4 Keys to Unlocking this Economy

As the CEO of two fast growing firms, one providing outsourced IT and the other outsourced marketing, I have seen too many firms fail to achieve their maximum potential. While we have grown at more than 30% in the ‘down year’ of 2008, some have failed to grow - and even contract. While these underachievers blame the economy and everything but themselves, I have found four easily avoidable mistakes that many share.

Key Point #1: Stay Positive

You are the single greatest and most likely reason your firm will succeed in 2009. If you are positive, your team will be positive. If you are confident, your sales team will be. If your team is not down and self-doubting, they will overcome anything put before them with your leadership. Simply put, it all starts with you. You must remain optimistic, positive and eager to get to work. Attitudes are contagious - be sure yours represents the one you want others to have.

I know remaining positive is easier said than done. The news is all negative and your peers are fearful and pessimistic. The answer is simple; stop surrounding yourself with it. Turn off the news and stop hanging around those who bring you down. Stop the spread of the pessimism ‘cancer’ and decide to not participate in the recession!

Key Point #2: Keep & Grow Your Customers

There is no easier customer to have than one you keep. If you don’t know they are happy, ask them with a survey or focus group. If you don’t know they like the breadth or depth of your offering, ask them. If you don’t know they won’t buy more from you, give them reasons to do so.

I recommend showing that you love your clients by ramping up your communication via a newsletter, preferably an electronic version, and email campaigns to regularly remind them of what you sell. You need to keep your firm ‘top of mind’ and ensure that they know everything you do for them and, even more importantly, what you could do to help them succeed!

I believe that most clients would prefer to work with fewer vendors. It is easier and a single vendor increases accountability for the overall solution and, as a result, increases quality and service. Take some time to brainstorm about what more you could do for your clients. Gather those you trust, away from your office, to brainstorm on ideas to increase the breadth and depth of your offering. If your firm currently implements a solution, think about providing ongoing maintenance. If you provide part of a solution, think about the rest. If you specialize, think diversify and compliment. If you focus on one industry, think of others that may buy what you sell. Chances are you will find logical extensions of products or services you sell that could help increase your bottom line.

Key Point #3: Find New Customers

This is surely easier said than done, especially now. Things that used to work, including doing nothing, no longer do. Challenging times require challenges to assumptions and approaches. The key is to find the most effective approach or approaches, with ‘effective’ being defined as the approach with the lowest cost per qualified lead or profit dollar.

I have found that the best method is to identify all of the avenues you could use to find a prospect. Be sure to include ‘new media’ forms of advertising, including email marketing and Internet/website marketing as they are often the lowest cost form of leads you can get. Estimate the number of leads and the cost of the campaign or event and divide the two to derive the cost per lead. Finally, put the options in reverse order with the lowest cost per lead at the top.

Once you have the list, execute every campaign or event you can afford that has a projected return greater than the cost starting with the one with the lowest cost per lead. So many people use emotion, convenience and laziness, versus logic, and fail to recognize that spending to get a client may be worth it.

Key Point #4: Know What You Don’t Know

It is more important to know what you don’t know than what you do know. Be honest with yourself and ask if you or members of your team are responsible for doing critical business activities they are not trained in, or are not best at, out of convenience or fear of alternatives. This is very common in marketing, IT and accounting. Don’t be prideful. If you are not and do not have the best, find someone who is. Look for people who structure their offerings such that their interests are aligned with yours. If you succeed and grow, so will they. Firms with this approach traditionally have fixed costs based on profit, number of employees or other measures correlated to growth. Firms that charge by the hour, outage or other similar measures should be avoided as they are motivated by the opposite of what you desire.

Addressing these four things will ensure that your firm is one that capitalizes on the economy instead of succumbing to it. Firms that achieve maximum potential care for their customers, innovate in the ways they find new and surround themselves with experts who know what they don’t.

About the Author
Terry Hedden is CEO of Infinity Business Systems (ibsfl.com), a premier provider of technology solutions specializing in Managed Services, IT Outsourcing, Cisco networking and telephony and advanced Microsoft solutions. He is also CEO of Infinity Marketing Solutions (infinitymsolutions.com), a provider of outsourced marketing solutions for SMB clients. He can be reached at (813) 514-4427.