Solve challenges and create more sales.
Many businesses must urgently plan — more strategically for innovation to re-engineer themselves — becoming more agile, flexible and resilient in their operations.
Some have changed their business models starting with curbside delivery and pickup. Others retooled their equipment and machinery, and others upgraded their digital approach to further capitalize on technology.
The key for all businesses will be to continue to think and perform at optimum levels.
Here’s a blueprint for profit growth:
1. Optimize your current margins.
Focus on eliminating waste. Study your profit and loss statement. Eliminate all overhead that does not directly generate revenue or support your operations.
Increase your prices by five to 10 percent. Without higher expenses, a minor price increase aids your bottom line.
Reduce your cost of goods sold by minimizing expenses — from trying to negotiate new terms with your suppliers to bulk-buying your materials.
Evaluate your marketing for your highest-margin products and services. Create more promotions for your strong profit products and services. De-emphasize or phase out your low-profit products and services.
2. Maximize sales to your existing customers.
Because it’s less expensive for you to sell to existing customers than to obtain a new business, implement a new sales strategy. Strategize for up-selling and cross-selling of your current products and services.
Increase the volume of repeat business with automated emails or SMS campaigns. Consider new seasonal promotions, and new subscription and loyalty programs.
To attract former customers who have made a purchase in a half year, create campaigns and incentives to generate their interest.
3. Use targeted, trackable and optimized marketing.
Update your sales approach starting with employee sales training and optimizing your web site. Focus on your methods with lowest customer-acquisition cost to maximize your marketing.
Create a referral strategy. Your most-satisfied customers can be incentivize to refer their friends and relatives to you. This can be facilitated by offering cash rewards, exclusive perks and referral discounts.
4. Leverage technology to save you time and money.
Your repetitive tasks should be automated. For example, use artificial intelligence and automation tools like chatbots on your site, repetitive data entry tasks and for email marketing.
To free you to focus on marketing and sales activities, delegate mundane tasks to others.
5. Upgrade your decision-making process.
Business people need to continue studying risk and reward but making fast decisions. For instance, to aide their decision-making, they must study analytics and continue with virtual meetings.
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6. Minimize your hierarchy.
Whether having to put out crisis fires or to take advantage of new opportunities, companies need to be flatter and faster. That probably means having small teams to plan and to reallocate talent as needed.
7. Develop and enhance relationships.
All stakeholders will be even more critical to business success. In a sense, they must be treated like valued customers.That includes community leaders, policy makers, regulators, customers, suppliers and, of course, employees.
8. Make succession planning a priority.
Companies must grow leaders for intense critical thinking, and continue to build and improve their talent pools. Furthermore, enhancing ethics and trust among leaders and staffs will be critical.
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9. Strengthen the blueprint
Companies must continually monitor and fine-tune their practices, and leverage the latest analytics to build on their successes. This will enable them to execute to their full potential.
Summary
To develop a blueprint for exponential profit growth, create a structured strategy. Focus on high-impact activities. Plan to increase margins, optimize customer lifetime value and increase new conversion rates.
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s picks:
For Profits, CIOs Must Agree with CEOs on 5 Issues — Despite the increasing importance of information technology, many companies are losing profit potential from a lack of productive discussions about achieving strategic goals using technology initiatives.
10 Strategies for Internal Controls of IT and Financial Systems — Obviously, the welfare of your company depends on having an up-to-date information technology (IT) system. IT now impacts every facet of your business. So it follows that you should invest in IT controls to protect and enhance your financial system.
Enhance Your Future Profits by Avoiding Biases in Budgeting — If you want to improve your budgeting process, you have to identify and address your biases. Here’s how.
For Profits, Align Your HR Program with Your Business Strategy — For profits, a successful human-resources management strategy should complement your overall business strategy. Here’s how.
Keys for Leadership in Marketing and Sales after COVID-19 — What you do now to garner revenue is the all-important groundwork for long-term sustainability. Here are the keys to success.
“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.”
-Ann Landers
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