Category Archives: Organizational Tips

Working with teams across the world?

Posted on by

Today’s question came from a busy professional and business owner.

communicationHow do I work with team members located in different parts of the world?

I want to work effectively with team members located in different parts of the world. How do I ensure that location, time difference, culture and beliefs and personality will not affect my work with the team?

 

 

Whether you team members are across town or across the world, creating a Communication Plan fits the build.

Communication Plan

 

Your communication plan includes (but not limited to):

 

1) A directory of your significant members, preferred method of communication, telephone numbers, email addresses, Skype id, Time Zones, etc

2) How you plan to convey regular Status information (daily meetings, weekly meetings, emails, phone calls, etc)

3) How you plan to convey Critical or High Priority information (phone call? text?)

4) Your Service Agreement or Response time expectations (respond by EOD, within 1 business day, within 2 hours).

5) What is expected when someone misses a meeting.  Are you going to have the meetings recorded?

6) Where you are locating your shared meeting minutes, presentations, audios, or other materials.  Will you be recording your meetings and placing them on a shared location for people to refer to, etc.

7) Incorporate weekly or twice-a-month one-on-one meetings with each team member.  Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings (via phone or in person) eliminate much confusion that email may cause.

8) Supply templates and checklists to assure the work gets completed the way you way, each time.  Consistency eliminates confusion and errors.  If people are getting your status in the same way each week (and vice-versa), they know what to expect and how to respond.

 

Vacation Considerations

 

You communication plans should also consider vacation schedules.  Regardless of your holiday hours, make sure you consider the following:

  • Make sure everyone has all their vacations identified early (by mid-year).
  • Make sure all your project schedules block out for their vacation time.
  • Make sure that all your procedures, outstanding items, and possible issues that may arise during the holiday season is clearly documented and shared with those responsible for handling these issues during the break. This includes creating, publicizing and updating your communication plans.  If you don’t have a communication plan, please setup an introductory consult to discuss that important tool.
  • Make sure the staff has been trained on the outstanding issue.
  • Make sure your clients have been informed about the holiday schedule far in advance.
  • Make sure your clients provide you with all their requirements far in advance so that you can accomplish their goals before the holidays.

 

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Numbers Move People Toward a Decision

Posted on by

Today’s take-away is that Numbers Move People.

If you need a way to move coworkers, clients, managers, family members or even yourself toward action, consider adding a number to your conversation.

Numbers help people move toward a decision and action.  Whether it’s a calendar date, a meeting time, a price for service or product, salary, or even that pesky number on the bathroom scale; numbers move people into action.

Consider the number ZERO – as in A Complimentary or Free eBook, White Paper, or other offer.  That Zero Cost item attracts many people to share their contact information with you.

Numbers are our friends:

Ways to influence others with number come in many forms.

  • You can assign time limits to performance issues, product deliverables, customer review/approval processes.
  • You can make a recurring calendar date with your manager for weekly one-on-ones.
  • You can devise quality metrics to verify your performance, your service, and your products.
  • You can improve company and product exposure by increasing your social media metrics and website click-through.
  • You can time yourself on certain tasks, to enable you to better estimate and schedule certain activities.
  • You can continually increase your work-out repetitions to improve your stamina.
  • You can chart your weight and measurements to show progress toward your health and fitness goals.
  • You can count your calories and glasses of water.
  • and more.

How to make the numbers to work for you

 

Whether you are in the corporate environment or starting your own business, you need to understand your numbers.

Business owners

If you are in business for yourself, you need to understand:

  • Your revenue goals (how much you want to make this year)
  • Your leads to sales ratio (how many people you need to meet/talk with – to make 1 sale)
  • How many sales you need to make your revenue goals
  • How many leads you need to create to make those sales…
  • And the list goes on

Staff or employee

If you are in the corporate world, you need to understand:

  • Performance Evaluation ratings
  • The performance rating you want to achieve
  • The items and quality metrics required to achieve that performance rating
  • What is required to achieve bonuses and additional compensation…
  • The dates and delivery schedules for your work assets
  • The raise/salary you want to achieve
  • The number of hours you want to devote to work, family, community and self

 

Making numbers work for clients

If you are working with clients, and they are on the fence on something; find a way to add a number to the conversation.

