{"id":27824,"date":"2018-01-28T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-28T18:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=27824"},"modified":"2018-01-31T03:37:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T11:37:17","slug":"doing-nothing-does-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/business-management\/2018\/01\/doing-nothing-does-something\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing Nothing &#8211; DOES Something!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Intending to Grow Your Business in 2018? Do SOMETHING!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re just finishing our year-end review, identifying the most important and concerning findings from 2017, as related to intentional business growth. It was a unanimous decision by our team that \u201cdoing nothing\u201d remains the greatest detriment to successful growth which we encounter.<\/p>\n<p>My definition of \u201cintentional business growth\u201d refers to an executable strategy and plan that produces positive, tracked results toward your growth target.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><em>It is possible to grow your business without a specific plan; but, I would argue it\u2019s impossible to create strong growth results without intentional effort.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ninety percent of the owners we counsel will claim that their business is showing growth, yet so few are executing a plan. Imagine the results, were growth actually planned!<\/p>\n<p>There are many contributors to growth:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"style1List\">\n<li>Older companies may enjoy growth mainly due to their established reputation.<\/li>\n<li>Newer, more aggressive companies can experience top line growth as they disrupt their market with low profit-no profit deals hoping to energize their back-end service and supply revenues. In relation to this, one of the most popular comments I hear is, \u201cwe just can\u2019t compete when it comes to price!\u201d What\u2019s funny is, that comment applies across all brands and markets.<\/li>\n<li>Reacting to new opportunities presented through new technologies, some companies scale for growth \u2013 expanding into new verticals as they implement more efficient business processes.<\/li>\n<li>Market consolidation, for some businesses, presents rapid opportunities to conquer larger territories and area of specialty \u2013 resulting in growth due to business absorption or a customer-driven, elevated demand for services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><em>The facts are; an intentional growth strategy is necessary to guide your business and should point you at moderate to higher profit opportunities.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>No one wants to set a plan to pick up low profit-no profit business. It\u2019s imperative to choose the right targets for the right products in your growth plan. If you choose to hunt elephants with longer sales cycles, (and I don\u2019t advise it), you must be able to fund that timeline. I do see sales organizations struggle trying not to run out of money before their sales results arrive.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Remember your business growth plan needs to consider what you are today. All advancement is based on that truth.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This may be an obvious assertion, but doing nothing does something to the culture of a company. Allowing your company to operate with a stagnant demeanor has a negative impact on many things. Negative attracts and creates more negative. For example; dealers ask me all the time; \u201cwhere do I find quality people?\u201d Let me tell you, people talk and anyone whose worth hiring will sniff out a stagnant culture. Remember you\u2019re competing for quality employees just like you\u2019re competing for quality sales.<\/p>\n<p>Hand in hand with the stagnant culture comes stagnant everything else. Some owners who are in the do-nothing mode claim that they\u2019ve tried everything, and nothing seems to work because they simply can\u2019t complete with the BIG BOYS. That defeated mentality flows down hill. It creates the revolving door that most dealers are battling every month. As far as sales go, doing nothing produces a \u201cget all you can get\u201d cheap price result and not a value sales result.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve said many times before if a business is only renewing 95% of their lease portfolio, and the net new growth plan is to \u201cget all you can get\u201d, most likely that company is shrinking. Sure, with the occasional large deal your numbers will grow, but most likely the overall value of the company is not improving. In other words you\u2019re just processing more paperwork, money and effort.<\/p>\n<p>Do you want to change this pattern? There really is good news in the above opinion because it describes MOST OF YOUR COMPETITORS. You don\u2019t have to settle for doing nothing, like they do.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em><strong>If you want to develop an intentional growth plan and really put your heart into it, you would be amazingly unique, or at least part of a smaller elite group.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Just having a plan creates a competitive advantage for which your competitors won\u2019t be prepared. It\u2019s harder than you think, but not impossible to build.<\/p>\n<p>The restaurant business is split it into the two pieces, the \u201cfront of the house\u201d and \u201cback of the house.\u201d The back of the house is the kitchen. It\u2019s behind the scenes and everyone knows the importance of their jobs. The back of the house serves both the front of the house and indirectly the customers. The front of the house is equally important as it sells the overall experience and quality of food. If the restaurant delivers a quality experience, it is typically packed.