Watch Your Competitors Absolutely… Follow Your Customers Positively…

Businessmen sharing Customer Information

By: Guest Blogger

For a sales team the most important part of the job is finding people who may need to buy the products that the company that they work for makes. The task of generating sales leads is a long and thankless one till you eventually hit the one person in the hundreds you have approached who will actually buy the product that you are offering. It is a time consuming task. While manual generation of the sales leads can be automated to some extent using CRM solution software can simplify the process to a large degree. It can also help you sift through the variables to narrow down the list to potential customers who are far more likely to buy the product.

Generating Viable Sales Leads

With the help of free online CRM you can keep track of old customers to see what common factors they have. Add a filter of these variables which are common to existing customers to the list of sales leads that you have generated. Those who have the same points in common will be statistically more likely to buy your product from you. Not all of them will buy, but most of them will. This new list would be comprised of far more viable sales leads. You are likely to find that when you approach these potential customers you are far more likely to make a sale than when you go cold calling. A small sorting of the data can lead to less waste of time, energy and company resources leading to more sales with less effort.

Managing the Data from Sales Leads

Many small companies use specialized software to help them manage their customer data. This helps the company serve the customers better in case of after sales services. All the information needed is available at the click of a mouse making it easier for the CRM executive to handle the customer. The same CRM software small business uses can be also put to work to manage sales leads of the marketing and sales department. While the Customer Relationship people look after the records of existing customers of the company the sales staff can use the same fields to maintain data of potential customers generated via sales leads.

Closing the Deal using the Organized Data

Having all the sales leads stored in an organized manner will make it easier to sell to the potential customers. Remember any successful business is essentially based on a problem solving experience for the customer. When you have the problem spelled out for your potential clients then deliver a solution, you will make sales. When you organize the sales leads data you are more likely to find the customers who have the problem that you can solve. For instance you may sell pet collars to owners of both cats and dogs, but are you going to sell dog food to cat owners? No you will not. Just a little bit of research on your end can make all the difference to how your company sales soar.

About the Author

A free web based CRM can help you easily manage your customer data. For other data you can use CMMS applications. KarmaCRM can help you grow your sales.

(ArticlesBase SC #2658610)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Managing Data From Sales Leads

Are you listening to your customer?

By: Guest Blogger

It is one thing to make a sales presentation, but it is another thing to make a sales presentation without first evaluating your customer. For all you know, you could be selling your customer something that they already have, or something they don’t want, don’t need, or can’t afford.

This is why it is so very important to take your customer in, sit them down, make them feel comfortable, and get to know them and what their needs are. Once you have done this, you can then sell them a product based on what their needs are and not what you think they are.

On a personal note . . .

I learned the importance of evaluating your customer the hard way. A few years ago, I was a branch manager working in a bank branch. One particular customer of the bank approached me in my office about opening a savings account for her daughter.

Once I explained to her the process of opening a savings account, I proceeded to tell her all about a current promotion we were having on our home equity loans. She sat there and listened very politely and patiently as I very proudly went down the list of all the benefits, features, and tax breaks that come with a home equity loan.

Once I had finished my rehearsed presentation, she said to me;

That all sounds very nice, and it is something that I will consider in the near to distant  future. She than went on to tell me that she and her husband rented the house they lived in.

So there you have it, I tried to sell a home equity loan to someone without a house.

Needless to say, my face turned a deeper shade of scarlet, and I felt like an idiot.

But hey, I learned from my mistake. Had I asked some simple probing questions before I went straight for the sale, I would have saved myself a lot of embarrassment.

You will be amazed at what you can find out from people just by asking them a few simple questions about themselves. Remember, people love to talk about themselves. Their jobs, their pets, their kids, just about everything.

I once had a friend who owned a shoe store, and his inventory was made up mostly of sneakers. One day a man walked into his store to buy a pair of sneakers. As my friend assisted him with his decision, he struck up a friendly conversation with him. As it turned out, this customer ran a basketball camp during the summer and he loved to talk about it. A few minutes into the conversation, my friend and his customer had come to an agreement. All of the boys and girls that attended the customers basketball camp would receive a 10% discount on their sneakers if they purchased them at my friend’s store.

