Preparing For Profits In 2010

While there are countless qualities of a successful business, some apply to your business more than others. Here’s what is on our radar for 2010.

Sales

The biggest factor for increasing sales in 2010 will be seen in a business’s ability to limit “cross line communication”. Every time someone pulls another off task to communicate non productive data, down time is the result.  70% of the average person’s day consists of pulling or being pulled off task.  Hold a class on it, label it and have your employees sign an anti cross line communication policy.   Remember confronting out ethics is 80% of eradicating it from your environment.  Stay away from paying more to get more. 

Money is the least effective motivator of man kind.  Duty is the most effective.  Sounds crazy but it’s a fact.  Create a company culture and live by it. You’ll find that beyond a certain income level, your employees families won’t spend nearly as much time explaining their income as they do explaining what they actually do for a living.  Finally have patients. In 2010 businesses that pencil their lives on a 30 day plan are going to get slaughtered by businesses with longer term visions.

BDC vs. the Internet Department for 2010

This is becoming a real issue nationwide.  Either use a BDC (Business Development Center) business wide or skip it. If a little BDC is good then more is better.  The reason they work is because the best people on the phone are usually the worse in person.  If considering a BDC for 2010 look carefully before signing on with an outsourced operation wielding an auto dialer like a sword. You can’t auto dial greatness any more than you can obtain salvation through better golf equipment.   Internet departments by contrast are now jack of all trades often made up computer savvy hotel concierges turned salesman.  

Then there are the real pro’s who are worth their weight.  Internet managers manage a relationship from start to finish, while a BDC should be comprised of people so good at getting people on the phone and in the business that watching them makes you dizzy.  Internet departments make more sense when the way a sale is made is more important than how many are made and the reverse is true of a BDC.  

Both can produce equal customer satisfaction scores but one is a padded leather chair for the imaginary internet customer and the other is a sales weapon.  So if deciding on a BDC make sure not to blow your foot off.  You can manage Internet departments with great predictability, which is a major benefit.  BDC’s by contrast are more risky and chalked with incredibly out dated sales systems but can double a business’s volume in short order if set up correctly.

Management

In the final quarter of 2009 U.S. payrolls are increasing at a steady pace.  In 2010 businesses that know how to maximize existing employees will prosper.  While leaders rally others to a better future, managers know how to discover a person’s talent and exploit it by posting them on the best job for their talent. I call this the ability to “Discover, Develop and Direct”.  This skill will be essential in 2010.

Advertising

In 2010 I’m advising our businesses to get a grip and get out of print.  I know its co-op friendly for some but so what.  Buy a stable schedule and stick with it. Go gorilla!  Most ads are designed not to offend, design yours to win.   2010 is a political year and you’ll hear it from every ad rep in town.  Don’t listen to it.  Focus on investment per item sold and make your budget work.  Steer clear of local ad agencies.  They’re taking your best ideas to your competitors as you read this and they’re horrible at negotiating good buys. 

Yes that goes for your agency too.  Bottom line with local agencies is the media outlet means more to them than you do. 2010 will bring a crash in agency business and they’ll end up doing anything to sign up your competition for can of cat food. So if you need a friend, buy a dog, if you need help negotiating take a class and if you need help managing media hire a temp. In 2010 blitz one source followed by another but based on a brilliant plan.   Make your buys in Dec for 12 months in 2010 then have them guarantee no bumps.

There’s a way to do this that is incredibly effective.  Stay away from afternoon drive times because in 2010 everyone will be talking on their cell phones when they leave work due to new laws surrounding headsets.   Stay away from paid streaming media.  Every business’s ad budget I’ve ever looked at was paying 300% more than they needed to. Every one!  So sharpen you pencil, know what you want, know what you don’t need and know how to negotiate to get everything you ask for.  Don’t hit on your ad reps.

Recruiting

It always comes down to people and those of us that have the best one’s stand the best chance of success.  Company culture in 2009 was surveyed as the #1 deciding factor of prospected top talent.  Leverage your best employees to reach out for you.  Use emotional intelligence. Research indicates that one of the worst employment moves a business owner can make is disengaging from the hiring process.  Keep new hire’s eyes on long-term opportunity over short-term gain.  Never over leverage your pay plan.

Employee Motivation

Leverage your perks. Pay and commissions are expected, but perks are not. Perks are concrete confirmations the organization recognizes that an employee went the distance. Have your admin staff work with local vendors to trade for perks.  You give me a free dinner to give away and I’ll give you a free oil change etc.

Training

A certain percentage of your net should be earmarked for training.  The lower you’re closing percentages the more your training budget should be because you have the most to gain the fastest.  The better your performance the less you allocate because the goal is to maintain and discover.  When stats are down you are in a “Danger Condition” because you are the effect of your competition, which places your business at risk.  Get smart and get better trained but know how much to spend, when and with whom.  You want to approach your training budget with certainly not speculation.

With that said have a prepared 2010.