<\/p>\n<p>In our industry any good business plan is multi-faceted. The parts break down in several ways. You review the previous year\u2019s results, your marketplace, your industry, technology requirements and your company\u2019s ability to execute and implement deliverables. Each area should be analyzed and adjusted to achieve the results you desire. Most Dealers are pretty capable when it comes to planning through the back of the house. However, in the front of the house, it seems that the details are often vague to non-existent. Sure, often the products and pricing are set, comp plans are all in place, the website is polished, but when it comes to an intentional growth strategy and planning, I seldom see anyone executing anything.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em><strong>If you follow any of the articles I\u2019ve posted in ENX Magazine, then you\u2019ll know that I believe a strong pipeline of opportunity does not happen by accident.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The details of your growth plan must be developed down to the smallest detail. The first step; be honest! Second step; evaluate all levels of management, including yourself. Since you\u2019re the driving force behind the results your company produces, have an outside expert evaluate you and your practices. Ideally, it should be a growth expert, someone who can show you best practices in business development and market penetration. Most importantly, fire the shot over the bow and let everyone in your company know that you\u2019re seeking best practice in everything to encourage them be more successful and to create a \u201cgreat place to work\u201d reality.<\/p>\n<p>While there are thousands of things to consider, I\u2019ll share my thoughts regarding the topics of; intentional growth strategies, forecast and win history, go-to-market research and best practices.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Building an Intentional Growth Strategy and Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the owner, it starts with you. You must take all of the data gathered from your business review discoveries and seed your growth-plan with purpose and intention. It\u2019s not about one product or another. It\u2019s about a scalable-repeatable process that delivers to both your net new revenue or profit requirements and assures a relevant position in your marketplace. When you build your growth plan you have to accept and responsibly lead your organization THROUGH THE TRANSFORMATION. In order for any business plan to be successful you have to hold yourself accountable to your team members and them to you! Anything less and it\u2019s likely to fail.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your Forecast and Win History<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Evaluating your company\u2019s forecast and win history helps to provide the necessary data to create future growth calculations. This is easier to establish on comfortable\/existing products and solutions. Adding in products and solutions that you haven\u2019t yet sold makes forecasting more difficult, but all products contribute to growth and you need to consider that information as well. Remember your intentional growth plan should be mostly focused on net new customers and not just expanding existing relationships.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your Go-to-Market<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Maintaining and adding the right products and solutions that match your market\u2019s demand is imperative. You will find that some market research is required to establish what products and solutions are needed to support your intentional growth plan. This is where you really need to consider not being a \u201cme too\u201d company and let the market tell you what it wants. I\u2019m told all the time that market research is too expensive and thus few employ that method of discovery. I say, use your sales team and give them the top questions you\u2019d like to discover and turn them loose on recon activity. It\u2019s very possible they\u2019ll find business along the way. Keep in mind:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><em>Market research is serious and whatever you do to gather it, should provide you with solid useful information.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>One of the best ways to discover new products or solutions is to ask your sales reps about the times you told them \u201cNO\u201d when they wanted to sell something that wasn\u2019t on your menu. If you said no often about a certain type of product, that might indicate something new to consider for the future.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em><strong>A great go-to-market plan should put you in front of your competitors and not in the middle of the pack.<\/strong> <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Once you nail down your products and solutions, this helps define the job description and profile for the sales team you\u2019ll require. You must not skip this stage. If you fail to realign your sales team for the future, no growth plan will work.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em><strong>Think about this path logically.<\/strong> <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>An intentional growth plan begins with evaluating you and your leadership, better leaders wisely demand market research, market research leads to discovering best products and solutions, identifying those products and solutions pinpoints the attributes your sales team must possess! It makes great sense doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Execution<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No magic here, if your execution is weak, it\u2019s most likely your own fault. But it doesn\u2019t have to stay that way. Lead from the front, explain your value, your targets and the opportunity. It always amazes me when I visit a specific marketplace, where in the same town three dealerships are singing the blues, yet the fourth is just cranking success. Why? It\u2019s in their plan to succeed! So, build your plan, even if it\u2019s not exactly right, build it anyway. Because doing nothing \u2013 does something, and it\u2019s not good!