So, as you can see, my friend increased his sales that summer simply by striking up a conversation with his random customer and asking a few questions.

Imagine going to your doctors office with an ailment and having him prescribe you a medication without asking what your symptoms were. Would you take the medication?

The same principal applies.

It really isn’t rocket science, it’s just friendly conversation, get to know your customer and watch one sale turn into many.

Why service only one of your customers needs when you can service them all.

About the Author

To learn about star magnolia tree and dwarf magnolia tree, visit the Magnolia Tree Care website.

(ArticlesBase SC #1881011)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – How Well Do You Know Your Customer?

Businessmen sharing market secrets...

By: D Cobb

For most businesses, large and small, potential customers are no longer restricted to specific geographical locations. Rapid advancements in IT and physical logistics has enabled businesses to target global markets and compete successfully with local players. So where does the need arise for market research services outsourcing? 

Well, that’s not all that difficult to answer because it is quite obvious that competitors are also doing the same thing, i.e, targeting global markets. Market research services outsourcing helps because it allows businesses to discover newer markets and customers that may have remained untouched. Moving on to greener pastures certainly helps and businesses can achieve that easily by choosing market research services outsourcing. 
Market research services outsourcing projects are managed by highly qualified and trained market research professionals who have a way with numbers and other prerequisites such as data collection, classification, and processing. Their main asset is however their ability to analyze raw data and information and discover gold nuggets in the form of newer markets and customers on behalf of their clients. 

It helps when newer markets are discovered because it allows businesses to gain the first-mover advantage and utilize available market potential to its maximum. Competitors will start moving in soon after, but a year or two is enough to achieve the leadership position and enjoy the privileges that come with it. 
A new discovery however does not diminish the need for market research services outsourcing because competition in the market has become so intense that available potential in a newly discovered market gets utilized pretty quickly. Businesses thus need to be constantly on the prowl in search for newer markets and customers, something that they can do quite easily by choosing market research services outsourcing. 

The ability to locate newer markets and customers on a regular basis has become one of the crucial factors that determines business success and that’s the main reason why more and more businesses are choosing market research services outsourcing.

About the Author

Py cobb
Web analyst/Content Manager
Telegenisys Inc.

(ArticlesBase SC #733043)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Discover New Markets and Customers With Market Research Services Outsourcing

By: David McDermott

It’s all very well having a competitive edge, but are your prospective clients aware? A key question when you are pitching for business is ‘how do you show your audience how you compare to your competitors?’. This often creates a dilemma for pitching teams.

Should you just tell your audience how good you are and let them do the rest, should you draw direct comparisons with your anonymous competitors or should you name them directly?  Perhaps you should let your audience draw their own conclusions?

Our research shows quite clearly that your audience wants to know how you stack up against the competition but naming them directly is rarely (if ever) perceived as positive.

This means you need to be clever and subtle about how you do this. If you are, the benefits are great.

Firstly, you can plant questions in the audience’s mind. These are questions that the audience will ask your competitors and ultimately make you look the best choice.

Secondly, you will be doing this by showing the audience you understand their needs and are best placed to meet them. Thirdly, it can help you win more pitches.

Here is a process that can help you do this:

• Do a competitor analysis of their strengths and weaknesses
• Understand your USP’s (unique selling points)
• Use rhetorical questions for positioning

Here is an example of how this worked for a client who was pitching for a corporate finance mandate. This particular client was initially concerned the audience would choose one of the larger, better known corporate finance teams.

Having noted their initial concerns we explored what their strengths were, what they had to offer and where they could add value.

Our initial discussion disclosed the reason this small team had been invited to pitch was that they were a niche player, operating only in the client’s market. This was excellent news as they were obviously experts in this particular sector.

When we explored this further they told us they had the best analysts in the sector and they could prove this. Believe it or not, there is a published league table of the best analysts. We explored why this was important and advised this was their ace card.

We recommended that, if it was at all possible, to get the first presentation slot. They did just that and we were ready to go. Part of their presentation went like this:

“You are at a critical stage of your personal and business life just now. You are about to take your company to market and you only get one chance to get this right, meaning you get the best price for your business.

