"How To" Monetize Knowledge & Experience

I got some great feedback by email on my last blog about using online sales campaigns to increase your sales. Included with this feedback were some questions I will take the time to answer today.

• When considering product strategy, what are some alternatives for monetizing information/content products & programs?
• How do I get started creating content products & programs?

These are some alternatives for you to consider for leveraging information/content products and programs:

1. Provide VALUE (free) as part of your selling process to your prospects to more quickly build trust and rapport so they will want to buy your core products/services.
2. Bundle content products & programs with your core product/service packages to add value and increase sales of your core product/service packages.
3. Create new revenue streams from the sales of content products & programs.
4. Create internal training programs and systems for onboarding staff into new roles.

Once you build the creation of content products and programs into your operating processes (this is not hard), you will identify other ways aside from the 4 alternatives above to consider when setting strategies.

I will now take a few moments to address the other question .... How do I get started creating content products and programs?

Stay focused on the fact that people who are looking for advice and "how to" information always want the same thing. They want to shorten their learning curve. They want to get from Point A to Point B as fast and effectively as possible.

So ..... identify Point B .... begin with the end in mind .... what is the goal your target prospects/customers want to reach ... for example, what they want to learn ... want to achieve ... want to have .... and so on.

Once you identify the goals your prospects/customers want to reach, then breakdown the sequencial steps to get there. Take a high level approach initially to identifying these steps so you have 4 to 7 in total. This framework will begin to shape how to get from Point A to Point B. This begins to help you organize what you will teach/communicate for each part of your framework.

Let's use Steven Covey as an example. The approach he had great success with when he wrote his book. Many of you have read or have heard of his book ..... 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. When he began the planning process to write the book, he identified the outcome (Point B) people were reaching for as ... taking control of your life and becoming a highly effective person.

He then created the following step-by-step framework to get there:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin With The End In Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen The Saw

Once he created the 7 steps to becoming an effective person, he began to organize all his thoughts around each of the steps in the framework ... he identified his main points, provided examples of each main point, told stories to demonstrate what he meant and then provided step-by-step directions on how to learn and apply each step in the framework.  This enabled people to learn more quickly and effectively. If you were to go back and look at his book, you will see he arranged his thoughts with this type of framework.

Stephen Covey then took his framework and created many different types of information products/programs. Of course the book was one. He went into corporations and taught people to train others within their companies. He created seminar programming. I could go on and on with the products he created around his framework, but I believe you get the "gist."

TAKE YOUR OWN STEPS TODAY.... leverage content products and programs to increase your sales ...... GET STARTED CREATING the products and programs you can provide your target prospects and customers to help them reach their goals and objectives. 

 
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Growing Sales - New Approach for Creating Trust & Rapport with Prospects & Customers

Are you finding it harder to connect with your target prospects and customers?

Is technology making it easier in some ways to connect, but harder in others when it comes to trying to build trust and rapport?

Do you find yourself trying to get to the sale faster these days ..... before you have built the right foundation of connection between you and the buyer .... when you reach someone are you concerned because you don't know how often email and voice mail and text messages will stand in your way the next time you reach out?

Online sales communication strategies and systems are ready to effectively integrate with the more traditional phone and face to face sales methods to more effectively build trust and rapport with targets.

I have been spending a great deal of time over the last 6 months learning the best practices for building a business around Thought Leaders and Experts. People who have a high degree of skill in or knowledge of a certain topic. Someone who takes a specific topic/focus for what they have learned ... have become an expert in ... package it in a way that a target audience will find it useful and of high value .... and willing to "pay for it."

It has been an interesting journey from positioning to developing integrated suite of information products to the latest online sales campaigns and the technology infrastructure required to deliver messages and products. As is always the case with technology, things have changed so fast in the last couple of years, what is available now to support this kind of business online is so simple to set up and the costs are nominal to get started. I wish these alternatives existed 4 years ago when I was working on my own online "pilot" in partnership with an NBA Team. I would have spent less time and money on technology development & management and more time focusing on proving the concept and strategy.

