“ 3 Ways a Management Consultant Could Rescue a Business Unit ”
Small Business Coaching - Management Consulting
Over my 20 years in the industry, I have come across 3 trends in management consulting. Many business leaders question the need to hire a management consultant. Some resist. Others feel they have no budget. You discover soon that their business isn’t producing results. You look closer and find out they have tried every tactic.
Nothing has worked. Yet, no one thinks of looking outside. Does that sound like a story you have heard before?
That brings us here. What could a management consultant do? What part of the business could change? To answer that question, I’d like to highlight 3 areas, where management consulting does what a business unit could find difficult to do––at least without objective advice or support.
1) Solve Complex Issues
When business units underperform, there could be plenty of reasons. It not only touches your business strategy but also your business reporting layout and culture.
If you look closer, you find out that most often it is the delicate neck that connects the head with the body––your business strategy with everything you call “carrying out the work”. That’s what breaks. That’s what research shows.
And that’s why you need a separate view––one that digs deeper not only into the work people do, but how they decide and how they rank their work.
2) Remove blind spots in team communications
When people communicate in a team, you are talking about culture. It is not only what they write but also how they think about what they want to write. It is how thinking turns into speech.
Do you speak before or after you know the other person’s style of communication? And how do you discover other people’s styles and preferences when it comes to expression.
That’s where a management consultant could add a team workshop to iron out barriers and give a fresh approach to talk to anyone.
3) Industry Strategy
Some business units are still working in the past. I mean they are using plans that have either changed or transformed. If you look at what the current pandemic has done in ways of disrupting the market, I’m sure you’ll agree. Yet, it has also created new markets, where virtual teams thrive.
This is where a management consultant could help in building plans. That in turn will clearly help you build a repeatable procedure. Isn’t that what you want?
When you are ready to weave in a management consultant while freeing up your people focusing on what you do best, then you are ready for the next step.
As you move forward in hiring for management consulting services, you might find your business improving in ways that allow you to easily grow and there is nothing that could stop you––not even a pandemic!
Written by Suresh Iyengar, P.E., President, Business Unit Execution LLC––if you ever wanted to get ahead in starting your business, running your business or growing your business then invest in a management consultant in Houston, and set up your FREE Explosive Business Results phone call. CLICK HERE.
“5 Steps You Could Take in Growing Your Business Even When Others Shrink”
Small Business Coaching - Growing Your Business
Have you tried everything you could only to come up short in growing your business? Has the pandemic affected every nerve of your business? You’re not alone when you feel this way. You have company.
Many businesses find themselves unable to see the fast funding. It doesn’t seem so fast any more. Others feel that their customers have left them hanging by the thread. Can you blame them? Maybe not.
Whether you couldn’t bump up your efforts or whether customers fled, you have in your hands the best choice for your business.
In this time, finding new incomes is not only your choice, but it is the only choice. It makes sense when you want to stay in business. That is why I’d like to suggest these 5 ways to creatively re-build your business––brick by brick.
1) Find the basic need
Just as you begin to feel that customers have no money to spend, you discover there is still disposable income out there. It is for you to find it. Check your service and re-align it to the most pressing need of this hour. Ask yourself: What would customers need now? And how is my service or offer filling that need? Once you get the answer, re-package your services. You will get traction. Your customers will connect with you. You’ve just discovered their basic need.
2) Craft longer agreements
When you find yourself in a pandemic, one has to expect that spending would shift. It will go toward essential items. That pummels most industries. Exclude healthcare, medical or even media. You would find it harder to sell your goods and services in most non-essential groups. That’s how it is now.
What could we do then to not only continue but survive and still thrive?
You might be better off in offering big discounts to customers who sign up for the longer term. Simplify these agreements. You could work with existing or future clients. This would allow you to collect monthly services or sell goods with an up-front charge. The more steps you take to extend terms, the more you’d boost your cash flow. And when the economy recovers, you will find yourself recovering sooner than later. Who wouldn’t want that?