Like it or not, to do this you are dependant on the credibility and credentials of the analysts as it is the analysts who sell your story to the investment community and that is where we add value.”

They then proceeded to show the prospective client the evidence, with their analysts right at the top and followed it with this question:

“So, given the credibility of our analysts who else is in a better position to sell your story to investors than us?”

If you were a member of that audience wouldn’t you ask the following presenters where their analysts were in the league table?

You are probably thinking right now that this is only relevant when you can grab that pole position. This is not the case.

On another occasion I helped a client position themselves as a large sole provider of services who could carry out a unique combination of services in a cost effective way.

We prepared a few rhetorical questions for the pitch. “How many times have external providers failed to communicate with each other and blamed the other?”  “Who else can provide experts in each and every area necessary?” “Just think, one provider, one contract, the buck stops here, who else can say that?”

I was about to board a flight at the airport when I received a call from my client. “David, we had no choice on the running order and we have just found out we are on last, what should we do differently?”

“Nothing” I replied. “Business as usual, just give it your best shot”.

When I next visited this client they were pleased to announce they won the pitch. In their own words they told me, “We think we planted so many doubts and concerns in the audience’s mind that we became a very safe bet. After all it was too late to ask the others.”

www.edomidas.com

About the Author

David McDermott is MD of Edomidas and is an advisor and international speaker on competitive pitching.

(ArticlesBase SC #1188391)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – How to position yourself against your competitors

I was a road sales guy for years. I never walked into a client without knowing something about them or something about the competition serving them. Years ago we did it differently. Today we do it online.

When you market or sell to anyone, you will win more sales when you take some time to focus on the customers needs. Do not guess what your customers want. Take time to understand the market, your customer, and the competitors.

I am not suggesting that you copy a competitors product or service. Why do that? Does it serve the customer? Why not look for the missed opportunities that are not served by the competition.

This blog is dedicated to listening to the conversations to gain a competitive advantage as you discover your best move.

My list of 7 strategies is a guide to help you focus on areas to research. Stay tuned as we explore each category.

Seven CI Strategies to Win more Sales in Your Market..

Know your market niche (Industry served)
Know your target audience within the Industry (Who)
Know your market objectives (goal)
Know your competitors in the market (How & Where)
Know your competitors’ market advantages (how they serve the market)
Know your market trends (changes)
Know the problem to be solved (what is the pain you strive to solve)

Competitive Intelligence is Market Research

By: Adam Nowak

Nowadays, information is regarded as invaluable. Any company needs internal information (generated by individual departments) and external information (generated by the widely understood company’s environment), in order to work out an effective marketing strategy. Basic areas, about which companies would like to be informed, usually include: market, customers, products and remaining marketing activities judged by company’s customers and competitors.

Do it yourself or outsource?

While most companies gather and process internal information independently, they usually have considerable difficulties with gathering and processing external information. Research based on external sources may be conducted independently by marketing department. It may be also outsourced, i.e. to a specialized research agency. Basic challenges of independently conducted environment research are e.g. whether the employed staff has suitable competence, technical and financial capabilities to conduct the research (i.e. to establish or hire a group of pollsters, to rent a place for focus interviews). In case of outsourcing, the main problem is the cost.

How much and why so expensive?

This question ideally summarizes the attitude of managers towards the offers of research agencies. It is believed that market research is outrageously expensive, and no matter how much one would spend on it, the money will be used entirely. Most complaints are made about costs, completion time (constantly extended deadlines), manner of preparing reports (incomprehensible language, charts without comments), never ending preliminary arrangements.

Obviously, it doesn’t always have to be so. There are agencies which conduct their responsibilities thoroughly, keep to deadlines and are still relatively cheap.

Cost of research for the employer

What is the cost of market research from the perspective of an employer, namely, a customer of a research agency? Several cost components may be singled out: time – wasted on contacts with the agency, saved thanks to good communication with the agency; knowledge – needed to asses the research report, indispensable to decode the numbers without comments; the so-called psychological costs or loosing one’s temper in contacts with agency representatives and superiors, saved thanks to easy and fast exchange of information with the agency; as well as the price fixed by the agency.