As I have been taking my own years of business building experience and adding the "Expert" niche best practices to it, I have gotten into many conversations with people. Exploring opportunities with those who fit the Thought Leader/Expert role and how I can help them build a business around their area of expertise.

All this has also gotten me considering how the new best practices for online product marketing and sales will ultimately be more effectively integrated with the more traditional phone or face to face selling methods. When looking at the online marketing industry through the "rearview mirror," the perception is not always a good one ...... it is all about sell .. sell .. sell...do and say whatever you have to say to sell something to someone online.

Looking through the "windshield," There is a big shift taking place. Rather than sell .. sell .. sell....it is about "giving to receive." Online sales campaign best practices are more about building trust and rapport with a target audience without even discussing the product sale until multiple interactions with the target customer has delivered real value at no cost ..... regardless of whether or not they buy anything. This approach is building relationships online through trust and rapport that typically was not happening in how the online strategies were once implemented.

Now that the online sales strategy & implementation capabilities have come so far with new cost effective solution alternatives that are easy to get started and manage, I believe more and more businesses should be creating integrated suites of information products for their target audiences. Some of these businesses may choose to provide these new products bundled with their core offerings ..... some will see these new products as an opportunity for new high margin revenue streams. Whichever way these companies decide to go, I envision the approach to selling in these companies will be changing and will be using these online approaches to support the more traditional methods of building trust and rapport in the sale process to manage customer relationships and close more sales.

Are you trying to better differentiate who you are in your market?

Are you competing in a mature market & finding it harder and harder to differentiate other than price reductions that keep squeezing your margins?

Get started today and create a real tangible way to differentiate. Create high value informational products or programs that complement your core offerings. These products can truly address needs and pain points your prospects and customers are searching to address.  Start today building this into your product strategy and integrate online sales campaigns with your current phone and face to face approaches to close more sales.

Let me know how I can help!!!


 
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Position Yourself as a Thought Leader ... an Expert

Think about all the things you have learned on your career journey .... the things you have mastered ...

Consider positioning yourself as a thought leader in a "select" topic area .... someone with knowledge, advice and "how to" information that helps/adds value for a target audience ....

Take a specific topic/area of focus for what you have learned .... package it in a way that a target audience will find it useful and of high value ..... and willing to pay for it .....

Provide high value to others by "creating" information that can improve results ..... focus on creating products around your area of expertise .....

6 Steps to Building a Business ..... around your area of expertise ....

1. Choose a topic/area to focus on ..... decide what you will teach & choose a target audience to teach it to
2. Discover your audience's problems ...... identify their pain points and needs
3. Position your expertise ... create your story
4. Create something to sell .... create a product suite .... make it easy to experience & learn what you know and can share .... create a "buyer's path" that continues to add value and keeps them buying from you
5. Create an online infrastructure for marketing, sales, fulfillment & customer service .... this is not hard or costly ... there are low cost & easy to implement online systems available today .... systems that are managed and maintained online by others.
6. Create sales campaigns .... step-by-step communications to actively sell your products online and through promotional partners.

Get started today leveraging your career journey of learning .... create and sell products & services around your area of expertise.

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Discovering Your New Product Concept

I find myself thinking all the time what might a new idea or concept be that I could launch & build a business around. I am also asked the same by others ... "How can I identify an idea or concept to build a business around." Many of us are looking for that next opportunity we can launch!

My recommended approach is to consider the target audience you would like to serve. Gather information from those target customers. The information you learn from them will often create the path to identifying a new product or service they may be willing to pay for if you were to create it.

Here are some questions to ask and sentences to finish for use when gathering insights from your target audience. The insights you get from the people you talk with will leave you clues on what kind of products, programs and/or services you might consider creating.

Here goes ....

