Shifting from Expenses to Revenue: Transforming Your Business for Success
WHATEVER YOU DO, MIGRATE FROM THE EXPENSE SIDE OF THE EQUATION TO THE REVENUE SIDE!
What do I mean?
There always seems to be a competitor who is willing to do what you do for a lower price.
How do you sell your services on value and results…..not price?
It means offering a service which your clients find truly valuable, and constantly asking your clients what problems they need solved and innovating solutions.
It means hiring the best and brightest employees, paying them well and offering them a path for advancement. It means reducing employee turnover and building and maintaining employee morale. When an employee leaves after being trained, it is expensive and a big loss to your business and sometimes morale. The worst part is that you need to spend time and money to find a replacement and then train them. And there is a ramp up period when the new employee won’t be at optimal efficiency.
On the other hand, do you have any employees that shouldn’t be working for you???? Occasionally, I would let someone continue working for my BPO, even though I knew they were not the best person for the job. When we let someone overstay their welcome, it lowers the bar for EVERYONE. Make the tough decisions and it will pay large dividends with increased morale and a higher level of service delivered. Your employees know who should not be there and will appreciate you noticing as well.
As Peter Senge writes in The Fifth Discipline, it means creating an effective learning organization and not relying on just compliance to get the job done. If an employee knows the why behind their job, they will work at a much higher level.
If you are successful at implementing these best practices in your business, you will have hit the jackpot for being able to:
-Create incremental revenue for your clients. When you do that successfully, they will share the upside with you.
-Charge a premium for your services. What you do is best in class, truly solves client problems, creates more incremental revenue, and is therefore worth more to your clients.
-Reduce client churn- your clients will see that although you charge more, you get the job done. Clients that realize this will be loyal and true partners.
-Allow you to fire bottom feeding clients-a client that is looking for the best deal will leave as soon as they find another company willing to do the task for a lower rate,
-With the additional margin you’ve created, you can invest in your employees, technology and ways that keep your business a step ahead.
Why do all this? Your company will run smoother, you will have less day-to-day stress, have happier employees, and continue to attract new clients and grow.
And when the time comes for you to consider an exit, guess what? Your company will be worth more!