The most important component is the price. Although managers claim that they take into consideration many different components while choosing research agencies, the most essential and important one for them is the price and the issue of how quickly the research will be conducted. Many managers dream about finding a research agency that will solve their problem within 24 hours and for free.

The principle of price fixing

According to research agencies, it is not easy to fix a price for individual research. It is relatively simpler to do this for highly standardized research like e.g. omnibus research. Difficulties appear with tailor-made research.

David Ogilvy stated once that price fixing is a guessing game. To some extent, it can be expressed in this way. An example of the practical application of guessing in price fixing may be price fixing for a bid in a tender. It is a sort of game between participants of a tender and the client. Apart from fixing the minimum price, at which the cost of the research will pay for itself, every member has to guess the financial capacity of the employer (what funds does the employer possess and how much he can spend on research), and the financial capabilities of competitors (what price they will offer and how much they can reduce the price).

The theory gives three principles of price fixing:

* Cost

* Demand

* Competition

Those three principles are used simultaneously in market research.

Every agency wants to conduct research at higher prices than the cost of research. Whereas the cost may depend among others on the type of research (qualitative research is cheaper than the quantitative type), methods of gathering and processing information (those done on the phone are cheaper than direct interviews), sample size and availability (smaller samples are cheaper, not easily accessible respondents more expensive), number of people engaged in conducting the research and their level of competence. In some cases, companies agree on a specific dumping technique and pay extra money for the research. It is possible if the customer is prospective and e.g. announces a tender for one commission, but more commissions may be expected later.

Research agencies take into consideration a customer’s financial capacity when they are establishing a price. But one should not expect exactly the same research to be conducted for a big industrial tycoon and for a small shoe producer. The latter will not get a considerable discount just because of the smaller scope of activity. The research will be completely different, methodologically adjusted to the needs and opportunities of the employers.

The research agencies market is driven by keen competition. Therefore, it is important to watch how prices are fixed by competitors. Only few decide to publish their price lists. Among 39 research agencies, which names are present in the “Media and Advertising Almanac” and those with their own websites, only three decided to provide their price lists based on research and only one offers the possibility to order such a price list.

The matter of price lists

Why don’t most agencies give prices for their services? Because it would indicate standardization of research techniques and would be in contradiction with what most agencies emphasize, that is research is tailor-made to the needs and opportunities of a customer. A lack of price lists contributes to the price being regarded as a tactical element, which gives quite a lot of leeway and enables flexibility of the market.

Besides, even the official price lists are sometimes a myth. Actual prices are negotiated individually and are lower than those presented in the price lists. Nevertheless, one should not expect discounts like those which are announced in advertisements (40%), but it is possible to lower the initial price by 5-8%.

What to do to make it cheaper?

A company planning to conduct a market research, and at the same time, lower the cost considerably, has several possibilities. First of all, if the company intends to conduct quantitative research, it may reduce the sample or give up quantitative research in favour of qualitative research. Secondly, the company may employ a small research agency, research science institute or higher education institution. Thirdly, the company may try to conduct the research through its own marketing department.

How to compare offers?

Market research offers made by specific agencies may be compared to one another just as one may compare a Fiat to a Mercedes. They have only one common feature – both are cars. Besides, only differences are left. Just as not everyone has to drive a Mercedes, not every company has to use the services of the ten greatest research agencies in Poland. Everything depends on the needs and financial capacity.

What should be considered in choosing the most suitable offer?

* Is a report included in the price of the basic research or is it to be paid for additionally?;

* Is a report going to include guidelines for the company or present the results only?;

* Is a report going to contain raw data in form enabling independent processing?;

* Is a graphic representation of results (drawings and graphs) included in the basic price?;

* Are additional calculations, alterations (e.g. during three months since handing in the report) included in the basic price?;

* Is supplementary remuneration for the respondents included in the research cost?

Comparisons of prices

Agencies avoid comparing their offers and especially prices. Thus, there is virtually no research presenting standard prices of individual services. Most of them concern market research expenses, agencies’ income, the number of conducted interviews, but not prices.