1. My target customers feel they are falling short in this area ....
2. Most of my target customers would pick a fight to protect the belief that ....
3. Most of my target customers have no idea how to .....
4. Most of my target customers have the goal to .....
5. Most of my target customers deeply value ....
6. Most of my target customers are terrified that ......
7. Most of my target customers are frustrated with these things .....
8. Most of my target customers are held back by these things ....
9. What are your target customers trying to accomplish this year? (learn this ......, master this ....., achieve this ....., have this ...., to be this ....., to feel this ...., to experience this lifestyle ...., avoid this forever ......
10. What do your target customers need to double the results they are responsible for in their business?
11. What strategies have your target customers tried to improve their desired outcomes? What has worked? What has not worked?
12. What do your target customers search (google) for ..... topics and key words?
13. What do your target customers hate to do?
14. What do your target customers love to do?
15. What do your target customers pay good money for?
16. What are the 10 questions (FAQs) your target customers seem to always have?
17. What are the 10 questions your target customers should be asking and they are not yet asking?
18. How can you add more value for your target customers and make their lives more interesting?

After gathering all the above information from your target customers, ask yourself what products, programs or services you could create that would be perceived as high value by your target customers. Would they be willing to pay for them?

Take action now to learn these customer insights and you will be 1 step closer to identifying that new product idea or concept you can get excited about! 

Let me know any comments or questions you have in the comment section below. I will respond just as soon as I can!

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Plan for 2013 - 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

As you consider your plans for 2013, ask yourself these 4 questions.

1. What frustrates you the most about your business?
2. What are you trying to accomplish this year?
3. What do you think you'd need to double your business this year?
4. What strategies have you tried to improve your business that worked and didn't work?

Share your thoughts with your Advisor or Business Coach for discussion on how she/he can help you.

I would love to hear some of your comments in the comment section below this blog. I will personally take the time to respond.

 

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Product Path to The Future - Do You Have Clarity?

Is your company's growth rate at or below your industry's growth rate?

Is your annual growth rate greater then your industry's growth rate?

How much time do you spend focusing on your products and services?

Are your product/service initiatives focused on increasing your productivity?

Are your product/service initiatives focused on maintaining your current revenue levels or getting you incremental revenue growth?

Are your product/service initiatives focused on outcomes that will grow market share and reach annual growth rates exceeding your industry's growth rate?

Most companies will find 90% of their product/service initiatives are focused on streamlining and improving their margins or maintaining revenue and at best attaining incremental revenue gains. This is especially true as industry and product life cycles reach the maturing stage of development.

The key is to fight the urge to do what everyone else is doing and shift some focus and $$ to product/service initiatives that will help build your market share. When this is done successfully, your rate of growth will exceed that of your industry's growth rate.

Consider where your competitors are focused. How does that compare to where you are focused? Ask yourself the following product/service questions about your competitors and your own company.

1. Is the focus on adding additional features to existing products?
2. Is the focus on finding new ways to bundle/package and price our current products?
3. Are there creative approaches to bundling products/services that are outside our types of products that would motivate prospects to buy our products/services if they were bundled together?
4. Are products/services being offered to address needs of specific customer segments?

As industry and company products/services mature, you will find there is a strong focus on adding additional features to existing products or finding new ways to bundle and price current products/services. 

Shift some of your focus to strategies and initiatives that will find products/services outside your product category that your prospects and customers have a high need for and bundle them with your products. 

Also spend time identifying specific customer segments for your products/services. Get clarity on their unmet needs and how you can offer personalized solutions that specifically meet the segment's needs.

Continually finding ways to differentiate your company's products/services is critical at all times. Even more so when your industry and company products/services have reached the mature phase of the product/service life cycle.

Ensure you have the right product/service strategy systems in place. Your products & services ARE your company. Product planning and development is something that needs to be done on a consistent ongoing basis. Without this, your strategy will default to reacting to your competitors. Get clarity on your product path to the future. Put your competitors in the position of reacting to what you are doing.

 
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Selecting a Business Advisor

As you consider the right person to create a business advisory relationship with, ask yourself which of the following is important to you.

1. Is willing to challenge me and any member of my team when necessary?
2. Has special expertise important to the company?
3. Is available outside meetings for advice and support?
4. Has expertise on global business issues?
5. Understands Firm's key technologies and processes?
6. Brings external contacts that are potentially valuable to the firm?
7. Has detailed knowledge of the Firm's industry?
8. Is accomplished at representing the Firm to stakeholders?