 

Some examples could be:

 

  • Additional discounts or promotional offers tend to help move clients down the buyers journey.
  • Putting a deadline on an offer adds a sense of urgency to the decision.
  • Requesting clients to review/approve by a certain date moves the project along and enables you to make your delivery dates.
  • Assuring that you will follow-up in 2 days in order to answer any additional questions – keeps your product and service on their radars.
  • Having a SLA of always responding to any support issue within 2 business days – sets the proper customer service expectations.

 

These are just a few ways numbers can influence us and keep us moving forward.

 

For additional information on how to use numbers to your advantage, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Things we can learn from Shark Tank

Posted on by

SharkTankThe popular TV reality investor program, “Shark Tank” can teach us much about the perfect sales pitch. The investors on “Shark Tank,” and investors ask several specific questions to get the answers they need. Some are straightforward and some are not, but you would be wise to have excellent answers for the following.

Here are eight questions that every entrepreneur should consider before pitching:

  1. What are your sales?

You really need to understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out. The number better be good and growing. They also want to understand what your plan is to keep it that way. You should have a story about how expanding to new geographies, new product lines, or online has boosted or can potentially boost sales. The investors are profit-focused, and the more a business can scale, the better.

Their primary goal is a return on their investment.

  1. What do you bring to the table?

Investors are not only buying into your business, they’re also investing in you   Highlight your record of success, industry experience, or why you’re dynamic enough to justify taking a gamble on.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. So, what are you doing with your business already that is going to make them want to partner with you? A strong personal story or a great narrative about the business, along with strong presentation skills, goes a long way toward impressing your investor.

Know what you bring to the table, and be confident in that.

  1. Why do you need our money?

Investors want to know what your next steps in growth. Answer the question “What are you going to do with this money?” in such a way to help the company grow and scale rapidly. This could include building manufacturing, hiring, or marketing. Spell out exactly what the plan for the funding is.

  1. Why the big valuation?

One of the first questions the investors often ask is “How did you get to your valuation”. The Sharks are interested in a big equity stake in a promising company for the least amount of money invested. If you are asking a large valuation, you better be able to explain your justification.

  1. Is your product unique? 

Several of the Sharks are interested in patents and licensing. Explain how your product is unique. If it is unique, make sure it’s protected via a patent. More often than not, if your product and service can be duplicated quickly by other competitors, it’s going to be hard to get an investment.

Knowing what sets your business apart, and how it can be protected against competitors is absolutely essential.

  1. How much debt do you have?

This goes back to “know your numbers”. If there’s a large amount of debt, be able to justify it, and know the terms it’s been borrowed under.

  1. How much inventory do you have?

Excess inventory is a sign that you are not moving your product fast enough. This is a clear sign that the market isn’t interested in what you have to offer.

Remember, the investors are interested in a quick return on their investment. Excess inventory is dead weigh because you’ve earned zero return on it.

Being able to produce products in response to demand is a sign of having good data, a good sense of the market, and a good supply chain.

  1. What are your costs?

Investors want to gauge your ability to make high profit margins by keeping costs low or having enough demand to keep prices high, or ideally both. You should be able to explain what it costs you to make each product or service, and the difference between that cost and the unit sales price. You should also prepare to outline overhead costs, such as rent, utility expenses, and insurance.

Less Frequently Asked Questions – but you will do well to be prepared

  1. How much of your own money do you have invested into this business?
  2. How does this business scale?
  3. Are you willing to send production off-shore?
  4. How will your product be distributed?
  5. How do we get this to (or find) your target market?
  6. How many competitors do you have?
  7. How many total owners are there?

Conclusion

If you know the answers to these questions as they pertain to your business, you’ll be in a good position to make your pitch to any potential investor.

 

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee?

Posted on by

Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee that is not working out?

I have spent a lot of time training an employee. She is a great person, but I have to remind her several times to do something. I am not sure if she is just not in the right role or if she will always need too much oversight. I am curious how others have handled something like this.

You are not alone. Many new business owners struggle with this same question.

