The seven biggest mistakes which are killing your business

Arun Pujari
arunpujari@breakthroughsolutions.co.in

Mistake No 1 No Testing & Measuring 99% of the business owners dont do any testing & measuring for any of the business activities they do. They believe that they can succeed in their business based on their gut feel or simply because they know their business. It is amazing, how few companies ever test any aspect of their business and compare it to something else. They bet their decision on arbitrary, subjective decisions. Without testing & measuring and therefore putting numbers to their various activities, they just dont know where they are , let alone where they are going . With the numbers, the business will take on a totally new meaning. It will come alive with possibilities. You need to quantify (put numbers) to everything that you do in your business. I mean everything: 1. How many customers do you see in person everyday? 2. How many come in the morning? How many in the afternoon? 3. How many people call your business everyday? 4. How many call for price? 5. How many want to purchase something? 6. How many products are sold everyday? How many are sold each week? 7. Which days are busiest? 8. How many calls have you received against the advertisement released? 9. How many got converted into orders? 10. How many customers are new? How many are repeat? 11. What is the average value of the sale? 12. How many people who come in / call in are ending up buying? 13. What is your Accounts receivable as days of sales? 14. What is the marketing campaign profit analysis? Most of the business owners are just not aware of the importance of testing & measuring and even if they understand its importance, they believe that it is not important. How wrong! For example just by changing the words you use to greet a customer, can increase the sales by 16% . But you wont know it, if you dont quantify before and after. Eventually you will think of your entire business in terms of numbers. You will quantify everything. You will be able to read the health of your business by the flow of numbers. You will become familiar with your business numbers, just as your doctor is familiar with your blood pressure and pulse rate. You cant get the best results until you comprehensively evaluate, all the different approaches you have available in all you business activities .One approach will often outperform other many times over. The odds are great that you are constantly under performing and not reaching your real potential.

Mistake No 2 No Business Development Program Most of the business owners are busy just running their day to day operations. They either spend no time or spend too little time in developing their business. And unless they spend specific time in a specific manner on developing their business their business will not grow. And if the business does not grow, it will eventually die .Or if it does grow , they would not be able to handle the growth . Business development program is the step-by step process , through which the business owner converts his existing business or the one he is about to create --- into a perfectly organized model . Even if the business consists of just the business owner himself, he needs to have this blueprint. Because without this plan, his business has no vision, no goal, no target, no action plan. And if you dont know where you are going , any road will take you there . A business development program, consists of the following seven distinct steps : Your primary aim what do you want out of life Your business objective Your organization strategy Your management strategy Your people strategy Your marketing strategy Your systems strategy

Most of the small & medium sized business owners are either not aware of this process or if they are aware, they think, that such planning and thinking is meant for big corporates. If big corporates can spend so much time and effort in developing their business plans and the various steps, it is even more imperative for the smaller business, because small business is more vulnerable . By using the business development process, the business owner is not leaving things to chance and luck. He is in control of the business and knows which activity will be done during which time frame and as he diligently follows the process , he would find that his business is growing at an unprecedented pace and he is achieving the goals .

Mistake No 3 -- No unique way of doing business When you ask a business person to articulate clearly and concisely his or her companys unique way of doing business, most have no answer. Why? Because they have never thought about or offered a unique proposition. Most of them have a me too rudderless , business that feeds solely upon the momentum of the marketplace. There is nothing unique , there is nothing distinct . They promise no great value , benefit or service -- just buy from us for no justifiable reason. It is no surprise , that most businesses merely get by . They only get a small share of potential business . With no unique benefit , no incredible price or selection , no special service or guarantee , why should customers prefer a particular firm . It is ludicrous to operate any business without carefully crafting a clear , strong appealing unique selling proposition into the very fabric of that businesss daily existence . The more measurable , comparable , demonstrable or quantifiable your advantage , the more powerful it is too !! When a company or profession adopts a powerful , new and appealing USP, it gives a new life , new excitement , new interest & new appeal to the marketing plan. It is exciting & appealing to clients as well as to your company.

