What are your business goals for 2015?? We want to help you get there. Beginning (this month), I will share tips on reaching three common business goals: increasing profits, revitalizing brands, and improving business operations. I will introduce a wealth building principle of my company, Sole Strivers:? Your money is in the A.T.M.S.? That is, your business? financial health depends on the way you manage your Attention, Time, Money, and Social networks.
This column will consist mainly of questions.? This is deliberate.? Your business solutions will come from your clients, employees, suppliers, and relaxed self.? You have to be willing, however, to ask questions with an open mind, LISTEN to the answers, and make changes, taking risks where necessary. The process may feel uncomfortable at times, but the discomfort is brief while the success is long lasting.
Paying Attention, Getting Paid
Well-managed attention is a powerful tool to help you grow your business.? Most of the time, however, we?re focusing more on our own business challenges than the concerns of our clients.?? So, our first step is to shift attention to our clients.? We?ll return to our own business with a fresh lens in the next segment.
Your clients can be distracted by daily concerns, causing them to miss information that could lead to lucrative opportunities.? Researching and sharing information with them allows you to build relationships today that provide the insight necessary to create better, more profitable offerings for them tomorrow.??
Begin by being able to answer the following questions about your top 10 clients:
1.??? What have they accomplished in the last six months (sources:? press releases, websites, tweets, conversations)?? Did you congratulate them?? If not, should you?
2.??? What business challenges are they facing this year (e.g., increased supply costs, government regulation changes)?
3.??? What are their goals for the year??? How can you help?
4.??? What is happening in your client?s industry that could present an opportunity or challenge for them??
5.??? What have you learned from an industry outside of your clients? that could help them solve a problem?
6.??? Has your client grown, downsized, or stayed the same?? Why?
7.??? Have your clients? competitors made any interesting moves (e.g., special offers, new product tests, entering new market spaces) ?? If so, what might it mean for your clients?
8.??? What product/service does your client purchase from you ? How often do they make a purchase? How has the product improved their business (or lives)?
9.??? How can the product or service improve?
10.??? Is it time for your clients to reorder your product/service?? If so, did you ask for the order?
(Diony Cespedes is the founder of Sole Strivers Financial Fitness, a wealth building consultancy that?s been achieving impressive results.? Last year, Sole Strivers clients increased their net worth ranging from 15 percent to 45 percent, repaid an average of 35 percent of their debt, increased business revenues up to 600 percent, and successfully managed a variety of business challenges.) ?