Market research does not have to be very expensive. It is high time to acknowledge that not only representative research (the most expensive one) has sense. The company has access to a number of methods with different prices. Every method has both advantages and disadvantages and it is the company itself that should, with possible help of a research agency, judge benefits and cost of the chosen method. The basic rule should be remembered, i.e. that research is conducted in order to minimize the risk of a wrong decision and not to confirm the rightness of the activities that have already been started.

About the Author

This article was translated by mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd. mLingua provides professional language translations in all major Western and Asian languages, software localization and web site translation services.

(ArticlesBase SC #327204)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – The Cost of Market Research – How Much?

Photo: Britain Going Blog Crazy by Annie Mole

By: Jason Markum

It’s no secret that I love using blogs to gather competitive intelligence. In any single Internet marketing campaign at any time, I don’t spend a single penny until I have found at least 10 or 15 blogs that relate to whatever it is I’m selling. I read through each and every one of those blogs for at least three or four days usually longer; more like a week. If I have a lot of time before the marketing campaign begins I’ll spend as much as two to three weeks reading blogs within the industry.

You can find out so much about your industry, your niche, your market, your product, and your potential customers, just by reading a few blogs that relate to whatever it is you’re selling. The hardest part is finding those specific blogs that relate to your specific industry. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today in this article.

So the question remains, how can you find specific blogs that relate to your specific industry or product?

Well there are two or three places that I like to go to search for blogs on any given industry. The first is Technorati, which is a sort of search engine for blogs. Go to their website and you can see that it’s very easy to search for blogs. Just type at the top of the page and away you go. Now if I were you I would type in my specific keyword that I’m targeting first of all, or you can type in the industry name you are in, or a generic product name that relates to your product… the point is just get in there and poke around and figured out how things work. I have no idea how many blogs Technorati has indexed but it is many many millions. In July 2006 Technorati announced that they were tracking over 50 million blogs.

Now that’s been 3 1/2 years so you can imagine how many more are in there. Especially in the last couple of years blogging has really exploded, so if it’s out there you can expect to find it at Technorati.

The next two places that I use are probably more obvious. The first one is Google. You can use Google to find everything and anything and I’m sure you already know how to do that, so I won’t spend any more time talking about it.

But there may be a feature of Google that you don’t know about and it’s the third place that I used to find blogs. It’s called Google blog search, which I think is very aptly named. Don’t you just love how Google names things? They don’t mess around fancy names do they? Google blog search, Google talk, Google voice, Google Mail, Google analytics, they generally don’t spend any money on marketing brand names. But I’m getting off the point…

You can find Google blog search by just going to Google and typing in Google blog search. It will be the first thing that comes up I promise you. Get in there and play around with it; search for a few things and you’ll find it is a very useful tool to have when looking for blogs as a competitive research tool.

And that’s it! Those are the three places that I use most of the time to search for blogs on any given industry from a competitive research point of view. I hope you found this helpful, and thanks for reading.

About the Author

Jason has been writing articles online for over thirteen years. When not writing about Internet Marketing, Jason runs web site dedicated to teaching about donating cars to charity where he can show you why and how to give car to charity and reap an awesome tax reward!

(ArticlesBase SC #1716638)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Best Competitive Research Blog Tips

By: Srikanth Chari

In business, you always need to know what your competitors are doing. To survive you must perform competitive intelligence activities and monitor the broader market for new developments that could affect your company, your products and brands, suppliers, and distributors.

Tracking your competitors is the only way to make to make sure you are thwarting threats, taking advantage of opportunities, marketing effectively, and, ultimately, winning in the marketplace. By performing competitive intelligence, you will significantly increase your margins and profitability.

There’s one resource that’s often underutilized in this regard: your competitors’ websites.

Today’s digital footprint, while increasing corporate transparency and yielding greater power to consumers in the marketing dialogue, enables marketers to measure conversions. Companies spend enormous sums of money on maintaining their websites so that they can attract and influence prospects, customers, and analyst.

