Our Business Coaching Core Programme

I would like to introduce you to the Eight Pillars Of Business Prosperity:

I believe that there are eight core elements or pillars to any business:

1. Your Critical Numbers and the way you measure performance across your entire business.
    
2. Your Vision and the way that is translated into Goals and Priorities that allow you to proactively manage your Time, and the time of your employees.
    
3. Your Market Position and how you differentiate yourself from your competitors.
    
4. Creating More Leads by attracting more prospective customers.
    
5. Converting Leads Into Customers.
    
6. Making More Sales To Existing Customers.
    
7. Leading Your Team.
    
8. Systemising Your Business.

Business results are based on multiplying these results together. The better the performance in each area then the better the overall result.

For example suppose you rated your business at 5 out of 10 (50%) for each of these areas. That’s a rating of OK – not brilliant but not hopeless. 

When you improve these areas, the overall improvement you can achieve is geometric. Improving one area by 10% could improve your profits by 10% but change two areas and you get compounded improvement in your results.

Let me explain a little more with some examples.

What would happen if you could attract 50% more leads and nothing else changes. Perhaps that would be a move from a score of 5 to 7. If your conversion rate stays the same then the amount of new business you get could jump by 50% if you have the capacity to handle the growth.

If you can then increase your lead conversion rate from 20% to 30% then you experience another geometric, compound increase in performance.

If you then improve your performance measures so that you have a much clearer view of what is happening in your business, you will be able to react much more quickly. You will take advantage of opportunities when they first appear and fix problems when they are still small. Can you imagine how that could improve your performance?

This is the power of continuous improvement and until you are as good as it is possible to get in any area, there is always incredible scope for gain and profit.

So do you want to take the assessment of a few of the areas that can be covered during business coaching?

Just read the questions and give yourself a mark out of ten that you can turn into a decimal.

Pillar One – Your Key Numbers

a) Do you receive regular performance measures on how your business is performing in all areas of the business – marketing, sales, operations and finance?

b) Do you have an effective method to identify problems and opportunities quickly?

c) Do you move quickly and easily from analysis into corrective action that works?

Pillar Two – Your Vision, Goals, Priorities and Time Management

a) Do you have a clear vision for your business in five or ten years’ time?

b) Have you communicated that vision to your staff so clearly that, if asked, they would give an answer you agree with?

c) Have you set shorter term goals that will eventually lead to the achievement of your vision?

d) Do you successfully manage your time based on these goals and priorities working on your business and not just working in it?

e) Do you staff effectively manage their time working on areas that have the biggest pay-off to you?

Pillar Three – Your Market Position

a) Do you have a clear picture of your ideal customer and the problems they have that your business solves?

b) Have you defined your customer value proposition (or unique selling proposition) that distances you from your competitors?

c) Would your customers agree with your assessment? Would your competitors?

d) Have you identified your main competitors and do you know your respective strengths and weaknesses?

e) Do you have a clear view on how your market has developed over the last ten years and how it can be expected to develop over the next five years?

Pillar Four – Generating More Leads

a) Do you know how many leads you get and where they are coming from?

b) Do you know your average cost per lead?

c) Do you have at least one systemised referral process that works well?

d) Are you getting the highest possible return from your advertising and sales promotions?

e) Is your website on the first page of Google for your key phrases and does it generate many enquiries?

Pillar Five – Converting Leads Into Customers

a) Do you measure your lead conversion rates?

b) Do all sales staff receive training in the sales process from prospecting through needs analysis to closing the sale and effective follow up?

c) Are other staff who come into contact with your customers trained to spot opportunities?

d) If you sell to the general public, how many employees bring leads to the company? How many leads to they bring on average?

Pillar Six – More Sales To Existing Customers

a) Are your customers delighted with your products and services?

b) Do you systematically strengthen your relationship with customers?

c) Do your customers buy as often and as much as they could?

d) Do you have an effective process for encouraging repeat purchases?

e) Do you have an effective process to introduce other products and services?

Pillar Seven - Leading Your Team

a) How well have you told your team what the business is trying to achieve?

b) How well have you translated that overall direction into goals and targets for your team members?

c) How well do your employees work as a team?

d) How well do you provide feedback on their performance?

e) How effective is your recruitment process for finding the right people?

Pillar Eight – Systemising Your Business

a) Do all your employees treat customers the same?

b) Would all your employees react in the same way if a customer had a common problem with your product or service?

c) How consistent do your customers find your service?

d) If you were away from work for three months, would business performance have remained good?

e) If a key employee is away from work suddenly, are other staff members able to cover for all their duties?

How did you get on?

Were you surprised by how low you scored some areas? Now just get a calculator and if you gave yourself 7/10.

In my scoring system that is 0.7 so add 1 to it and then type 1.7 into the calculator and multiply it by the next score etc.

The maximum score is 256 (2 to the power of eight), the minimum is just 1 (1 to the power of eight) and your rating is a percentage of the maximum score.

This gives you an indication of the current effectiveness of your entire business system. Can you see how much potential there is for improvement?

The perfect organisation doesn’t exist and never will. Bill Gates may be the richest man in the world but Microsoft isn’t perfect.

Call me, Paul Simister, on 0121 554 4057 if you would like to talk about how business coaching could help your business. If it's outside normal business hours, why not email me at paul@plancs.co.uk and register your interest.

I promise that there is no hard sell. Business coaching only works if it is something that you really want to do.

For more information about business development and profit building strategies I recommend that you take a look at my Business Coaching blog.

It is packed with my latest thoughts, advice, views and recommendations.

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