Like many business owners, I struggle with Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS); the insatiable desire to chase something new – be it a new business idea, feature or goal – instead of focusing on what’s in front of me.
Sure it’s more exciting and feels good, but it comes at a cost. For me, the cost was not focusing on existing parts of the business that had the potential to produce more fruit if given more love and attention, especially from me (the founder).
A critical area I hadn’t tended to for a while was sales. After some reflection, I concluded we were actually leaving money on the table due to immature systems and processes. For example, enquiries were not being followed up fast enough and our sales materials (slides, brochures, scripts, etc) were out of date, so we were probably losing deals we could have won.
In hindsight, I think we had accepted a “good enough” sales process and accidentally missed out on “great!”.
It was time to make our sales processes great again at CreditorWatch Collect.
I dusted off the sales books on my shelf. I listened to podcasts. I talked to fellow business owners I like, trust and who enjoy craft beer. Over a few weeks, I had pieced together an action plan for the team and I to implement. After a couple of months focus, we saw a meaningful uplift in sales i.e. in one month alone, we grew revenue by 10 per cent selling four times what we did the previous month.
Importantly, we didn’t change anything else apart from our sales process… There was not an increase in leads or enquiries over the period. We simply squeezed more juice from the orange we already had.
Of course, your mileage will vary when it comes to improving your business. But it is worth asking yourself: Where am I leaving money on the table in my business? Is it jobs not completed? Is it too many faults or mistakes? Is it invoices not going out on time? Is it quotes not being followed up again and again until you get a firm yes or no?
If you can pinpoint an area, that if improved, could provide a substantial improvement to your bottom line, cash flow, family-time or stress levels, then read some books, go to a seminar, or work with your team, partner or peers to piece together a plan to get it done.
Lastly, if the area you pinpoint is “improving cash flow” then do drop us a line. My team and I have spent literally thousands of hours thinking about cash flow and have helped thousands of businesses all around the world do more with the cash they already have in the business.
Click here to book a chat or sign up for a trial and let our team guide you towards a more stress-free cash-rich business.
Side note: The improvements I was able to achieve in our sales process over a few short months did not require me to spend any money on external consultants. Instead, I consulted books, my team and my peers and relied on my intuition to create a plan and execute it.
Written by Matt McFedries – CreditorWatch Collect CEO & Co-Founder
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