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Entrepreneurs - 15 Questions to Ask Yourself

Whether or not you are planning your start-up, launching a new product and/or focusing on what it will take to get your business to the next level, ask yourself these questions.

1. Clarify my goals ... where do I want to go?
2. What kind of enterprise do I want to build?
3. What risks & sacrifices does such an enterprise require?
4. Can I accept these risks and sacrifices?
5. Setting strategy ... how will I get there?
6. Is the strategy well defined?
7. Can the strategy generate sufficient profits and growth?
8. Is the strategy sustainable?
9. Are my growth goals too conservative or too aggressive?
10. Executing the strategy .... can I do it?
11. Do I have the right resources and relationships?
12. How strong is the organization?
13. Can I play the role required? 
14. What knowledge, experience and skills gaps exist amongst my team and I?
15. What advisors can I put in place for support? 

 
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Asking for Advice & Input - Maximizing The Results

To maximize the value you get when seeking advice from your business advisor and/or any member of your team, give consideration to these questions. Being prepared to discuss your answers to these questions will provide the background for you to get the insights you are seeking to move your agendas forward.

1. What are the 3 most important strategic objectives you would like to achieve for the planning horizon you are focusing on?
2. What are the 3 biggest road blocks .... internally and/or externally .... that are preventing you from meeting all of your objectives?
3. What tools, skills and concepts would you like to explore, so we can cope with the road blocks .... while trying to  achieve your strategic objectives?

 
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Are Your Products Maturing - What is Next?

Are you facing more and more competition for the products you offer? Is it getting harder to differentiate your company, your brand and your products in comparison to your competitors?

Is pricing becoming more challenging inlight of competitor pricing strategies? Are prices dropping due to competing products? Are your prospects and customers more often questioning your value proposition .. your price?

Do you have a proactive approach for product development and management? How are you positioning your products/services in your markets? Do you find you are reacting to your competition?

Do you have new products in the pipeline or are you finding your efforts are focused on current product feature additions?

Are you searching for how to creatively bundle your products? Are you considering how to bundle the products of other companies in with your products to improve your value proposition and your differentiation?

Consider your current approach to developing & implementing an effective product/service strategy. Is it working for you? Do you need to make some adjustments? Some idea generators are as follows:

1. Identify areas of improvement for current products/services to improve competitive advantage
2. Determine how your products/services have evolved and how they compare to your industry and take the appropriate actions to address the GAPS
3. Ensure you have clarity for  .... who your target customers are.  The segments that are most important to you.....the segments that have the highest potential. Identify the segments you want to ignore.
4. Ensure your product/service packages fit the way your target customers want to buy and are priced at levels they will pay and are acceptable to you. Which of your customer's problems/pain points are you trying to solve? Are there customer unmet needs you are not satisfying? What are your customers willing to pay for? What are they not willing to pay for? Where is demand increasing? Where is demand declining? What switching costs prevent customers from defecting to competitors? Can customers easily find & purchase less expensive products and services?

All products and services will journey through the 4 phases of the product/service life cycle......Introduction....Growth....Maturity....Decline. Often times companies find themselves navigating their way through these phases without a process for effectively managing product/service strategy. 

Your company's products/services ARE YOUR COMPANY. Don't wake up every day reacting to your competition. Develop your own product/service strategy so you can proactively navigate your company towards a balanced product/service portfolio that manages the path for all your products/services through their life cycle.

Get started today. The right product/service strategy processes will provide the foundation for you to make better decisions to ensure competitive advantage in your markets!

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Be Good at "Execution" - Right Approach & System

Do you sometimes worry about spending too much time planning and not executing effectively? Trying to figure out the management system that ensures clarity for expected performance with accountabilities for results?

Do you feel you and your staff spend too much time putting out "fires" and there is just not enough time in the day? Are you searching for the root cause issues that hurt productivity? Want to implement a system that identifies the right priorities and provides staff feedback recognizing results rather than activity and time spent?

Do people understand what you expect? Do they have the sense of urgency you need? Do you have clarity and alignment on the "what" and the "when"?

