Posts Tagged: Part

by rvdburgt

24 Ways To BOOST Your Sales! (Part 1)

Just when we think we’ve grasped what’s happening in business, something changes to disrupt the precarious balance. It may occur in the economy, an industry, a region, a particular market or technology that alters even the most flexible business plan.

Establishing a strategy, then staying with it, was possible for most businesses until the last decade. Planning a year or more in advance was relatively easy. Ups and downs would occur but with a high degree of predictability. Hitting sales and revenue targets was almost taken for granted.


Now, dramatic changes in technology, international conditions and distribution channels are constantly upsetting the balance. Banks are looking more like insurance agencies and insurance agencies are quickly taking on the characteristics of banks. Wal-Mart had long avoided selling name brand fashions–until the nation’s department store companies were reconfigured and 
downsized. Suddenly, Wal-Mart saw an opportunity to move brand-name clothing lines.

How can a business cope with a marketplace where erratic conditions are–and will be–the norm? What is required is a strategy that takes constant change into account. Even with notable disruption, it is possible to attract new customers, keep present ones and increase sales.

Here are 24 practical, useful, put-them-to-work-now ideas for building business in unpredictable business conditions.

1. Get sharp. 
Yes, how a company presents itself makes a difference. Is the logo appropriate? Is it dated? Does it communicate the right message and the correct image? Is the president the only one who understands it? What about the company colors? Are they reminiscent of the late fifties? Do the 
letterhead, mailing labels and business cards convey a strong, positive message? Or, are they dull and ordinary looking? If you don’t think this is important, your competitors will be thrilled. Corporate identity is the face you put on your company.

2. Target the right person. 
The big job in marketing and sales is getting to the right people inside a company. Addressing mail to “Facilities Manger” or printing a “routing slip” on the outside of the envelope is ineffective. Hitting the target is the challenge. Scoring a bull’s eye means making contact with the right individuals and is the only way to make the sale. Taking time to be highly targeted in business communication is essential.

3. Tell the story one piece at a time. 
There’s a tendency to jam everything about a business into one brochure, ad or newsletter. “What have we left out?” is the most common question. The difficult job is to pull it all apart, break ideas into their component parts and then roll out a continuing, intriguing campaign. Communicating a message over a period of time works best because it allows it to sink in slowly.

4. Focus on what customers care about. 
After listening to the admissions director talk about what should be shown in the school’s new recruiting video, the marketing consultant asked, “Is this what parents and prospective students are interested in knowing?” Suddenly, everyone became less confident. Someone suggested asking the student tour guides what questions the visiting parents and kids asked? Whether creating an ad, a brochure, or a sales presentation, knowing what the customer wants, needs and expects is what works.
 
I strive to bring you the best information to enhance your business plan and its various components like small business development, business marketing and best of all business profits!

James Burgess
Management Consulant, Synergen-X

by Businesscards EXPRESS

Enterprise resource planning software, known as (ERP) brought about one of the first revolutions in manufacturing efficiency. However, ERP does not cover those manual-intensive operations that take place on the plant-floor. The plant floor is riddled with inefficient practices that both waste time and money and slow down productivity. In today’s tough market place, and with growing competition and reducing profit margins, it has become essential for businesses to improve their manufacturing processes and to widen the application of so called ‘lean principles’ to the plant floor. ERP has made some inroads into the area of manufacturing operations, including order management, inventory management, works scheduling, materials planning, cost control and reporting, but as ERP was not designed to address the needs of the plant-floor itself, it has not and cannot, answer the challenge of making the plant floor as efficient as needed. With ERP not being able to cover the needs of manufacturing businesses they have been forced to introduce a number of ‘work arounds’ so that the essential data that flows to, from and around the shop-floor can be managed and processed. These include

- Mountains of (unnecessary) paperwork

- Manual processes

- Excel Spreadsheets

- Ad-hoc (often inefficient), custom-built applications

These and workarounds like them are directly opposite to the integrated business system approach (that is ERP) and compromise all the benefits delivered by the lean manufacturing culture. This lack of integration between the ERP systems and the plant-floor causes a ‘disconnect’ that costs the business both time and money, and in extreme circumstances could lead to the loss of business too, as more efficient operators steal their trade by producing goods faster, if not cheaper.