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intending to Grow Your Business in 2018? Do SOMETHING! We\u2019re just finishing our year-end review, identifying the most important and concerning findings from 2017, as related to intentional business growth. It was a unanimous decision by our team that \u201cdoing nothing\u201d remains the greatest detriment to successful growth which we encounter. My definition of \u201cintentional business growth\u201d refers to an executable strategy and plan that produces positive, tracked results toward your growth target. It is possible to grow your business without a specific plan; but, I would argue it\u2019s impossible to create strong growth results without intentional effort. Ninety percent of the owners we counsel will claim that their business is showing growth, yet so few are executing a plan. Imagine the results, were growth actually planned! There are many contributors to growth: Older companies may enjoy growth mainly due to their established reputation. Newer, more aggressive companies can experience top line growth as they disrupt their market with low profit-no profit deals hoping to energize their back-end service and supply revenues. In relation to this, one of the most popular comments I hear is, \u201cwe just can\u2019t compete when it comes to price!\u201d What\u2019s funny is, that comment applies across all brands and markets. Reacting to new opportunities presented through new technologies, some companies scale for growth \u2013 expanding into new verticals as they implement more efficient business processes. Market consolidation, for some businesses, presents rapid opportunities to conquer larger territories and area of specialty \u2013 resulting in growth due to business absorption or a customer-driven, elevated demand for services. The facts are; an intentional growth strategy is necessary to guide your business and should point you at moderate to higher profit opportunities. No one wants to set a plan to pick up low profit-no profit business. It\u2019s imperative to choose the right targets for the right products in your growth plan. If you choose to hunt elephants with longer sales cycles, (and I don\u2019t advise it), you must be able to fund that timeline. I do see sales organizations struggle trying not to run out of money before their sales results arrive. Remember your business growth plan needs to consider what you are today. All advancement is based on that truth. This may be an obvious assertion, but doing nothing does something to the culture of a company. Allowing your company to operate with a stagnant demeanor has a negative impact on many things. Negative attracts and creates more negative. For example; dealers ask me all the time; \u201cwhere do I find quality people?\u201d Let me tell you, people talk and anyone whose worth hiring will sniff out a stagnant culture. Remember you\u2019re competing for quality employees just like you\u2019re competing for quality sales. Hand in hand with the stagnant culture comes stagnant everything else. Some owners who are in the do-nothing mode claim that they\u2019ve tried everything, and nothing seems to work because they simply can\u2019t complete with the BIG BOYS. That defeated mentality flows down hill. It creates the revolving door that most dealers are battling every month. As far as sales go, doing nothing produces a \u201cget all you can get\u201d cheap price result and not a value sales result. I\u2019ve said many times before if a business is only renewing 95% of their lease portfolio, and the net new growth plan is to \u201cget all you can get\u201d, most likely that company is shrinking. Sure, with the occasional large deal your numbers will grow, but most likely the overall value of the company is not improving. In other words you\u2019re just processing more paperwork, money and effort. Do you want to change this pattern? There really is good news in the above opinion because it describes MOST OF YOUR COMPETITORS. You don\u2019t have to settle for doing nothing, like they do. If you want to develop an intentional growth plan and really put your heart into it, you would be amazingly unique, or at least part of a smaller elite group. Just having a plan creates a competitive advantage for which your competitors won\u2019t be prepared. It\u2019s harder than you think, but not impossible to build. The restaurant business is split it into the two pieces, the \u201cfront of the house\u201d and \u201cback of the house.\u201d The back of the house is the kitchen. It\u2019s behind the scenes and everyone knows the importance of their jobs. The back of the house serves both the front of the house and indirectly the customers. The front of the house is equally important as it sells the overall experience and quality of food. If the restaurant delivers a quality experience, it is typically packed. In our industry any good business plan is multi-faceted. The parts break down in several ways. You review the previous year\u2019s results, your marketplace, your industry, technology requirements and your company\u2019s ability to execute and implement deliverables. Each area should be analyzed and adjusted to achieve the results you desire. Most Dealers are pretty capable when it comes to planning through the back of the house. However, in the front of the house, it seems that the details are often vague to non-existent. Sure, often the products and pricing are set, comp plans are all in place, the website is polished, but when it comes to an intentional growth strategy and planning, I seldom see anyone executing anything. If you follow any of the articles I\u2019ve posted in ENX Magazine, then you\u2019ll know that I believe a strong pipeline of opportunity does not happen by accident. The details of your growth plan must be developed down to the smallest detail. The first step; be honest! Second step; evaluate all levels of management, including yourself. Since you\u2019re the driving force behind the results your company produces, have an outside expert evaluate you and your practices. Ideally, it should be a growth expert, someone who can show you best practices in business development and market penetration. Most importantly, fire the shot over the bow and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1898],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27824"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27826,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27824\/revisions\/27826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}