Ensure you have the right management process for your company. The right framework for structure, staffing, performance expectations, decision making and accountability systems in place.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does my organization structure effectively implement strategy and plans? What adjustments do I need to make?
2. Do we have results based role definitions for the jobs within the structure? Do we identify Key Results Areas (KRAs) or is the focus lost for the role in a never ending list of activities for each role?
3. Do we have performance scoreboards that track the right metrics for each role?
4. Do the people who fill each role have an annual/quarterly/monthly "personal" targeted action program with clear accountability? Incentives where appropriate? Control points, early warning signals & back-up plans?
5. Do the people filling each role in your company understand who in other parts of the company & outside the company are critical to them producing their expected results? Are they aligned on how they need to support each other? 
6. Do the people filling each role understand the level of decision making authority they have? What decisions you expect them to influence but not make on their own? What decisions they can make on their own? What decisions they should be delegating? 

Really good companies are good at "execution" of strategy. What good are all the ideas if you can't "make them happen"?

Increased productivity and results don't just happen .... The right disciplined management systems are the key to implementing strategy. Evaluate your current systems.  Ensure you have the right approach and the right systems to get the results you need and expect.


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Questions to Ask When Assessing The Culture

If you are stepping into a new company in a leadership position or taking a role in a new area of your current company, always assess the culture and the impact you choose to have on it. It will be critical to you being able to successfully implement your strategies.

The answers to the following questions will help you understand what you need to about the culture you have inherited and provide the foundation for making your decisions on how you choose to manage it:

1. What is the essence of what the company stands for?
2. How is it really different from it's competitors?
3. What do people who are most successful share in common?
4. What are the common traits among those who have failed?
5. Who are the 5 most respected people in the organization and why?
6. What are the characteristics of the organization's failures or missed opportunities?
7. Do you have the right people to address the issues and implement your strategy?
8. Who are the gatekeepers?
9. Who are the people who really make things happen?

As companies transition from one size to the next, I often see or hear of new and smart leaders coming on board to help take a company to the next level. The successful ones take the time to understand the culture and consider it when developing/implementing strategy. Others end up not so successful because they ignore the culture and wonder why they couldn't get things done.

Take the time to understand the culture and embrace it. You will more clearly see the road map for the most successful path to making the cultural changes "if" required for your journey of getting your company to the next level.

 

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Developing Future Leaders - 5 Questions to Ask

As you consider your leadership requirements for the future and how you ensure you have the right people in place ready to take on those positions in your company, take the time 1st to ask yourself these questions:

1. What new challenges will your company face in the future?
2. What will be different about your customers?
3. Who will be your customers?
4. What can be done that will make the biggest difference, AND what is the one thing that must be done for anything else to happen?
5. What characteristics of a new leader will best match the vision of your organization in the future?

 

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How Do Low Cost Competitors Play the Game

Are you facing low cost competitors in your markets? 

Do you have a good understanding of how they operate? 

Are you exploring adjustments in how you operate in order to compete effectively?

Thinking about your answers to the following questions may help you identify some strategies you should be considering:

1. Are there opportunities for you, or new competitors, to radically change the business model in your industry or in a segment of it?
2. Have you reviewed your value propositions recently? Are they still relevant to your targeted customer segments? Or...... have they become out of date as a result of changes in customer needs and competitive developments?
3. Have you added unnecessary complexity and cost to you business over recent years? Do you have brands, products, product variants (sizes, flavors, colors, grades, etc) in your product suite that no longer meet real customer needs & are not truly valued by customers? Are you providing services that are not needed or valued? Would it make sense to bundle or unbundle some of your offerings so you can offer customers a solution that better fits needs and perhaps reduced the complexity of your business at the same time?
4. Do your marketing communications convey your value proposition effectively or might another approach be more effective?
5. Are you being innovative enough in controlling your costs? Are there ways you could make a "step-change" reduction in your costs? Could you move significant activities to other players in your value chain ...... perhaps even reconfiguring your value chain......who might be able to manage them more efficiently and possibly even more effectively?
6. Could you benefit from being less customer driven? Are you listening too much to your customers .... or to the wrong customers..... and responding too much to their articulated needs that may not be well thought through? Are your customers always right? Should you perhaps try to lead them to new offers, that in the long run may deliver more value and/or lower costs to both of you? If your current customers are not interested, are there other segments of existing users, or potential new users, who might be interested in your new offers?
7. Are you in a business that has very high price elasticity? Should you consider a radical drop in price to stimulate primary demand in your market before a competitor sees this opportunity & gains competitive advantage by doing it?
8. Have you tried to systemically understand your low cost competitor's business systems in real depth? What ideas would you come up with if you set the objective of coming up with 5 to 10 learning points from low cost competitors? Could you significantly improve your competitive position by implementing some of the ideas without threatening your core business model......assuming you still believe you have the right one?