One thing to keep in mind (at all times) is that you are in the business to make money. You essentially hire staff to help you achieve your business goals.

You are not responsible for your employees’ happiness or success in their roles and responsibilities. You can encourage, support and train them – but you are not ultimately responsible for their success. They are.

Your Responsibilities:

What you are responsible is to provide clear goals and directives. You accomplish this by several methods:

  • Visible Mission, Vision and Purpose goals
    1. Do you have a company mission, vision purpose statements?
    2. Are they strategically visible where all your employees can see them?
  • Regular and frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees
    1. Are you conducting frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees?
    2. Have you validated that they not only understand the company mission but how it translate to their individual roles and responsibilities
  • Clear directives
    1. Do you have your business goals clearly documented in the form of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals
    2. Does each of your employees understand how their tasks and business goals support and accomplish those business goals?
    3. Does each of your employees have a PBC (Personal Business Commitment) plan that documents their SMART goals to achieve the company goals?

Once you have clearly articulated and published your business goals and validated each employee’s roles and responsibilities in achieving those goals, you can start determining whether a specific employee is “right” for your company.

Have you provided proper training?

Before you hire staff, you need to verify that your training and orientation materials are in place. If you don’t want to be spending time reminding your employees about the tasks and procedures, make sure they are documented in such a way that they can easily reference.

 

Some examples are:

  • Provide Checklists and document your procedures
  • Conduct frequent status meetings to review their progress and checklist status
  • Institute the buddy system in which a more senior staff is buddies with a junior staff member.
  • Delegate team leaders such that they oversee team progress and staff reports
  • Automate the more tedious and error-prone items to reduce error and rework
  • Automate and optimize items that are done over and over again
  • Optimize the procedures to only items that are MUST DO to bring in revenue, reduce costs or increase client satisfaction
  • If you cannot associate a Business Reason (example: revenue generating reason) for the task, reconsider the need for that task

 

Once you have streamlined your processes and policies, you can be assured that you have provided your employees with the best possible road-map to success.

Is she right for the job?

Once you have done your homework regarding setting up SMART goals, it is easier to assess each employee’s fit. Since you have established your Success Criteria and how you are going to Measure against your Success Criteria, you can determine if your employees are meeting expectations.

Several things that might help further are:

  • Have you documented all the tasks and expectations in a Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document? In other words, have you outlined for each employee – how their role and responsibilities are achieving your business goals?
  • Have you documented their PBCs in the form of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound)?
  • Do your employees understand the consequences of not meeting those PBC metrics? (for instance: being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan, on probation or fired)?
  • Have your employees signed their PBCs, acknowledging that they understand their commitments and consequences of their performance.

Once you have clearly articulated the expectations for the position in this manner and streamlined the responsibly and procedures, more often than not – it is the employee that will decide if this position is right for them.

For example: A SMART goal would be:

  • If you have to remind her several times to do something – are those
    “things” explicitly documented in a checklist? (Being very specific)
  • Do you have a way to measure or tell if she has accomplished those items, on time and with the quality that you have previously defined? Does she have to report on the status or update a tracking system? (Measurable)
  • Is it reasonable that someone in that position can accomplish that task in the defined time frame? (Achievable) Or would some automation and optimization reduce the error-prone nature of the task?
  • Can you describe the How and Why this task is relevant to bringing in revenue? (Relevant to your business goals)
  • And does this have a time limit. Does she need to do this task every day? once a week? When should it be accomplished? (Time-bound).

If she needs to improve upon her performance – what specific things does she need to accomplish in a certain amount of time.  What are the consequences for not achieving those specific and measurable tasks within the deadline?  (This is what is known as a documented PIP or Performance Improvement Plan)

Conclusion:

If you are “wishy-washy” on your expectations, it’s easy for your employees to give you “wishy-washy” results.  Having your expectations and consequences well documented (and signed by your employee) will make the next steps of performance evaluation much easier.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

How do you deal with workplace bullying?

