CorraoGroup Blog

During the last few weeks, I’ve been spending more time with existing and potential clients discussing 2010 business planning.  “Confidence” in the business climate continues to slowly grow and most companies are exploring investing into expanding their customer reach. I have observed an interesting trend in that these same companies really don’t know who their customers are, and in turn, what their real requirements are for products and services. I can only equate this to trying to catch butterflies in the dark -  you might get lucky and catch a few, but lose the opportunity to get the majority.

Understanding your current and future customer segments with existing financial data, customer satisfaction surveys and industry data is critical to developing a solid strategic and business plan. Consider that what might have worked 2-3 years ago will not always apply in today’s market; the days of “nice to have” products and service are long gone, and you must provide simple messaging that communicates your value as a “got to have”  in relation to your customer’s day to day business.

Last, and probably the most important, is to share this information internally to your business! I can’t tell you how many times I find companies that fail to accurately communicate customer requirements within their organization. Some symptoms to look for related to lack of understanding of customer requirements are:

• Deadlines continue to move out on critical projects;
• Customer support  = fire fighting culture;
• Missing/Inaccurate company milestones;
• Sales and profitability declines;
• Employee turnover.

Staying connected to your customer is not only critical for upfront business planning but should also be developed for ongoing customer satisfaction.  Developing an integrated social media strategy that allows your customers and internal staff to interact in real-time will also provide you with invaluable data, allowing you to adjustment your plan as needed throughout the year.

While traveling in Europe this past December, I spent time meeting with government agencies involved with stimulating economic growth in their regions. The consistent message that I observed was how to do more with less. This shouldn’t be too surprising for anyone who hasn’t live in a cave for the last 18 months; it’s how most European countries have operated and taxed small to mid-size companies for many decades.

Understanding what your business core competency is and what can be outsourced continues to drive all companies on a global basis. As more business disciplines are outsourced, the critical requirement to communicate unified goals and the management of outside resources is creating many a sleepless nights for department heads and HR managers. It is important to evaluate your complete Business Lifecycle Management approach when developing strategic planning for the next decade. If not properly managed, this can be equated to having one master contractor for a project vs. managing multiple sub-contractors. Having department heads or HR managers chasing down these sub-contractors is like herding kittens; it’s a lose-lose proposition.

Unless you like herding kittens.

As companies continue to evaluate their business model for the next decade many are spending time digging deeper into their organizations related to their basic business processes. The days of reacting to a business symptom, i.e., “we don’t have enough sales,” are long gone as finding the underlying problem has become more critical than ever. In recent years, businesses provided several layers of bandages to these symptoms as profit margins could be overlooked or dropped to lower priority compared with driving top-line revenue numbers or keeping your firm competitive with the lastest and greatest product.  That’s changed, however;  by spending time with your staff and customers, you will gather valuable information that enables you to understand, document and provide corrective actions related to any symptom you may be encountering.

In order for any business to effectively operate, all business disciplines must have a clear unified direction with goals clearly defined to all internal stakeholders. By documenting and communicating these milestones and discussing your current business symptoms you will be able to identify root challenges for business discipline. What was once perceived as a “sales problem” can be diagnosed as:

• non-competitive product offering
• incomplete product literature and positioning
• outdated website and corporate presentation
• poor customer service
• no social media strategy
• poor product and sales training for internal and channel partners

In this economy, the need for effective operation and communication is more important than ever.  As outlined above, though, you’d better know what it is you want to communicate as a strategy of knowing what it is you want to achieve.