It’s the first day of a new quarter! Is your company ready to improve profitability this summer? If not, it’s time to rethink your strategies!
Ten Profitability Tips
If you are hoping to boost your company’s profitability this next quarter, it’s time to put the following ten tips into action.
1. Review what was successful in this year’s first two quarters. It may be a chance to do a quarterly or even semi-annual company-wide review. You’ll want to understand what created profits this year and what if anything lost you money. The last thing you want to do is re-invest your company’s earnings into a failed product or marketing campaign.
2. Invest in money makers. The saying “you have to spend money to make money” is one that we hear over and over again. It’s really an incomplete statement. You certainly do need to invest money in areas that make you money to improve them, but you can also cut costs by eliminating or tightening spending in areas that don’t generate income.
For example, if your customer service department is keeping clients coming to your business and referring customers to your sales team for upgrades – they are making you money. This is an area in which investment in the form of additional training, better systems, and more will pay off. However, if you have a surly receptionist that sends customers away before they’ve made a purchase, you will need to remove your investment from him or her and replace the person holding that job with someone who will contribute to the overall income generated by your company.
3. Review and revise goals, purposes, and plans. You have yearly goals that you’d like to reach, actions you’d like to accomplish, and a way to get from A to B. It’s time to take a look at your year’s plans and see where you are at. You may need to revise or reinforce your goals and purposes or revamp the plan to be sure you reach your objective by year’s end.
4. Make sure any new products launched are paying for themselves. Providing a new product or service can feel like a risk, but the best way to mitigate that risk is to get the product or service paying for itself as rapidly as possible. Keeping close tabs on product launches, P&L reports, sales and marketing statistics, and more can help you make the right call about existing and new products/services.
5. Survey your employees and customers. You can get valuable information and feedback from both employees and customers. Be sure to survey both camps to gain insight into existing campaigns, product efficacy, and company policies. You can quickly nip a PR disaster in the bud if you simply talk to those who work with your business and find ways to make your systems better.
6. Train your employees effectively. Many companies expect new employees or employees who have been promoted to know and understand the business and policies immediately. Some companies give a new employee a day or two to read up on company policies – but that’s usually about it. This can cost you money in the long run due to dropped tasks and unknown responsibilities. Providing effective and rapid training to a new or recently promoted employee can increase their rate of success and, in the end, make your company more money – rapidly.
7. Have salespeople concentrate on both nurturing existing leads while still making the easy sales. A commonly lost client in any business is the dropped lead. This is someone who may not be ready to make a purchase immediately but is considering doing so in the future. It’s very easy to keep nurturing these leaders through automated email drip campaigns, occasional “check in” calls, and more. However, many salespeople will allow that lead to go to a different company and instead concentrate on the immediate or “easy” sale. Have your sales leadership drill in lead follow-up and find ways to automate lead nurturing to increase sales to past or potential customers.
8. Embrace automation. Many jobs can be made easier and more efficient through automation. Find out what automation is most effective for your industry and embrace it. This can be anything from a phone system where the customer presses “1” to get to customer service to your bank downloading information to Quickbooks automatically. Small changes can make a huge difference.
9. Organize effectively. Time and energy are wasted in companies across the world due to inadequate or inefficient organization. This is entirely unnecessary. Here at Business Success Consulting Group, we help companies find and resolve organizational dysfunction, helping them save time and money and allowing business to run smoothly.
10. Reward employees who work to achieve company goals. Providing hard-working and effective employees with additional motivation through rewards and benefits can help your company grow. Not only do such policies attract great workers, but they also encourage employees to give their job 100%.
The summer quarter can either be a great one or can put your company into a slump. Applying the tips above can help you boost your profitability and make it a great quarter!
Are you unsure of how you can get the biggest bang out of 2017? We provide organizational consulting, executive coaching, sales consulting, and more. Contact Business Success Consulting Group today to get a free business assessment.
