Through Pavlo Phitidis’ many engagements with business owners he found a number of common issues facing all of them, as we head back into the economy. Issues of uncertainty, funding, and then one of the most complicated: What led to our success pre-lockdown is not what is working now that people are coming back into the economy.
Waiting for things to ‘settle down’ is a wasted opportunity, according to Pavlo. Things have changed, and how do we make our business relevant – how do we change our offering, service and products?
One way is to codify the problems facing your customers in this economy. Listen to the podcast of his discussion about this on 702 and CapeTalk.
Who knows what things will look like ‘after’ Covid? Pavlo says even by the middle of next year we will only be back to 70% of what it was.
What we all know is that you need revenue in the meantime. You can’t keep waiting.
Finding the opportunity in crisis:
Those at the forefront realise that crisis means change to the status quo, which makes your staff, suppliers and customers more open to change too. So it is an ideal time to implement change in your team and offering.
Codifying the change requires a very structured, data-driven methodology.
Business owners desperate for revenue will amend their business in any way to find a new customer. And this can take you down a dangerous path, where you’ll see costs increase to accommodate the strange new systems of delivery.
The better way to do it is to identify your 10 best customers and approach them to get an in-depth understanding of what they need.
Start with marketing. How do they want to be engaged with about your offer?
Then move on to the delivery of the service. How do they want it delivered or installed?
And then what are the economics that work for them in the current circumstances, what will allow them to afford and pay for your offer?
It is important the you don’t ask yes/no questions but rather open-ended ones to encourage them to give you real insights that you hadn’t already considered.
If you can get a sample of 20 customers, and you’ve asked those questions consistently, you will get a good sense of what has changed, what they need in terms of marketing, sales and fulfilment.
You have to codify the steps in each process to ensure that there is a consistency in your delivery. Or you will lose customers because they don’t know what to expect from you and can’t rely on you.
Reset, Rebuild, Reignite
This process amounts to Resetting, rebuilding and reigniting your business.
This is the time of the great Reset – resetting the way that you do everything. Take advantage of it to meet your customer where they are now, and become a leader in your field.
Then Rebuild your system of delivery to ensure you can fulfil your new offering in the way your customers want.
And then you’ll be ready to reignite your business – to let people know that you are out there and that you are doing things differently, and better than anyone else out there.
If your business could use a fresh perspective to reset, rebuild and reignite, contact us.
