Adi Klevit, founder and CEO of Business Success Consulting Group, hosts a podcast called Systems Simplified. Each episode features a fascinating interview with industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and authors. As you can imagine, these episodes contain valuable lessons that benefit all listeners.
We did a “round-up” article based on the Systems Simplified podcast back in June, which you can read here. As it’s December, we wanted to revisit some of our past key podcasts and share more lessons learned from these fascinating interviews.
You can always binge-listen by subscribing to the podcast in your favorite podcatcher and then listening to all episodes – past and present. But, if you don’t have time for that (and many of us don’t), here is another round-up of lessons learned when interviewing thought-leaders for the Systems Simplified podcast.
Ten Lessons Learned on the Systems Simplified Podcast
Adi Klevit has interviewed thought leaders in various industries, discussing business systems, scalability, and much more over the past several months. There are many lessons to be gleaned from these conversations, so we decided to pick ten essential topics discussed and share the lessons conveyed in the discussions.
Here they are:
1. Save time – it’s the one thing you can’t get back.
Many business owners focus on ROI when it comes to their companies. This focus is, of course, deserved. After all, income is an absolutely vital part of any business. However, we often focus on making more money by spending or selling more time. Try flipping this strategy on its head and see how you can save time while still making the same or more money. What would that look like for your business?
2. Focus on what you do best.
In the beginning, most company owners try to establish a broad reach. They focus on garnering more and more clients and providing more and more products or services. Growing and scaling is the perfect time to, instead, focus on what your company does best.
Consider, what do you want to double down on? What client type could you specialize in? Which niche needs your company’s specialized touch?
Understanding this and refocussing on what your company does best will provide you with a greater ability to provide excellent customer care while also reaching a deeper pool of customers.
3. When things always feel frantic, or there are too many emergencies, it’s time to systematize.
Are you feeling frantic? Is your team constantly putting out fires? Do you have your fingers in too many pies? It’s time to systematize so that you can create stability and, most importantly, step away from the everyday so that you can plan for future growth.
Start systemizing by answering this question: What are the major components of your company that, if you had them documented with processes and procedures, you’d get the biggest ROI?
That’s where you need to start systemizing.
4. Documentation should be woven into the DNA of how the operation runs.
One of the interviewees of Systems Simplified said this, and it really hit home.
If you are uncertain about how to get your systems documented, the answer is just to start. Document when things go poorly, but also when they improve. This is a significant first step in systematizing.
The documentation you record will help you to build systems. It will also be an excellent resource as you compare metrics and other data and wonder “what was going on during that time?” Finally, documentation can help you understand how an employee is performing so you can recognize great moments and point them toward the areas that need correction.
5. When you aren’t sure what to do, do something.
There are moments in every business when the company executives are stumped. These moments define a leader and allow them to show their leadership skills.
When you don’t know what to do next, it’s time to do something to get out of that hole. Here are a few suggestions that you can follow in moments of indecision:
- Get training in an area that makes you feel uncertain.
- Ask experts and other leaders for help.
- Document what is going on, either formally or informally through journaling.
- Discuss the situation with your business consultant.
- Pull out the data you have and review it. Data can include metrics, systems, written goals, your business plan, and more.
- Systematize the areas that cause the most chaos.
Your business will only benefit from your thoughtful action when you aren’t sure what to do.
6. Set up a strategy before you actually commit to doing something.
In a recent episode about marketing, the interviewee discussed creating a marketing strategy before leaping into common marketing spaces like social media, print ads, and more. Instead of taking a scattershot approach, he recommends creating a true strategy and then implementing that strategy.
The same principle is true for any part of your business. It is vital to look at the whole company and create a strategy before leaping into action. In marketing, this can look like considering all of the component parts of what the client needs, what your business can do, and how you can formulate an offering to solve the client’s problem. Once that has been determined, you can then decide what platforms you will use, your messaging, and more.
7. Do more than track data/metrics.
As we have written in past articles, it is vital to track your metrics. But, once you have them, you need to qualify the data and decide what to do with it. After collecting the statistics, you can then prioritize by department and by goal to understand how the information you’ve gathered affects your company.
8. When documenting processes, don’t focus on the exceptions. Find out what typically happens.
Documenting processes can be difficult because some circumstances will occasionally go awry. We often focus on the differences in steps, rather than the similarities, making it seem like systematizing your business, in particular, will not work. This isn’t the case – there are always systems to be used in companies.
There will be variances, but it’s best to focus on similarities when creating processes. Take a look at what typically happens and then find ways to deal with variances once the typical actions are documented.
9. Sales is just a process.
There are about a million books written on every step of the sales process. We, as human beings, add complications to sales, making them seem much more difficult than they are. The truth is, sales is a process. A salesperson must follow each step to get the desired outcome.
When you document and systematize your sales process, then measure the results, you will see that a small tweak to the process itself will have a large effect on the outcome.
10. Creating an exceptional experience can be systematized.
Everything from answering the phones to the way a customer is transitioned from sales to the service the customer receives can be systematized and made exceptional. If you want to create an incredible experience for every customer, systematize it.
We learn so many lessons from our fascinating interviewees each week – and we are fortunate to be able to put them into practice immediately. If you would like to take advantage of the many lessons we have learned, get in touch. We would love to help you!
