1. Client Situation: 10 years in business; working 2 years to develop new service offering complementary to existing business; big opportunity to up-sell to existing clients as well as develop new clients locally and nationally.
2. Client Frustration: Growth in new line has been very, very slow; Potential is great, Vision is clear, Working 12-16 hour days and can’t seem to move forward.
3. Client Action: Hires consultant (yours truly)
4. Client Process: We refocus on the big picture; Creates a longer-term game plan; 12-month implementation plan; 1-month action list; measurable milestones and meeting schedule.
5. Client Results: Three months later: New marketing strategy implemented; old (ineffective) sales person reassigned; new sales person hired; two new large clients signed on;
6. Client loses sight of big picture: Client is “too busy: to continue with process (see #4 above).
Two months later the client approached me again. The owner had lost control of a number of areas of the business and was afraid of losing more than sleep.
You need a plan, not just to get you out of a bad situation but to keep you on track – day after day. You don’t touch a hot pan, burn your finger, use a hot pad holder only to stop using the holder after the blister goes away, do you?
When your plan begins to work you will need to make adjustments, not stop the plan. In my client’s case, one of the things we did was to change one process she had for managing client satisfaction. Until recently my client reviewed every client record of every client contact, for every week and sometimes made calls. When there were 25 clients that process may have worked; with 125 clients it’s a different story – it’s a different company.
What is your plan? Are you too busy? …too tired? …too poor to have a plan? Be BOLD, and think again.