Your competitors may wish they could block you from their websites, but remember that the information they post there is public. If you aren’t harvesting this rich – and free – resource, you are the loser!

Here are 5 things you must do regularly to effectively track your competitors and uncover their not so hidden secrets:

1. Identify your competitors

Now, this may seem odd to you. You’re probably thinking, “doesn’t a company know who its competitors are?” Not always. New firms come seemingly out of nowhere, preempting existing companies with different technologies or approaches they never saw coming.

Often a company in an adjacent area will change its positioning to try and address your market, or a new startup may emerge in a related area. You need to create a master list of your key competitors and make sure you keep this up to date.

To do this, Google the terms, which describe your industry, your products and services. You can also use a little known feature in Google. In the search box, type in “related:www.yourcompanyname.com” and Google will display a list of companies that it considers related to yours. Look for new companies that show up and see if any of these pose a threat.

2. Check your competitors’ home pages for positioning changes

When you visit a company’s website, first look at its home page to see if they have made changes to the way they describe their products and services. Carefully scrutinize how they emphasize different features or benefits and how they are positioning themselves. Sometimes, you can learn a lot even from the subtle changes your competitors make on their home page.

3. Review the trade shows they participate in

Trade shows can take a big chunk out of a company’s marketing budget, so it is important to know which shows your competitors participate in.

Regularly review the events page on their websites and maintain a spreadsheet with names, dates and locations of the shows that your competitors plan to be at. You can then see which ones you might want to sign up for.

If you spot one of them at a new show, you might ask yourself, “why are they exhibiting at this defense-related show?” It might be an indicator of a new market they are entering perhaps one that you should consider as well.

4. Create a competitive intelligence database of white papers and webinars

Increasingly, white papers and webinars have become the preferred way for a company to establish its mind share and leadership — so this is another area you should be tracking. You should maintain a list of titles of the whitepapers and webinars your competitors create or host to get an idea of their new direction.

You may not learn much from one single event or white paper, but you’ll learn a lot when you look at these as a whole. You’ll see trends and patterns that clearly indicate how these companies are positioning or repositioning themselves.

5. Check who they are hiring and firing

Once in a while, check the management team and job postings pages on your competitors’ websites. Try and see whether your competitors have added or removed any names from their management team. This is often the only way you may learn that your key competitor has lost their VP of Sales; no press announcement is likely to be made about such events.

Competitive intelligence is rewarding, but not easy

You’ll gain a lot by making these activities part of your routine, but this work does take serious time, effort, and discipline!

If you don’t have the time to invest in such activities, you can always stick to just using Google Alerts to get the top-level news about your competitors. But the truth is, you’re short-changing yourself if you do this. Quality competitive analysis may not come easy, but it will go a long way towards ensuring your business success.

The good news is that some new automated competitive intelligence tools are now starting to become available. Such tools can automatically scan company websites and deliver any new information that posted. You may want to consider one of these to make this job significantly easier.

About the Author

As CEO of Watch360 Systems, Srikanth Chari can help you track your competitors & uncover their not so hidden secrets simply, effectively, and affordably. He’ll keep you up-to-date on market landscape changes and get you back to working on growing your business — in less than 3 minutes. To try Watch360 at no risk, check out: http://www.watch360.com/watch360/signup.do?pc=basic&type=3

(ArticlesBase SC #72107)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Competitive Intelligence: How to Track your Competitors & Uncover Their Not So Hidden Secrets

Recently I read that one of my favorite copywriters likes to be on many mailing lists because he considers it to be “competitive intelligence”.

I share that addiction. It’s fun to see what direction others in the same business are taking and it provides inspiration for new opportunities too.

Do you do the same for your business?

Do you know where the trends are pointing in your Industry?

To me CI is not about spying or paying someone to steal trade secrets from a competitor. Its mainly about staying up to date on the trends that indicate profit opportunities for your own business.

Do you have to chase the same rabbit as your competitor?

Not really… but if you are listening to who you serve in the market, shouldn’t you at least pay attention?

Some entrepreneurs hate to copy the competition… I get that.

How about you put your own creative spin on the trend?

That way you serve the market and get to personalize it at the same time.

