Ms. Sarah C. G.'s Blog

Anyone that knows me, knows I love music and sing karaoke. I was learning one of Adele’s songs and listening to the lyrics: “Should I just keep chasing pavements, even if it leads nowhere?” I started thinking about the things we chase in our own life that lead nowhere. Even though this song by Adele is referring to love, it really can apply to pursuing business. Does your firm have a way to analyze if the business you chase is leading anywhere? Better yet, do you know what efforts are paying off? Below are things to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of your business activities:

Are You Chasing the Flavor?

A recent client described that each week they discuss the potential business everyone is pursuing. However, each sequential week everyone was chasing the flavor of the week. She had no idea what happened to the previous week’s pursuits and if anyone was even following up until she received a proposal request. To avoid chasing the flavor of the week and ensure your firm is following-up on all opportunities, consider these steps:

1. Document All Stages with Action Items: You don’t need a proposal to document the opportunities you are pursuing. Even if business is in a discovery or assessment phase, documenting these efforts with actions items can remind you to follow-up.
2. Identify Trends and Outstanding Items: Using an integrated system allows marketing and executives to track the progress of the entire company through reports to identify if there are trends or items that are outstanding.
3. Administrator and Automation: Identifying someone to administer and review your pursuits is critical to ensuring progress. Also look at ways to automate alerts to remind you when you should follow-up.
4. Win/Loss Report: It’s important to know how successful you are. Knowing the history of past pursuits can help future go/no-go decisions and improve your win rate. By developing a win/loss report and evaluating how successful you are by department, opportunity champion, and the type of project can help you make better decisions in the future.

Are You the Nurturing Type?

Many of us attend events, are a part of an organization, and are involved in business development efforts in hopes of nurturing business. However, most individuals and firms don’t know the effectiveness of their efforts. To ensure your firm is making good use of your time, consider these steps:

1. Network vs. Attend: Not every event you attend will result in business. There are many reasons to network. However, showing up to an event doesn’t equate to networking. After attending an event log who you talked with. What did you discover about the individual and what was important to them? Think about how you might follow-up with that individual. Maybe there is a subject they are interested in, someone they want to meet, a project they are working on, or you found out something about their personal life. How can you use your knowledge or connections to follow-up? Social media is making it easier to connect with people and stay up-to-date with their changes. Be sure to personalize your request.
2. Get Involved: If you are a member of an organization, take the plunge and be active. Think about your audience when you chose an organization and then get involved in a committee, the board, or become a speaker. Volunteering can help you gain exposure, connect you with decision makers, and allow you to demonstrate your expertise. Joining SMPS was one of the best decisions I could have made for my company and career.
3. Return on Investment: We all tend to hear the phrase Return on Investment related to effectiveness of business efforts. Another way to look at ROI is ask yourself, if you had to pay for the marketing or business effort out of your own money do you think it would be worth the effort? A great way of looking at the effectiveness is to track the time you spend toward business development efforts and compare it to the business you obtained from those efforts. When you compare the expense vs. the business you received, was it worth the effort? Sometimes efforts take months or even years to pay off. So when attending tradeshow events or yearly efforts, allow two years to determine the effectiveness.
4. Building Business: Most people look at clients as Existing or New. I would challenge you to look at them as one of three categories: Prospective, Nurturing, and Maintenance. Prospective clients are those you want to do business with, maintenance clients are those you continue to do business with, while nurturing clients are those you’ve done business with or have recently received business from. Your message and how your firm will gain business from all categories will vary. Keeping in mind that it is seven times easier to maintain an existing client than is to go out and get a new client; moving clients to the maintenance category is the goal. So where should you spend your time and how do you know when you are effective? First you need to define what justifies a maintenance client. Is it the number of projects or dollar amount over a period of time? With an integrated database system, your data can trigger when the criteria is met and send out an automated report. This information informs “Client Champions” and executives when client business increases or decreases and provides marketing with insight for nurture campaigns.