Without a proper Manufacturing Execution Software system, information relating to production schedules and engineering changes are often communicated slowly to operators, which in turn results in delays and wasteful errors. Other the other hand, data flows back to management on paper, these forms having then to be read and most often then re-keyed into the ERP system, with all the wasted time and potential for errors that this entails. The problems for business are also exacerbated by the fact that the managers of the business cannot see what is happening on the plant-floor in ‘real time’ thus making it difficult, if not impossible to react quickly to changing conditions and thus to identify potential problems.

The Cry of the Financial Controller

Financial controllers of many businesses have been heard to cry something like:- “We need to find ways to reduce direct and indirect manufacturing costs so that we can maximise profits”

There are two main ways to keep costs down and maximise profitability, these being to reduce the time spent on all non value added activities and the other to reduce material waste.

One way is to reduce the time spent by plant-floor operators and personnel in the supporting of the functions that manage the vast amounts of data required to support the manufacturing process. In many cases organisations still rely on paper to transport this vital data. ‘Paper’ in this case including routing cards, schedules, work instructions & drawings, inspection records and many other items.

A MES system provides for a completely paperless plant floor environment using touch screen based Workstation interfaces. The data that is required by the operators is delivered electronically to the operators in the context, that is just for the process and product variant that they are working on at the moment. Data flows back from the shop-floor via these very same touchscreens and barcode scanners.

This efficient environment allows more time to be spent producing products, rather than managing, coordinating and interpreting paper-based data. As more time is spent on production, less time is wasted and thus manufacturing costs are reduced.

Besides this obvious improvement, staff are more motivated as they are provided with up to date work-instructions and all the visual aids and revision control information they need them and not later when it is too late and time has been wasted.

These improvements result in less material waste, better motivated and thus more efficient staff, and more importantly more products are manufactured right first time.

This is just one way that MES can help a manufacturing business become more efficient, other ways will be related in this series of articles on MES.

by rvdburgt

24 Ways To BOOST Your Sales! (Part 2)

5. Tell customers how to think about your company. 
We come to conclusions by making comparisons. If you don’t let customers and prospects know why it is in their best interests to do business with you or buy your product, they won’t. The rating of life insurance companies makes an impact on customers. The J.D. Powers’ customer satisfaction survey on cars and personal computer manufacturers influences buying behavior. Wise companies spend time and effort consciously influencing the way they are perceived by customers, prospects, bankers and stockholders.

6. Make your offers outstanding. 
Customers are cautious. They don’t like being put on the spot; they don’t want to make a mistake. This is why offers are essential. “Try it for 30 days…free.” “We won’t deposit your credit card slip for a month.” “Your satisfaction is guaranteed.” “Take the car for the weekend and drive it all you want.” The goal is to overcome the customer’s reluctance.

7. Be in the right place at the right time. 
”Why didn’t I think of you last week when we bought the new….” Some salespeople simply shrug off such comments. “Oh, well. I can’t be in the right place every time.” Wrong. Being in front of the customer is today’s assignment. Developing a consistent program for staying in front of customers 
regularly is the challenge. A mix of seminars, newsletters, bulletins, fact sheets, special events and informative articles will keep you in the customer’s mind.

8. Name your product or service. 
One of the best ways to differentiate your products or services from all the rest is to give them distinctive names. A building contractor with expertise in remodeling during off-hours calls himself the “stealth” remodeler. A fuel oil dealer doesn’t talk about service. He emphasizes “ComfortCare Service.” The idea is to imbue ordinary ideas with new meaning thereby separating your company from your competitors. Make sure, however, that the name appeals to your customers and not just to you.

9. Be relentless. 
Persistence is power in marketing and sales. Far too many firms fail in their efforts because they don’t follow through long enough to produce proper results. Marketing momentum comes from a consistent effort. Once you start a newsletter, issue it on schedule. It takes time for customers to comprehend what you are doing and for prospects to get acquainted–and comfortable–with a business.

10. Get rid of the self-serving nonsense. 
Most company publications, ads, letters, brochures, and other sales materials are filled with words, photographs and information that do nothing more than toot the company’s horn. No one cares that the business says it is the “best,” “oldest” or the “biggest.” Pictures of the staff are only interesting to the staff. A better approach is to ask prospects what they want to know about your company. We doubt anyone will be anxious to see pictures of the CEO, chairman of the board or the executive vice president.

I strive to bring you the best information to enhance your business plan and its various components like small business development, business marketing and best of all business profits!

James Burgess
Management Consulant, Synergen-X

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