Pick three competitors right now and create a “swipe” file on their marketing or sales efforts. The swipe file is collection of ideas, advertisements, marketing materials and personal observations your competitors are using to market…. overtime the information you collect helps form your thinking about your market….

Simple? … yes but its a beginning.

By: Jason Dove

These are the rainy days we hoped would never come. We are living in a time of tightened purse strings and uncertain prospects. The shadow of the bank manager looms over many previously flourishing businesses.

Difficult decisions are being made everywhere. Business owners are searching for financial stability, managers for the consistent performance results which will signal job security.

But whilst the current situation may be grim, there is gold at the end of the rainbow for those companies which do survive this recession. Rewarded with a bigger market share, and armed with the kind of confidence that outrunning the predator brings, these businesses will step out into a brighter future and reap the rewards.

Business Intelligence can help you to ensure that your business is one of those survivors.

Undeniably the most pressing issues facing any business are those of eliminating unnecessary cost in all areas, attracting and servicing custom and avoiding the cashflow pitfalls of debtors and poor decision making.

The good news is that for every one of these crucial areas, there are ways to excavate the secrets to maximise profit and uncover the potential in the data you already hold from your day to day trading activities.

BI can aid a company’s survival during the lean times as well as its expansion in times of abundance.

While they are an undeniable fact of a tough economic climate, redundancies are never a nice event, but selecting the wrong person for redundancy can be a disaster both in monetary terms and for staff morale.<

And the beauty of BI is that it can fine tune decision making. With all the information to hand new options can be considered.

Maybe your call centre is open from 08:00 to 18:00, when only two calls a month are received after 17:00 and none until after 09:00. Cutting the working day by 2 hours for four employees saves a fifth from redundancy and does not impact the service to the customer.

BI provides the means to explore these opportunities and really fine tune a business.

Using the call centre example above, the workload can also be determined based on the length, frequency and distribution of enquiries and an accurate estimate of the man hours needed to cover all calls.

Joe’s Garage is going from strength to strength. He has bought two more struggling garages and through his approach of specialisation and Business Intelligence driven decision making.

Then, disaster. In an attempt to rejuvenate an ailing motor industry, the government introduce an initiative where driver get £2000 guaranteed for their old cars when they trade them in for a new car.

Suddenly, Joe’s customer base is buying new cars, not repairing their old ones.

Striking a Balance And What Your Business Needs

As is no doubt apparent, Business Intelligence really comes into its own when providing guidance in company critical situations.

But things are not quite that cut and dried, and following BI generated results blindly can be as harmful as operating without guidance.

BI should aid decision making, not replace it. This is true in all cases, but is particularly crucial when a company is endeavouring to survive a drop in the market place.

BI can also be used to justify a decision which has already been made. To provide a simple example, if you are fully aware that one employee has a poor absence record and worse timekeeping, then providing proof of this to back up your decision makes it seem more considered.

Indeed, it is. And a quick look at said employees work performance may reveal they are more productive than those that do have good attendance record.

In this case it may be worth warning the employee (or buying them an alarm clock).

However, some things will never show on a BI report, such as how well an employee works with others and such soft skills.

Recession based BI is not just about cutting hours or downsizing the workforce. It can also assist in fine tuning other business practises that can make all the difference when every penny counts.

Identifying which customers take months to pay and insisting they pay in advantage (or not to deal with them at all) can have a huge positive impact when cash flow is so important.

Outstanding debtors can be categorised as regular clients and one off customers, and treated according when reminding them of their debt.

Focused marketing is also an ideal strategy when cash is short and your customer base needs extending.

Other, more company specific analysis may be invaluable to cutting costs. Any company that features transport in its services or business process may want to geographic reporting to compare actual mileage to ideal distances. Some longer routes may be quicker than short ones, but the savings in fuel may make it worth it.

Joe knows that all will return to normal in a year or so, when the new cars are in need of servicing or repair. But currently, his target market is down forty percent.

For his business to survive he knows he needs to take action, but the severity of the situation makes him reluctant to make any ill considered decisions.