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Strategic Partnerships - Advantages & Disadvantages

The Right Strategic Partnership Means:

• Spreading risk and trusting others to act in joint best interests
• A fit between partners so objectives match and activities show synergy
• Identifying complementary skills, competencies and resources in partners
• Sharing confidential information

Advantages - Strategic Partnerships Can Help An Organization:

• Find an outlet for excess capacity
• Gain quick, low risk access to new markets
• Strengthen its technological base
• Achieve economies of scale through high volume, low cost and mass distribution
• Overcome geographic, legal and trade barriers
• Speed up innovation & new product introduction

Disadvantages - Unsuccessful Partnerships May Result In The Following:

• A lack of strategic fit
• An imbalance in the relationship between the partners
• Implementation problems because of differing leadership styles 
• A lack of trust and confidence
• Slow decision making
• Key requirements for a market project are concentrated in one of the partners

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Creating a Partnership 

1. What changes are effecting our markets?
2. How long will these changes last?
3. How fast can we adapt to these changes?
4. Is investment in our own resource levels the best answer?

 

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Get The Most Out of Your Advisor

Regardless of whether or not you are leading & managing the entire business or a specific area of the company, find the "right person" to "roll up their sleeves" on select activities/projects to increase your bandwidth and/or work in an advisory capacity with you. 

Someone who has built a company and successfully transitioned it through the many life cycle phases of a product and building a business ...... someone who will work with you to create a personalized approach you can count on to fit your style and needs .....  Helping you manage the right mix of working "on" your business vs just working "in" it. 

Too much time working "in" the business will increase the odds that the light at the end of the tunnel you travel through from one phase of business building to the next will be a train coming right at you rather than a successful journey to the next stage. 

The right advisor for you is a confidant & collaborator who understands the context of the things you face. Helping you anticipate and address the issues as well as the emotional & psychological challenges that lie ahead. The right advisor will not only help you with some of the ongoing strategic decisions you will face, but will be "up to speed on your world" enough to "roll up the sleeves" and increase your bandwidth. Playing a role when you or one of your team don't have the time to move a project forward. 

This “been there ally” will help you anticipate the obstacles & requirements for success ahead. Supporting your need to stay rooted in the present while guiding you through the operational challenges for getting to the next level. Always focused on your development & accomplishments.

Once you find the right person, consider the process you will use to optimize your time and effort to keep your advisor "up to speed" .... so he or she always has an understanding of the background on anything you need advice and support with.  The following is a framework I have found to be a good starting place to adjust and personalize in a way that is best for you:

Monthly Review - meet once a month and discuss things that you are .... or will be facing. Consider a framework like the following:

Industry

1. What changes are taking place in your industry that will have a positive or negative impact on your area of responsibility?
2. What impact will the changes have on your company if you take no action?

Markets

1. Are the markets generating 80% of your business growing or shrinking?

Customers

1. What are prospects/customers expectations of your company and staff ... by customer segment? 
2. How do these expectations compare to and/or perform in comparison to competitors today?
3. How is the customer/prospects buying process changing .... especially as you consider different customer segments?
4. What early warning signals are you aware of that could negatively impact your key customer relationships?
5. Is the average size of your "orders" growing or shrinking?