Posted on by

 

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How do you deal with workplace bullying?

bullyMy friend at work had a computer crash. So he came to me since I know about the environment.
The computer crashed on him, he reset it, but while the program was down, and was costing client’s money. His manager says he does not have time to deal with this. The supervisor says he has to deal with it. This means he would have to pay out his own pocket. How would you deal with this without making a fuss? My advice was to phone the area manager, but there are no rules on what to do here. Do you have better advice for him?

First of all – I am not sure this is an example of “workplace bullying”. Many times “workplace bullying” is in the eye of the beholder. People that do not want to take responsibility for their situations are more comfortable taking the “victim” role than the hero. In this article, we’re going to focus on what you can do as the hero in these types of situation – instead of the victim.

Secondly, “The supervisor says he has to deal with it.” — Doesn’t automatically mean that “he would have to pay out his own pocket”. This is an assumption on your part. What the manager actually said was that the employee needs to use his own best judgment on this issue.

One suggestion is to ask your manager that – since he doesn’t have time to deal with this, would he like you to contact the 2nd line manager (his manager) about this. Or does his manager have someone else you should contact. Asking your manager “point-blank” if you should go to his manager often gets your manager’s attention. Now that you have your manager’s attention – you can work on a solution together.

Take advantage of your one-on-one manager meetings

If you have been following any of my webinars, articles, and blogs, you know how much importance I place on scheduling frequent and regular one-on-one meetings with your manager.   Having these critical meetings actually eliminates or greatly reduces misunderstandings between employers and employees.

The better working relationship you have with your manager, the less likely that your manager will “blow you off” or “bully you”. The one-on-one meetings are just the thing to build a better working relationship with your boss. Take a more active role in building that better working relationship.

I have more tips on how to impress your boss in the webinar: 5 Keys to Impressing Your Boss. If you are interested in more information on that webinar, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info or setup a one-on-one chat using https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

Document the solution

Just because there are “no rules on this” or (no current procedures) doesn’t let you off the hook. Anything that you encounter needs to be properly documented. Once you run into an issue, you need to document the issue and its subsequent solution. Forget that “it’s not my job”- take the initiative and make it part of your regular MO.

Conclusion:

The key to avoiding this situation is to be proactive. Document your work, be transparent with your manager, and talk to the offending parties.   It’s more difficult to get credit for something after the fact, without looking petty. So be proactive on your copyrights/trademarks and “document, document, document.

 

For help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

How can I structure our employee meetings to keep everyone on task?

Posted on by

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How can I structure our employee meetings to keep everyone aware and on task of what we’re working towards?

Recently, there has been miscommunication between my team members and management on the best practices for our company and where our resources should be spent. I don’t want to waste any more time and am looking for innovative ways to get my employees focused. Please advise, thank you.

Change YOUR FOCUS FIRST

Communication can be both the problem and the solution to most team and management issues. Your attitude of “I don’t want to waste any more time” – may be part of the problem. Taking additional time properly communicating with your employees will save team and department time. But it may seem to you that it’s taking more of “your time”.  My recommendation is to invest your time in communicating more often – to help your employees stay focused.

Quick tips

Here are some quick tips to turn the problem into the solution:

  • Do you have a published company vision, mission and purpose statement for the company? If not – please create one and make is visible to everyone.
  • Can everyone on your team paraphrase how their roles, responsibilities and tasks support that company vision, mission and purpose statement? If not – please have the managers have regular one-on-one meetings to both emphasize and creatively empower the team to accomplish the company’s goals.
  • Do you conduct regular one-on-one meetings with each individual? Don’t assume that a group staff meeting is enough. In this global and diverse work environment, many people may be working remotely or on different shifts. They may not have been at the meeting OR have misinterpreted the information.
  • Do you use effective Change Management procedures when you do add, modify or delete goals. This means you clearly identify the tasks that are removed or re-prioritized when a new task is added. Most of the time, employees are unfocused because management continue to give additional tasks without understanding the current tasks that the employees are working on. By instituting Change Management procedures – you review the level of effort for the requested change, the effects and consequences of the requested change to the other items AND all the significant stakeholders are aware of the changes and consequences.
  • Do you hold quick daily staff meetings (no longer than 15 minutes) to review the day’s goals, status and issues?
  • Do all your staff meetings have a Purpose/Goal, Agenda list (with time limit) that support that Purpose, and a Summary of the resulting action items and owners?
  • Are your meeting’s minutes properly visible on your internal website or via email – that clearly outlines your tasks and goals?

