to be producing a lot of new leads. They documented the system, they trained everyone to use it and they rolled it out with a lot of fanfare — after all — the intended result was to increase leads in a big way — this was going to have a huge impact on their business.

After rolling out the "new and improved" system, sure enough, they did attract some new leads. But during one of our coaching calls we took a good hard look at the data — we quantified the results and realized that although it felt like the systems were working, in actuality, they weren't getting any more leads than they were before. Even though they had spent time, energy and financial resources aimed at producing a better result, the bottom line was that it just wasn't working. If we hadn't taken the time to evaluate the system, they wouldn't have been aware of the problem and they wouldn't have been able to go through the process of innovation to fix it.

Systems evaluation is an essential (but often forgotten) step in understanding your business better. By taking a good hard look at your systems and their intended results, you can determine where innovation (or possibly elimination) needs to occur.

Stop back, because next time we’ll build on this idea of having a business system and continually measuring and evaluating by talking about how to know when change is necessary.

In the meantime, here are a few additional articles on evaluating your business system that you may find of interest.

Daniel Kehrer offers tips and techniques for giving your business an Annual Check-up in an article of the same name.

Looking to measure the financial success of your business?  Carter McBride offers Five Tips for Measuring Your Business Success.

John Jantsch offers 4 Metrics for Measuring Your Business Success as it relates to your brand awareness.

How to Choose a Business Function to Outsource – eeny, meeny, miny, moe?

No!  Outsourcing is far from a willy-nilly decision.  Choose the wrong business function to outsource and it could bring down your whole company.  Many small business owners go into business for themselves because they want to control everything.  Outsourcing involves giving up control over a piece of the pie.  However, that piece of pie still has to operate seamlessly with the rest of the pie even though it’s no longer in the tin.  And, your customers should always see a pie that is completely uncut and intact.

 

A Systematic Approach to Client Management

We have often heard the phrase "Systematic Approach" used in life, in many different ways, such as sales, business management, and even training. You may have heard people say that "you need to approach this systematically."

Yet, what is a Systematic Approach and, why is it important particularly in relation to how you manage your clients?

Let’s tackle the “why” first.  We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how important good customer service and client relations are, and one theme we continually return to is that of consistency.  When you utilize a Systematic Approach, you automatically build in the consistency factor.

Well, That’s the Way it’s Always Been Done!

Change…most of us humans don’t deal well with it to start with.  Add on a business owner role, and change is even less welcome.  Think about it.  We’ve invested a lot of time and effort into “perfecting” our business processes and procedures to get them to work successfully.  So why fix what doesn’t appear to be broken?  The problem is that even though everything looks like it is working smoothly, that doesn’t mean that it’s working as effectively as it should.

It’s somewhat like the frog in boiling water analogy.  You slowly turn the water up and the frog doesn’t realise anything is wrong until he’s already cooked.  If you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re the frog!

I was with a client the other day and her response to my question about why things were done the way they were was, "Well, that's the way it's always been done."  To me this is like raising the red flag and sounding the siren for immediate change and improvement in the system.

Having Trouble Getting Paid? It’s Time to Train Your Customers!

One of the more difficult tasks associated with being a small business owner is dealing with the money.  We do a good job and like to believe that our customers will be so thankful that they will immediately send a special courier with our payment on a silver platter.  But, they don’t.  And, more time goes by.  And, it’s starting to look like we’re going to have to have “the talk.”  Not the birds and the bees…the collection talk.

I’ve been there myself!  I think I’ve heard all of the excuses – it’s been a long time since I’ve heard one that really impressed me!

“The money is coming in; just wait until this ‘big deal’ closes!” (I’m still waiting.)
“I’m just waiting for the economy to pick up.” (Really? My landlord isn’t.)
“I didn’t get your invoice. The post office must have lost it.” (Check your trash can, buddy.)

It was extremely frustrating because not only am I an excellent coach, I’m a good person. And, it seemed that every time my sincere desire to serve my clients overrode my business sense, I was left holding the (empty) bag.  I was tired of acting like a bank—providing interest-free loans on my coaching expertise to clients who claimed they couldn’t pay when the bill was due.

Being the “Best” Doesn’t Mean You’ll Have a Successful Business

Many small businesses get started because the “owner” is very good at what they do.  Whether they are a butcher, baker or candlestick maker, they are expert technicians in their field of expertise – possibly even the best.  Often they start their business because they are frustrated by someone else profiting from their hard work and controlling what they do. 

So now they’ve hung their own shingle and it should only be a matter of time before everyone realises they can go straight to the expert instead of the middleman and their business will be wildly successful.  Right???  Not likely.

Unfortunately, customers care about more than just expertise when they decide to buy a product or service.  They care about their customer “experience.”  They want to feel special and important.  They want good service and responsiveness.  They want to feel valued.   

What the new business owner quickly realises is that they are no longer free to just focus on their craft.  They are now in charge of accounting, marketing, sales, etc.  They now have to do for themselves everything that the “middleman” did for them when they were an employee.  Unfortunately, they’ve spent all of their time learning to be the expert, not the businessman.

Brochure vs. Welcome Book and Role vs. Identity – what’s the difference?

In my last post, I mentioned the concept of a Welcome Book.  While I provided a short description of what it is and how it is different than a brochure, I want to go into the concept a little more because it can be a very valuable tool.

As business owners and professionals, we are used to thinking about ourselves and our businesses as “what we do.”  At networking events and parties, the first question asked after introductions is, “what do you do?”  What we “do” is our role.  It defines our activities and behaviors.

When we design a brochure to tell people about our business, it describes the type of work the business does and the services it offers.  Essentially, it describes the “role” of the business.

If I’m doing a good job, don’t tell me, tell my next customer – better yet, show them!

Everyone knows that the best marketing is word of mouth and direct referrals.  It costs nothing and the message is coming from an independent source that has knowledge of your work.  By recruiting others to sing your praises and steer business your way, you create an army of volunteer salespeople.  For anyone involved in consultative sales, a strong referral network is the pinnacle of successful business development.

However, there is a dark side to referral marketing – you have no control over what the referrers are saying and how they are delivering your message.  They could be getting it all wrong!

Before we go much further, let us first get a definition of a true referral.  A true referral is not someone handing out your card, it is not someone passing along your name and number, and it is not them giving you a name and number to follow up with.