Competitors

1. Who are they?
2. How are they different than your company?
3. Are they growing? Are they failing?
4. Who are you worried about?
5. Who are their key customers?
6. Who are their key employees?
7. What/how much influence are they having on your customer segments, revenue streams, margins and why? 
8. What obstacles are they creating for you in getting and keeping customers?
9. What actions should you be taking, by whom and when?

Technology

1. What technology application can give you a competitive advantage?
2. What technology application in the hands of a competitor will harm you?

Costs

1. What cost line items are rising faster than you are comfortable with?

People

1. What are the symptoms/clues of people being turned off?
2. Who are best in your company and why should they stay 3 more years?
3. Who are average and have the potential to perform better? 
4. Who are the weakest links and why should they leave?

Basic Recurring Problems (BRCs)

1. What problems keep happening and nothing is being done about it? 
2. What are the root causes for these problems?
3. What corrective action should be taken by whom and when?

Resource Allocation

1. Are resources being focused on the right customers/prospects?
2. Are resources being focused on the right products/services?
3. Are resources being focused on the right activities?

Other Questions to Consider

1. What major opportunities do you see ahead?
2. What is your single biggest problem?
3. What is the major threat you see for your businesses and/or your area of responsibility?
4. If you could change one thing, what would you change?
5. Where is your biggest revenue producing opportunity?
6. Where is your biggest cost reduction opportunity?
7. What are you spending most of your time on over the next 3 months?
8. What things are you now doing that you would like to stop doing or would like to turn over to someone else?
9. What one thing is bugging you right now?

Keep Your Advisor Connected on Regular Basis

Look for ways to ensure your advisor has the right "database of intelligence" when it is needed to support your needs.

1. Send him e-mails/attachments providing background he can read on a regular basis.
2. Have him attend select meetings to gain understanding of select topics and staff.
3. Phone, face meeting or email to keep up to speed on select topics so your advisor can be considering feedback for when the time is right.

Select Activities/Specific Role

As you look to personalize a framework to access and use your advisor, time can be set aside weekly or monthly to address your needs.  

Proactive Advice and Feedback

The right advisor will always be "mentally" engaged/focused on your challenges and opportunities and looking for ways to add value.

Last but not least, I recommend you create a monthly retainer relationship with the right advisor. When done effectively, this method is fair to both of you. It protects you against spending more than you want .... and enables the advisor to invest time and effort and to be mentally engaged on a regular basis using his knowledge and experience for you and your objectives .... without either one of you worried about a time clock.

 

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Growing Your Business - Evaluating Risk

When considering the risk for your own business, a new product or service launch or a company you may be looking to partner up with ..... the following 8 areas may be a helpful check list for your due diligence:

1. Market Risk - will the market be willing to buy the product/service on a significant scale? What are the chances the market will change?
2. Sales Risk - will the selling process work or will it be too costly?
3. Product/Service Risk - will it work?
4. Technology Risk - will the technology work? Will it be surpassed soon in a significant way?
5. Competitive Risk - can one or several competitors get too big of a lead or dominate the market early? Take an action to create a barrier to entry? Can any suppliers control key resources/capture profits?
6. Financing Risk - will additional financing be required as you move into the future?
7. Operating Risk - will management be able to cost effectively operate the company?
8. People Risk - will key people perform or leave the company?

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Separating Planning from The Plan

There is a great deal of cooking done in the kitchen of any good restaurant. What is most important is what ends up on the plate in front of the customer who ordered from the menu. Food that comes in small quantity, carefully prepared and tastefully presented. The result of all the cooking that went on in the kitchen.

As a customer, all you really care about is what is on the plate. You don't really care what it took to prepare it. If nothing came out on the plate, you would sit there and still be very hungry.

Strategic planning vs a strategic plan is the same analogy. No matter how much time you spend talking about things ... or planning things......if the results of that thinking doesn't end up in a plan that you can implement, there is NO real value. A plan is just like a great restaurant........what is going on in the kitchen is important, but what is MOST important is what comes to you on the plate (Plan)

Many companies are made up of sincere hard working people who are spending a great deal of time in the kitchen. The challenge is to focus those efforts in such a way that they are producing something useful for the customer and thus impacting the bottom line.


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