Joe arranges a one day consultancy with Patrick to discuss his options. He has a few ideas but knows that Patrick has been doing a lot of work in this arena and so will have ideas of his own.

Instant Pay Off

An additional advantage of using BI for this task is that it provides a solid proof of why a certain employee has been made redundant. This can help explain the situation to the employee themselves and usually curtails said employee from wanting to appeal the decision as they know it is based on fact rather than personal opinion.

The avoidance of one tribunal can be enough to offset the entire cost of the BI development.

Soft Advantages

Basing a redundancy on facts and figures that can be demonstrated and shown to the employee goes along way to removing the personal element that can cause the employee to take offence and make a bad situation worse .

Using BI to analyse performance before making any redundancy decisions also sends a positive message to the more capable of members of staff that their hard work has not been ignored.

Experience has also shown that overall productivity tends to increase as employees have positive goals to work to rather than just waiting for the hammer to fall.

Because of the nature of the business requirements driving these reports, they can also be used for awarding bonuses or evaluating staff for promotions or pay rises when more abundant times return.

Joe gives a broad idea to Patrick of the factors he wants to measure his employees by, as well as investigating the general statistics regarding cash flow and profits.

Because of the economic climate the consultant has produced these reports many times in recent months for many businesses in all types of sectors. It is a quick job for him to alter some existing reports for the staff evaluations.

However, the reports for cash flow are more specific to Joe’s Garage and so it is quicker to develop these from a fresh start, though the reports the BI Consultant has previously developed for Joe are certainly a help.

Hiring Expertise

The options for implementing employee evaluations are the same as for any BI implementation and are covered in my article “Business Intelligence – Project Management Tips”.

Some of those options may seem expensive to a struggling company. However, because of the commonalities with HR reporting an additional option is available in the form of off-the-shelf reporting packs.

These are a set of reports that should cover most, if not all of a company’s requirements with a minimum of configuration, and such a product is available to purchase from Scry Business Intelligence Ltd.

The strength of these report packs is that they tend to be comparatively inexpensive (Scry’s Employee Evaluation Pack is less than the cost of a single day consultancy) and quick to implement compared to beginning from nothing.

I personally recommend starting with a report pack and complimenting it with a few days consultancy to amend and tweak the pack to your company’s specific requirements. Ideally, hire a consultant from the company that developed the pack and so is familiar with its contents.

This approach should cost less than a photocopier, and can save a struggling company.

While the types of reports are the same for any type of BI implementation, dashboards really come into their own.

Being able to provide an overview of an employees entire work based ranking, from accuracy of work to time keeping, is a powerful tool.

With all the information at his fingertips, Joe looks over his company. The news is not good and it is clear that the garages are losing more money than he first thought.

Joe has only just built his empire and is reluctant to lay off any of his employees. He rings Patrick and requests a few additional options on his reports to allow him to explore a particular idea his has.

New versions of the reports are supplied and Joe is able to juggle the numbers to reach a viable solution with minimum damage.

Joe consults with his employees to gauge their reaction to his proposal.

Joe cuts everyone to a three and a half day week and closes two garages. No employees are made redundant, instead the week is split so that one team of mechanics work the first half, the other team the second half of the week.

Between the cost cut on the lack of rent for the two closed premises and the cut working week, Joe is back in profit for the time being. His employees are not overjoyed about the shortened week, but prefer it to being unemployed and Joe has assured them he will pay flat rate overtime when the work load justifies it.

Mistakes in this situation are not just a loss of opportunity, but a possible crippling blow, so every decision should be supported with as much information as possible. Business Intelligence can make the difference between flourishing and floundering.

About the Author

Jason Dove (Jason.dove@scry-business-intelligence.com) is author of ‘Crystal Reports Formulas Explained’ a step by step guide to creating and using formulas for the industry leading BI reporting software.
He has provided BI consultancy for some of the largest companies in the UK, and is now working with Scry Business Intelligence to bring benefits of Business Intelligence to SME’s. Read his FREE start guide to Crystal Reports at http://www.scry-bi.com/shop/detailsStartGuide.php

(ArticlesBase SC #1695414)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Business Intelligence – Beat the Recession