The company or business you started just a few years ago has already started to become out of date. The chances are if you have seen any success at all, that you have probably begun becoming a little complacent, taking your customers for granted, perhaps taking your eye off the ball and quantity has started adversely affecting your quality. The good news is that this happens to most companies, we all go through a form of this at some time or another, and there are things that you can do to affect some positive change.
Change has to happen!
It's time to step back and take a good look at what you have got, what mistakes you are making and what to do about it. Strangely enough it's not the thinking part that most people struggle with; it's the commitment to taking the time to actually go through the process. So this is the very first thing that you have to do, make a commitment of time where you will spend it totally focused on your business strategy, objectives and positioning in the marketplace to establish its current relevance, need, and the action steps to make those things happen. One of the tools that you can use to help you with making the changes is a concept called SMART, and it's an acronym that stands for:
Specific - Objectives should specify what they want to achieve and they should be black and white, no grey areas for doubt.
Measurable - You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not. If you don't measure it, frankly it's not worth doing!
Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable? Be realistic here, don't blow smoke!
Realistic - Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have? Examine this one carefully; I know from experience that sometimes we take on so much without adequate resources that we let the most important component of the mix, the customer, down.
Time - When do you want to achieve the set objectives? Again be very specific, leave no room for doubt, otherwise I promise you will stretch it out. Now that you have done a great amount of preparatory work you can start attacking the rebranding questions head on!
Question #1 - Are you really ready to change?
This is big, because if you and your team are not committed to making a change and rebranding your business, it WILL NOT HAPPEN! You have to be willing to let go of some of the things that got you to where you currently are, and be open minded about new technology, thinking, promotional marketing etc. that can help move you to achieve your new objectives. You and your team have to be ready to change, because reality is that most entrepreneurs are of the "hey it got me to where we are, so why mess with success" mindset. And in all honesty sometimes that's hard to argue with, unless you can illustrate in very clear terms that changing will give the opportunity to achieve the new objectives and that will keep your leadership position, or help you get towards it.
Question #2. Where you are going comes from knowing where you are!
If you have been in business for some time you have probably learned or seen the term SWOT analysis, and this is one of the tests that you have to go through, just to establish where you currently are. Remember if you don't know where you are, you can't get to where you want to go! So for those of you who have not completed a SWOT Analysis, here's what it stands for:
S - What are your corporate, personnel, personal and product STRENGTHS? Write all of this down and then get the stakeholders to agree on all of the commentary.
W - What are your corporate, personnel, personal and product WEAKNESSES? Write down the details.
O - What are the current opportunities for the company and stakeholders? Spread your net and thinking as wide as possible.
T - What are the threats to the company, its products, its personnel, machinery etc? Once you have completed your SWOT Analysis you will know the good the bad and the ugly about where you are and where you might want to re direct yourself and the company.
Question #3. Ask the right people the right questions.
This is where you have to spend a good amount of time and ask the people you surround yourself with the question "How am I doing", and by that of course I also mean the company too! I am talking about your employees, your customers and your suppliers, and encourage them to be brutally frank, you don't need "yes" people. Then go through a whole host of questions like are we a "customer first" company, are we easy to do business with, are employees looking out for you before the company, do you get whatever you order on time, is it accurate and on and on! Then take it further and get quite specific, like "do we deliver value, "what is our competitive advantage, if any", what does our competition do better that us, What changes should we make if we want to get incremental market share"? I would also suggest that you ask you people the following question "If we were going to start a new company today, knowing what we know about us and the market place, what would you do differently".
Question #4. What is your true customer base?
Most companies are focused on a fairly narrow market segment and it would be smart to actually start to dig a little deeper to see what the total marketplace could look like. For instance one of my clients for years was the largest retractable awning company in the country. And when we did some research we found out that our target audience was in fact much broader than we had originally thought. It appears that people who want awnings also want hot tubs, gigantic barbeques etc, but the problem is that they cannot get them all at the same time, but they are still in the overall marketplace and it's a matter of when they enter, not if the enter the marketplace!
So dig deeper when you are looking at your customer base, you might just find a brand new oil well!
Question #5. Make friends not enemies!
One of the ways of growing your business that I am a huge proponent of is collaboration with other like minded companies or businesses where you have a common target audience. Many years ago I developed what we called a "Cross Ruff" program, where as a value added program a manufacturer would carry money off coupons or vouchers of other manufacturers either in or even on their packaging. This was a win/win as all parties shared the cost of the advertising and marketing, used any data that came from the promotion and enabled the group of companies to get a bigger amount of brand awareness by being able to afford bigger and better advertising. Just make sure the people that you get in bed with are honorable, trustworthy and if possible have more brand awareness than you do, so that effectively your brand will be elevated by association, it's what we call "Borrowed Equity".
Question #6. Are ready to start re-branding?
You start the process by putting it all down in writing. What's wrong with what you are doing, and how do you want to fix it? Then itemize all of the changes that have to be made and how this will affect each member of your team. Play what I call "What If" with your team, this is one way you can start creating some insurance that the changes you are about to make will have the very best chances of success. Then create an action plan with everyone's responsibility attached and put milestones and "drop dead" dates, to ensure that you stay on track.
Question #7. Do you have Great Communications with the stakeholders?
One of the biggest mistakes that I know I made during the years was not communicating with all of the stakeholders, my thoughts and how we were going to achieve the new objectives and rebrand the business. I have found that it really is worth making a special effort to ensure that everyone in the company knows exactly what the changes are going to be and what the company is expecting of them to help us achieve our objectives. Make the people a part of the process; they have so much invested in making the changes successful too!
About Author: Jack Sims has literally "been there, done that". He founded one of the top five creative groups in England and then he did it all over again in right here at home by creating the #1 ranked marketing agency in America. Now as an author and consultant Jack speaks for companies and associations who are looking to strengthen their brand and grow their business. He was recently voted as one meeting planners favorite keynote speaker, and his presentations and keynote speeches are high energy and loaded with information that he has proven to work in the real business world. You will laugh at his stories, be excited by his delivery, but most importantly you will walk away with information that will help you go for serious long-term business growth.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5417951
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