Conclusion:

Switch your goal from “I don’t want to waste any more time” – to “I want to better communicate with my employees” and you will accomplish both goals.

For help on leading a more effective staff meeting, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

How do I co-exist with other vendors?

Posted on by

Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. Steve Wynkoop and I talk a lot about designing and managing our professional careers on a weekly interview on SSWUG TV.

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy entrepreneur:

How do I co-exist with other vendors?

Food-VendorsScenario; You are pitching to a potential customer about your service offerings, and potential customer says that he is already working with a vendor in the same space. How do I stay in the mind of this potential customer and remain an option?

 

Firstly, I would avoid saying anything negative about the other vendor. If you know something about the other vendor – take this opportunity to highlight some of the things that vendor does really well. Then talk about the differences between you and the other vendor. Highlight your differentials without saying anything negative about the other vendor. Sometimes you can create a special niche while you are talking to these potential customers.
For example: “Yes. I know that vendor. They are very professional and have great prices in larger, big package orders. What differentiates my services is that I focus on custom orders and sizes. Every client has an individual technical support person (a real person). Your assigned support person has the authority to solve your issue. They don’t need to wait for approval. So, whenever you need a more individualized service, please keep me in mind.”

 

Start networking with those same vendors

Stop regarding these vendors as competitors. Start networking and offering your help and services to them in a sub-contractor possibility. Find a way to collaborate by advertizing your niche or differentials to them. For instance, offer the vendor your services for customization to help them provide a fuller package to their clients.

How to you work with a vendor

 

Once you are in a working relationship with your “now collaborative” vendor, make sure you have a clear “understanding of work” between the companies. Some things you need to include:

  • Explicit description of the work and time line
  • Pricing or hourly rates – and how/when the payment will be made
  • Acceptance criteria (make sure you agree upon what “done” really means)
  • Consequences of note meeting the delivery timeline or quality requirements
  • Agreement of who is the project manager (decision maker) on the project.

Conclusion:

Clearly understanding the project, who is in charge, what the time lines are, and pricing/charges often greases the wheels to a smooth project.

 

For more information or help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

How can I grow my business with more services?

Posted on by

Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy entrepreneur:

How can I grow my business with more services?

My recommendation is to take the time to design your Product Funnel Strategy.

product funnel2Product Funnel Strategy

Within each separate brand – you should have a product funnel strategy that leads your target client up your product/service pricing structure. Normally people start off with free samples – to allow the target client to get to know you (like a first date). You may offer a complimentary discovery diagnostic sessions, newsletters, articles, short audios/video for your services.

 

Then you create some low, mid, high end offers that align with your brand and message. For example, you can create group workshops, subscriptions based programs, one-on-one service programs, and then high-end product bundles with some affiliated partners.

 

The idea is to design your road-map of how to start attracting people down that funnel. People may be first attracted to you and your message via some free offers, blog articles, free how-to videos. Then you will want to introduce those people (already taking advantage of your free services) to your lower or mid-range products like a subscription based program, a group consulting/mastermind program, a group workshop series, etc. Then you use your mid-range products to lead some clients to the higher range programs (which can be bundling of several products and services together)
If you take the time to create and design your product funnel upfront, you can better market and up-sale your business.

How do find the time to create these products/services?

Keep the end in mind. Whenever you are working with a current client, find ways to productize that effort. Build these programs as you go along. Reuse and recycle your intellectual property.

Some examples:

  • When someone asks you a question – convert your answer to a blog, an audio, an article, a webinar, a video
  • When you are working one-on-one with a client – create a worksheet, workbook, template or checklist
  • When you create a webinar, convert it to an online course with your webinars videos, audios, worksheets, etc
  • Then start bundling these different products and programs together for the higher priced programs.

Conclusion:

Keep the end in mind. Reuse and recycle your intellectual property and keep it in line with your brand and message.

 

For more information or help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

How do you deal with the pains of customer service?