Mistake No 4 No customer Knowledge Do you know who are your customers ? Do you know why they buy from you ?Unless you know the answer to these two questions , you dont know what you are doing . You are doing things arbitrarily rather than scientifically . And if you are doing things arbitrarily , you have no control over the results which you will get . Big companies take such things exrtremely seriously and spend huge amount of money and time to collect this information and utilize the lessons to perfect their marketing strategy. A small business is far more fragile than a big business. So if anything , they must take their marketing more seriously than big business . In todays world , either the small business will accept the challenge of an information glutted society or be destroyed by it. The customer is deluged by so many products and promises , that he becomes swamped by confusion and indecision. The challenge is to learn the customers language . Knowledge of your customer ,decides your product positioning , branding , communication claims , sales approach , channels , pricing & packaging . The single most important ingredient for a successful business is having a customer . And once you have him , it is necessary to continue to have him. A customer is more important than the business idea , the technology , financing , management or anything else . Do you have a database of your customers ? It is six times easier & more effective to sell to an existing customer than to a new customer . If you do not have a customer database , you have no way of of keeping in touch with them . And if you do not keep in touch with your customers , then at the first possible opportunity , they will desert you. If you do not have customer database , you cannot segment them , draw their profile , cant decide how to make offers and know what motivates them to buy . Ninety percent of the businesses , never determine the needs , desires , or requirements of the people to whom they are trying to sell.. How can you expect to adequately fill someones needs if you never take the time to understand them ? It is laughable! Yet few companies seek to meet their customers needs . So first determine which needs you can fill , consistent with who you are , what your business is and how you operate . Then talk to clients , prospects and customers , and have your salespeople do the same. Let your customer tell you which specific needs they most want filled , then determine which of these needs you can actually fill .

Mistake No 5 Not implementing multiple marketing efforts If your entire marketing effort is dependent on just one or two marketing strategies , you are skating on very thin ice . Just for generating leads , there are some 73 different methods which can be applied . Not every method may be applicable to your business. But if you are not using at least ten different methods , you are letting go , of huge potential for your business . You need to develop a series of interconnected sub-strategies , each connected & integrated to a single theme . by developing and implementing , multiple marketing efforts , your company will progress on a rock solid and calculated basis . Are you relying only on advertisements . What about direct mailers. Host Beneficiary relationship. Strategic alliances. Referral system . Press release . Networking etc etc . If your entire marketing effort is dependent only on one or two activities for example advertisement and salesmen , imagine what happens if the advertisement is not giving enough enquiries or your salesmen is not producing results or he leaves. Your whole marketing effort collapses. On the other hand imagine having 10 different efforts going on at a particular time . Even if a couple of them are currently not producing good results ( they either need to be made better or dropped) , you still have another eight working , which will feed your system . This is known as 10 X 10 System . 10 activities , each bringing in 10% of the results are much better than 100 X 1 or 50 X 2 . The advantages are obvious.

Mistake No 6 -- Having no systems in place Do you have a selling system ?. If you do not have a system , which is documented and in which everyone who is involved in sales is trained into , you are leaving an unknown amount of business on the table . Just following a system can produce a 100% to 500% increase in sales . Do you have an accounting system ? Do you have a purchase system ?Do you have a schedule of repetitive tasks? Do you have a training system for the people you employ ? If everybody is doing various activities , through its own discretion , its own choice , it own method do you know what you are getting ? The first thing is huge level of inefficiency . The second is that the activity becomes person dependent . If that person leaves the job , you suddenly have a big problem on hand . In fact without a system , what you are producing is chaos and not order. What you need to produce is a consistent , predictable result , regularly in your business. .The system must provide the vehicle to facilitate predictability , so that the customer gets what he wants every single time . Because unless the customer gets everything he wants every single time in the same predictable manner , he will go somewhere else . For example look at an example of the selling system . Most of the small business owners do not have a system for sales. It is left to the individual and his ability . It does not make sense , because if there is a sales system , every individual involved in sales can be taught that system , helping you increase your sales by a massive percentage. Identify the specific decision points of the buyer in the selling process . Make a script of the words , which will be used to get the buyer to each decision point . Create various materials to be used with the script Ensure delivery of the script in identical fashion by your salespeople

Mistake No7 Not hiring effective , capable , motivated employees Even if you need to hire only one employee , you need to hire a capable employee . Employees should not be hired just because they are known through some friends , or they are related to you . First, identify the most important knowledge areas, skills and abilities the ideal candidate should possess. Next, create the same specific questions that you will ask of all candidates that will clearly demonstrate to you , that they have these critical factors. Ask that person to demonstrate the skill, solve a problem, or write or create something that clearly and concretely provides you with the proof you need to make an informed decision. Never, ever hire even a moderately qualified person just because you need someone now. That rushed hire will likely become problematic. So take your time and make sure you have the best person possible for every position. You and your company will be pleased with the results. For example , if you are hiring somebody to be responsible for sales , ensure the following : Hand that individual one of your product brochures. Explain that you'd like him or her to return in a few days to sell you the product. Don't give out any more information. You want to see how much effort the candidate puts into finding out about your company, product, needs and so on. Then, in the next interview, evaluate the following: Amount of research, time and effort put into the presentation; How creative the candidate got with his or her approach; and his or her selling skills, from start to finish. Have your candidates list 10 reasons that make them feel qualified for the job and what they can offer your company. Then have them list several reasons why they want to work for your company, why that specific industry, why sales and more. By employing these methods in the hiring process, you'll be able to measure motivation from the start. Think about it: When a candidate puts a lot of energy and effort into getting hired, you're likely to see those same attributes demonstrated on the job.