Building a Pyrotechnic Business - 7 x 7 ‘Sure Fire’ Accelerants for Entrepreneurs Accelerant 5.- Dousing the Home Fires

Prelude I’m writing this blog listening to ‘Sounds of the 80’s’. As far as I am aware there is no correlation between the music and the blog content. But it could be sublimal!

1. It’s My Business!
   
   

Survivor - ‘Don’t lose your grip’

Pride of ownership is understandable. The strength, focus, direction and probably the money that you provide are essential. That’s what makes you want to run your own business - an entrepreneur if you like. But it can’t be a totalitarian state because life’s not like that anymore.  So, loosen up! Listen to the people around you – particularly those you’re not likely to agree with. Listen to learn not to argue. Be open!

2. I have to Know Everything
   
   

Africa: Toto

Oh no you don’t – more loosening up! Because this mindset is a recipe for disaster.  If you’ve come out of corporate life you will be imbued with a number of assumptions. Knowledge is power, seniority is what counts. But there’s no way you can know everything you need to know about your business. Learn humility and again a willingness to listen. Build a network around you of knowledgeable, challenging and supportive people. Look for opposites to challenge the way you think.

3. Urgent v Important

Love Resurrection: Alison Moyet

You’ll never run out of things to do. Running your own business will most likely consume all your energy and all your time. Let’s deal with the time issue here. There’s a functional element true - like getting to meetings on time and handling a piece of paper just once.

There’s a decision making element – a big ‘P’ word to avoid here – ‘Procrastination’ – not all decision making issues improve with time. 

But the killer challenge is identifying those critical few things that make a real difference to your business. They’re going to be things like staying close to your best customers, managing your cashflow and making sure your staff aren’t the terrorists in your business. Do you know what your critical few are?

4. Focus on next week

Dancing in the Dark: Bruce Springsteen

Most people are not energised by the past – the future in all its uncertainty is much more stimulating and potentially exciting. So, don’t spend too much time looking in the rear view mirror - often this just causes post mortems - something to be learnt maybe but too often just a big bagload of recriminations. Be upbeat:

·         What have we learnt about what our customers want?

·         What’s getting in the way?

·         Most importantly. What should I be doing differently? 

This is a killer question! Don’t be afraid to ask it of yourself and others.

Make sure you step up and be prepared to acknowledge that you may be part of the problem. Yes – it’s a great team building offer and you could learn a lot about yourself.

5. Dealing with your competitor’s  ‘Killer’ offers
   
   

99 Red Balloons: Nena

It won’t be unusual – given all the things you have to deal with – if your customers and your staff in particular know who’s doing the best deal at the moment. For your staff this will be potentially demoralising if you don’t deal with it.

The knee jerk reaction, once you’ve found out, is to want to match the offer.

Don’t – take some time to consider the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’.  Competing on price is a zero sum game. Stick to the principles of your pricing strategy. Sorry, there’s a huge assumption here - that your pricing strategy is well founded. 

But essentially this is the trade-off between volume and margin – high volume v low margin and lower volume v higher margin. The issue is what profit do you make at the end of the day?

Make sure your people know the story too.

6. The ‘To Do’ list

Down Under: Men At Work

Writing lists is good practice – it really does free up space in your head and helps you to stop talking to yourself. So you have a list - check it against the ‘Urgent v Important’. Check it against ‘Now/not now’. What’s on there that only you can do – think about what you can delegate.  So, if you’re not selling something people will buy you don’t have a business. If your supply chain isn’t working properly then you don’t have product. Think about what you can safely ignore. Test and trial. Sharpen your decision making skills!

7. The Money Thing

Ghostbusters: Ray Parker Junior ‘I ain’t afraid of no ghosts’

.

If only we could do without it!  Of course we’re all afraid of the ’ghost’ of money. Not many people will say they have enough but a lot will recognise that money doesn’t buy them happiness. Moving from the relative certainty of being salaried to the total ambiguity of self-employment is very very frightening. But a good friend told me that if you get uptight about money or more particularly the lack of it – then it will radiate through in sales interactions.

So, put the money ‘ghost in its place – in a dark dark cupboard and leave it there!

Building a Pyrotechnic Business - 7 x 7 ‘Sure Fire’ Accelerants for Entrepreneurs

Accelerant 4. Lighting the Customer's Fire

1. Easy buying
You'll have your own personal experiences of companies who you really thought didn't want to do business with you because it was so so difficult to get anything done. This might include out of stock products, poor in-store signage, indifferent staff, incommunicado call centres, failure to call back and so on. Life's too short for all this hassle! Buying your product or service should be effortless and painless for your customers - test drive it for yourself. Remember there's a strong emotional element to this too. Where you can, walk your customers through the process to give them confidence - let them 'plug and play' for themselves.

2. A transparent offer
How often when you're buying something - particularly a service - do you find that you're not really sure what you're getting? If it says what it does on the tin then that's a bonus but too often the offer is opaque, the policy document too long, and the conditions unreal. Jargon! Jargon! Jargon! Make it clear if something else is needed - like batteries or a supporting software package. Think about what you would want as a customer, resist the temptation to be a lawyer, let your values shine through.

3. The Wow! Factor
Where you can, generate some excitement for the customer. Better still exceed their expectations. It doesn't have to be expensive. Remembering customer's names, how they like their coffee, picking up on family news they shared with you when they were last in, all create a positive impact. Research says we all want more attention so give your customer your full attention - don't look over their shoulder or precipitately start a conversation with someone else. Another neat move is to offer the customer more choice than they thought they had and act as an impartial expert. Recommend competitors if you don't feel you really have what the customer wants. Finally, make sure you send them away with a smile!

4. Value
Understand what the actual value is that you're providing to your customer. This may not be what you think - avoid falling in to the trap of confusing features with benefits. Get your customers to tell you in their own words exactly why they bought the product - what satisfaction they are getting from it. These may not be the same as you imagined when you put your proposition together. This helps in a number of ways - in your advertising, yes, but more importantly for your pricing. If you understand the customer's perception of value then you can break free from arithmetic pricing like cost plus pricing or percentage mark ups.

5. Keeping promises
Research suggests that people's perceptions of brands are rarely matched by the reality of experiencing them - there's usually an initial fall in satisfaction. So, it's doubly important that when the customer engages with you, you do all you can to deliver on your promises - whatever they might be. There's the issue too of buyer's remorse - the anxiety associated with buying a product. Is it too expensive? How can I justify it? How am I really going to pay for it? Your promise here is that what you are selling will really deliver the stated benefits. Do you ring back when you say you'll ring back?

6. Guarantees
Think very carefully about what sort of guarantees you might be able to offer - these will help minimise the perception of risk in the eyes of the customer. They will also demonstrate your confidence in your product too. Guarantees can span all of the steps in your buying process - time to answer the phone or be served, delivery time, returns polices and after sales. Give generously if there is any doubt - use it as market research to uncover and correct poor processes. Here, too, we could include making it easy for customers to complain - another source of rich information - research suggests complaining customers who are dealt with well have higher levels of satisfaction.

7. Fanning the flames
The message here is 'think communities'. Encourage your customers to share their positive stories with their networks. Get testimonials and be sure to share good news stories with staff as well. Social media has a huge part to play here and as we know it's cheap and easy now to take and post customer videos. Set up a loyalty scheme as well as rewarding existing customers for introducing new customers. Many companies find a family focus works where your product/service meets common needs. Think, too, about engaging with your local community through sponsorship or links with a local charity.

And finally, if you're so inclined score yourself on a scale
of 1 (low) to 10 (high) against these Accelerants.