Posted on by

Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur about his customer service plan.

How do you deal with the pains of customer service?

I work in the hospitality industry, and I spend a lot of money on what I call “guest investments” where I give some sort of discount, free merchandise, etc. in order to win back customers when something goes wrong. I can’t tell if it’s working or if I’m throwing money away. How does your business deal with the challenges of customer service and keeping people happy?

This question came up at a very appropriate time. I had recently discovered that my bank offered a “Private Bank Level” for clients that have 1 million dollars invested with the bank. At that level, they receive premiere customer series and 24 hour concierge service.

Consider doing this with your own customer service strategy. In an earlier article (Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?) we discussed the Product Funnel.

Product Funnel Strategy for Customer Service

Give low-interaction help instructions for clients that are taking advantage of your free products and services. Low-interaction help instructions can be in the form of (but not limited to):

  • FAQ articles and cheat sheets
  • Community Discussion Groups
  • Email response within 2 days

As the client invests more in your products and services, they get more access to support.

Structure your customer service as a product line of service. Give premium service to the people that are actually doing the most business with you. This will transform the “pain of customer service” into a product or business of customer service.

Customer Referral and Loyalty Programs

Also, don’t wait until there is a problem to implement your customer service program.   Be proactive with customer referral and loyalty programs. Visualize your product funnel in there area and incorporate rewards programs based on the amount of business your client is currently doing with you. Use your rewards program to entice your customers to do more business or move into the next price-point of programs and service.

Creating a great referral/loyalty/retention program not only elevates your customer service focus and energy – it automatically solves the “pains of customer service” as well. Take time to clarify what your Mission Statement and vision is regarding Premiere Client Service. Start dealing with clients instead of “customers”. Start building raving fans that will ultimately market your products/services for you – and simply release the customers that do not fit in your plan.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

When you clearly identify your niche or target market, some people will not fit. When someone doesn’t fit, there is only one thing that will make them happy. That one thing is to release them and direct them elsewhere.   This is where affiliated partners and business referrals come in.

You are still providing customer satisfactory solution – it’s just not with YOU. You are still making the client happy.

Quick summary:

  • Clarify your Vision of your target or ideal client
  • Create affiliated partnerships with those clients that are not ideal
  • Design a referral partnership agreement with those partners
  • Design a referral/loyalty/retention program for your target/ideal clients

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.

 

 

Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?

Posted on by

Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur about his marketing plan.

Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?

All markets have different performance and cost needs. Should we have multiple product brands – i.e. low cost/low performance and mid/high or have one brand that can stretch across multiple performance levels and price according to options? It makes sense to economize the product manufacturing chain but, what is everyone’s experience when consolidating a full portfolio into a single brand lineup?

Your Brand should solve a specific problem for a specific niche or class of people. If you have multiple visions/missions you should have separate branding and marketing strategies. For example: Sarah has her Health Coach business and she also sells her own brand of peanut butter.   Sarah should have separate branding and marketing strategies for those very different product and businesses.

 

product funnel2Product Funnel Strategy

Within each separate brand – you should have a product funnel strategy that leads your target client up your product/service pricing structure. Normally people start off with free samples – to allow the target client to get to know you (like a first date). In Sarah’s example, she may offer a complimentary discovery health sessions, newsletters, articles, short audios/video for her coaching; and free samples of your peanut butter for her other brand.

 

Then you create some low, mid, high end offers for each separate brand. In Sarah’s example, she can create group workshops, subscriptions based programs, one-on-one coaching programs, and then high-end product bundles with personal trainers, personal chef, image consultant, and a high-end shopping spree when your health goals are met.
If you only want to sell your coaching and peanut butter to High-Profile, Affluent clients (that’s your target client) — then you advertize, market and visit only the places where the High-Profile, Affluent people are. Your price points are selected to match the budgets of your target niche/clients.

 

Do you have an umbrella Brand that covers all your products?

You will have an Umbrella Company that owns the Health Coach and Peanut Butter business. But the branding will be different. For instance, Kraft owns Kool-Aid, Velveeta, Miracle Whip and Maxwell House. But each of these products have their separate branding, target market and product Funnels.

 

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.