I hope my inspiration from Adele will help your firm build business and avoid chasing pavements. Let us know what inspires you and what your firm does to ensure growth.

Many studies have been done on why implementations fail. Through my own successes and failures implementing CRM and ERP solutions, I’d like to share with you eight key areas that impact implementations:

1. Executive Support – In order to get buy-in from employees on the importance of using any system or adopting any process you implement, you first MUST have executive support. Your firm is investing a lot of time and money into this decision. The message must come from the top. If the executives of your firm don’t see the importance then others will probably feel the same way. As with any new process or change, it’s important to demonstrate a ROI and the key areas that will be improved within your company.
2. Establish Goals/Objectives – Make a list of the items that need to be improved within your company. With that list, apply Pareto’s 80/20 rule to your business. Focus on the 20% that matters and the other 80% of issues will fall into place. What information do you need to grow your company? What processes do you need in place to make things better, faster, and easier? Be specific.These goals should drive the functionality of your solution.
3. Invest in Training – A vital part, commonly overlooked in an implementation, is training. Training enables and empowers your users. Taking the “they’ll figure it out” approach is a quick way to discourage users from using the system. Learning from experts on how to do it quicker, more efficiently, and correctly from the beginning can keep you from feeling you’ve wasted money on a system. The system doesn’t run the process; people do! The system will only be as good as the information put into it so make sure to support the people within your firm that will help keep the process running smoothly.
4. Choose a Champion – You’ve heard the saying about too many cooks in the kitchen, right? Designate a consensus-building champion for the implementation. It's important to establish roles and responsibilities.  I recommend the following three main roles: Project Coordinator (PC), Executive Sponsor (ES) and Application Administrator (AA). The PC is involved with every phase of your firm’s implementation. This role will be involved with making key decisions and consider the global impacts of those decisions. They are also responsible for the schedule, progress, and team communication. The AA is an individual that develops a thorough understanding of the application throughout the implementation process, later performing the ongoing day-to-day administration, and leads the internal training effort. The ES is responsible for securing commitment from executive management, department/office management, accounting, marketing and project management and should be an individual within senior management. They are to stay in contact with the PC and consultant to convey any expectations or concerns.
5. Think About the Future – Make sure all areas of your company are talking to one another. Consider your growth plans, customer communications needs, and internal knowledge sharing. Integration and streamlining processes impact profitability and obtaining/maintaining clients. Most firms think about the finance side first; an essential part of any business since they handle the money. However, what about the side that brings in those customers or work with them on a day-to-day basis? Is finance sharing information with them? Integration can help breakdown the silos and build true customer interaction. Keep in mind you don’t have to do everything at once, but make sure you think about the next steps.
6. Gain Consensus from End Users – Gaining consensus within the company requires work upfront during the planning process. Consider the needs of end users and how the process will impact all areas of the company. Check back with them periodically to demonstrate solution designs to confirm you aren’t missing anything.
7. Demonstrate Key Wins – Identify quick wins that can demonstrate progress with the system and track your results. The goals established at the beginning should be checked periodically to ensure you are making progress.
8. Take a Phased Approach – By taking a phased approach, the Project Coordinator isn’t burdened thinking about everything all at once. Remember, this is a job upon a job. On top of doing their daily duties, the implementation team is taking on a project that requires significant time and dedication. In addition to spreading out the implementation, training should be incremental. This keeps employees from experiencing information overload.

Strive to constantly evolve and improve your company in order to ensure you are ready for tomorrow’s challenges. Adapting your processes and system is a never-ending journey so don’t look for a final destination. Empower your employees and establish a good relationship with your consultant. Keep the lines of communication open and express your concerns during the implementation. Your consultant is there to adjust the implementation to your needs, however, be open to new ideas and suggestions. The best solutions come from open dialogue. Successful implementations require a collaborative effort between your firm’s implementation team and your consultant.

“Success is a journey, not a destination." Ben Sweetland

Did any of these steps ring a bell during your past implementation? Do you have any suggestions to share? Please share your thoughts.