These past 2 years have forced businesses to re-evaluate many aspects of their daily operations like office usage, methods of communication or the art of actually selling their products or services. No doubt you’ve also been affected by these changes to some degree or another.
But now with businesses and our borders (state and international) re-opened, it’s time to stop thinking reactively and start thinking proactively. The people who think and act on this the best are setting themselves up to become the biggest winners. So it follows that if you want to reap the rewards, you need to put the right strategy in place first of all.
As it happens, today is your lucky day because I’m handing you the seeds to this strategy right here. As the world opens for business once more, THESE are the questions you need to ask if you want your post-COVID business action plan to equal real success:
#1: Who can help you?
During the First World War, a Chicago newspaper published editorials accusing Henry Ford of being an ignorant pacifist. Ford sued the paper for libel and when the lawsuit was tried in court, the newspapers’ attorneys pleaded justification for their claims. Here’s how they did it:
They placed Mr Ford on the witness stand and proceeded to ask him questions designed to prove that (beyond specialised knowledge of the automotive industry) he was ignorant- questions like “Who was Benedict Arnold?” and “How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down the rebellion of 1776?”. Eventually, Ford grew tired of this and told the attorney asking the question that if he really wanted those answers, he had a row of electric push-buttons at his desk allowing him to summon the man he needed to provide the answer to whatever question he desired. He asked the attorneys why he should clutter his mind with general knowledge, when he had men around him who could provide whatever information he required?
The above story is recounted in the Napoleon Hill classic ‘Think & Grow Rich‘, to which Hill added:
Any man is educated who knows where to get information when he needs it, and how to organise that knowledge into definite plans of action.
The last 2 years have forced countless businesses, regardless of size, to re-evaluate their “business as usual”. Right now the time is ripe to start engaging with those who’ve successfully adapted and discover what they’ve changed- especially those for whom business is booming like never before. It may not be that individual who holds the direct answer, but somebody they’ve taken on board who is delivering those results for them, in which case it’s really the old case of understanding who’s in your business network.
Are there challenges or weak-spots you’ve identified in your business, or areas you know you want to improve in? This should make it much easier to identify who can help. It might be a case of leaving your heavy lifting, research and planning for somebody else. Wouldn’t that be a relief!
#2: When they think of your industry, do they automatically think of YOU?
…Or are you just another name they’re associating with what you sell or what you do?
After all, it doesn’t matter who wins the blind taste test, Coca-Cola is still the #1 selling beverage worldwide. It doesn’t matter how superior the quality of your product is or how much better your service is, if your ideal leads are thinking of somebody else- and going to them instead as a result- that’s x amount of dollars you’re missing out on every single time you lose that potential customer.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way…
Because with the right content strategy working for you, you can cement yourself as the #1, front and centre every time your leads think of your industry…
#3: Do you have a clearly outlined process to convert your leads into sales?
If you don’t, then every time a lead gets in contact with you or your team, it’s really a game of chance. Sometimes you make the sale and that’s great- but how many leads continue to slip through your fingers every single day, simply because you haven’t got clarity on your steps to conversion?
If you had specialised knowledge on the steps that lead to conversion, you could scale back all of your lead interactions down to a simple process, and by following this process selling would suddenly become much easier than what you’re seeing currently. With this surge of customer activity, the difference between leaving it up to chance and having a process in place could make a massive different to the scope of your bottom line…
So (needless to say) it literally pays to get clarity on this and get a process in place!
#4: What should you be sharing with your leads?
In order to become a prominent name in your industry, first you need to develop a connection with your target audience. To achieve this, you need to share information relevant to their wants and needs- but you also need to tell them about your business and share your story. This begs the question:
What information should you be sharing with them?
What are they going to find engaging, and what would be a waste of your time and energy to be talking about?
As I’ve discussed more recently, publishing regular blog articles should be one of the top priorities (if not the #1 top priority) in any content strategy you implement, and with good reason. If you’re still not sure why this is, then take a look at these stats:
#5: What do you need to change/ adapt?
There might have been a way you did things up until 12 or even 6 months ago but it isn’t serving you any more. This applies to personal habits and routines- and also to your business. Maybe everything you’re doing still works just fine- but it might also be that those “normal” or “comfortable processes are actually holding you back, whether it’s wasting money or squandering that most precious resource that never offers a refund: time.
So it definitely pays to take stock of:
a) How your business operates
b) How you serve your customers and,
c) How you’re promoting yourself
…and ask if you’re entirely satisfied?
Or is there stuff that needs changing to make sure you’re really ready for this post-COVID business landscape? It might be something you can identify through taking inventory of what you’re doing- or it might be something that can only be identified by acting on #1 and finding those with specialised knowledge.
One thing’s for sure- it pays to be certain.
So if you realise you need to:
- Set realistic expectations
- Reduce risk
- Cover blindspots
- Manage downtime
- Streamline your marketing efforts
…in addition to finding clarity on your answers for the 5 questions covered here, then our team at Foresyte is here for you. If you want to make sure your current business model is future-proof and able to win big in this post-COVID landscape, then here’s a snapshot of what we can offer you: https://www.foresyte.com.au
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