3) Follow the spending trail
Even when the economy is reeling under a pandemic, people will find ways to spend. If people are spending on goods online, you could get online as well. If you did not have a website with e-commerce, here is your chance for growing your business. Get creative. Build that online store. Invest now so it pays you back sooner than later.
Find out what people will need when they want to recover faster. Then fill that need by repackaging your services or goods. In doing so, you would be creating a want that did not previously exist.
4) Change business model
When you see how automakers started producing masks, ventilators and PPE equipment using car making machines, it is obvious they had to adapt.
You have to do the same.
That could happen when you change your services to cater to a new audience amid a pandemic. Changing the business model could mean changing services or goods to offer relief. Relief to people who are desperately needing help. You could relabel your goods and adjust them to serve a newer purpose. That will get you ahead not only in building rapport but creating a new breed of loyal customers when the economy returns.
5) Re-invent your procedures
Now is the time for review. See how you have been working in delivering goods and services. Do you have a Customer Relationship Method? It’s called CRM. If you don’t, you could inexpensively set one up. If you did not do e-mail marketing previously, you could now set that up to nurture your customers periodically. You will save time and money building that trust. The same trust that seemed so elusive before. And that’s exactly what you want, isn’t it?
Taking these steps will keep you a step ahead of the pandemic. And who knows you might even prosper and thrive when other businesses barely just survive.
Want even faster results? Are you ready to discover how? Call 281.410.5375 to grow your small business.
Written by Suresh Iyengar, P.E., President, Business Unit Execution LLC––“Explosive Business Coaching Houston Results For Small Business”. Want even faster results? Are you ready to discover how? Call 281.410.5375 and speak to your Profitability Coach Houston
“ How To Prospect in Business in The Midst of a World Pandemic ”
Small Business Coaching - Prospect in Business
Can any business survive without sales? You may already know the answer to that question. To have sales, you have to prospect in business.
That is why you need prospecting. But what is it?
It is the bus that transports customers to your door. Since any bus needs upkeep, you will need to refine your prospecting methods. And uphold them.
A restaurant on a freeway attracts hungry customers.
Prospecting in business is identical. You are serving customers who are at least half way interested in your menu. Otherwise, you will drive them away. And they will never return.
In the digital world, we call it the bounce rate. It is the exit rate – the rate at which people leave your site.
One could call a warm lead a prospect in business. It is someone who is at least half way interested in your offer. You could also do the opposite way, where a prospect is a warm lead.
However a cold lead is one who has no idea about your service or offer. Yet, you could’ve marked them as having some interest. That’s what compels you to reach out to them.
In the current COVID-19 pandemic, digital marketing has taken on new meaning. It is the only surviving method to prospect in business. You could say that at least for the professional services industry.
Even in this milieu, there are 3 main ways you could prospect.
1) Inbound Marketing
In this method, you draw customers to you. You don’t go out to customers. One may achieve that by building strong content that matches the potential buyer.
Carve out your buyer profile. That means identifying buyers.
Use surveys. Capture the words buyers use to describe their buying decision. Then use the same words in building content for other similar buyers. Vicariously place them on the same journey. It will give you the best road to improving your site content.
2) Outbound Marketing
Here you are reaching out to potential buyers through email.
Cold emails are effective when you offer value.
For example, you could give away a report or eBook you’ve written that helps prospects during this COVID-19 phase. It could be a way for others to could get financial relief. This step offers your customers more value in growing their business. In exchange you will build rapport with them.
3) Networking and Referrals
Referrals are the best way to get new clients. Drop the referrer’s name in your chat. Research shows that it is 10X simpler to get clients through referrals because of your previous client. You no longer have to warm them up to you. It’s done for you.
Finally, use networking. Even if it means using virtual conferences, it works. Such methods will broadcast your services.
Eventually, your prospecting in business will produce momentum. Sooner than later you will find more prospects through certain networks than others.
Written by Suresh Iyengar, P.E., President, Business Unit Execution LLC––if you ever wanted to get ahead in starting your business, running your business or growing your business without spending thousands of dollars on a business consultant in Houston, set up your FREE Explosive Business Results phone call. CLICK HERE.
