From the Branch Office: It's Quiz Time

How well does your staff know your products and services? A client has been reviewing a series of products with his staff so they can better cross-sell them. I put them to the test. I put the employees in small groups and asked them to list the five products they had reviewed and what the main features and benefits of each were.

The groups struggled a bit and they decided to go get the manual. I stopped them right there. If you are going to serve your customers at your strategic best, the information needs to be well known and not recited from a manual.

It takes too much time, seems too insincere, and it becomes selling for the sake of the sale and not for the sake of helping out the customer with a need.

When all employees understand the most important products that fit the strategic focus of the company and fully understand the benefits and features of those products, then the company has a defined message and customer approach, and can really focus on what the strategic competency is.

Test your staff. Take your best-selling five products and ask them to list the benefits (what the customers get out of using the product) and features (what the product does for the customer) from memory. No notes needed. This will give you some insight to your sales process, your strategic focus on the front lines, and how well you are serving your customers' needs daily.

Bite Off Only What You Can Chew

In recent strategic planning sessions I've witnessed overly exuberant staffs and boards review a list of goals and objectives they had on prior strategic planning documents. Be careful not to try to overload your organization with too many goals and objectives, because too many of them will be given a less than desirable effort simply in order to check it off the list.

Depending on the size of the company, what has recently transpired, or will be forthcoming should be taken into account on strategic planning focus. One client had a terrible situation of executive theft which lead to extensive firings and court cases not to mention, the loss of revenue and write-offs for "friend" loans. Another client is pondering a merger and being acquired. These are significant strategic items that need complete focus and a check of where are we now and where will we be in 12 months.

I fully endorse a multi-year strategic plan and focus unless so much is dramatically going to change within the next few months it's hard to imagine have a healthy plan with many goals and objectives until the big issue becomes resolved. to build on the strengths you have in the marketplace. The focus on only a few items to dramatically improve will serve your customers better and your team will be able to generate greater success.

If your company does not have those major distractions, if everything is in pretty good order, then this is the time for multi-year focus and aggressive goals and objectives. However, still keep in mind too many projects will not get done properly in a timely manner because the available resources of time and talent of your executives can only be spread so far.

If you are a company that isn’t as comfortable in your current situation, you still have a great need for a focused plan

Five Choices for Each Market Segment

Market segments fall into categories such as cash cow, dog, star, etc. Once you’ve identified where your market falls in these categories, you have five different options for taking action. Not every market you are currently involved in should have a strategy to grow and expand; in fact, some markets after close analysis might be best to completely leave. Select one market segment you currently serve and decide which of the following approaches you want to take.

1. Expand

Analysis of the selected market segments indicates this market has great net income growth potential, or could be an under served area with minimal competition. When you decide to expand you want to take an aggressive approach to market share growth and penetration. Expansion in a market means you want to grow your share of the market more so than the growth of the market itself. For example, your market share for this exercise is college students for the local university. You have determined that there is great opportunity to increase your student market share even though the student enrollment at the university is expected to be stable. The market itself is not growing significantly, but your presence and number of customers served can expand significantly.

2. Maintain

Maintaining market share does not mean ignore it and hope everything stays the same. In fact, market share maintenance might take a vigorous defense strategy if a new competitor has entered the market, if the market segment is shrinking, or if due to lack of effort in previous years your name in the market place isn’t top in the minds of the customers. The goal for this approach is to expect to hold steady the current position in the market and at least grow at the same pace as the market is growing.

3. Contract

Companies at times offer products and services with minimal benefits to the customer base or the profit margin. To contract would be to shrink product offerings yet maintaining more profitable products and services while increasing new income from the market. Selectively eliminating those products and serves is a scaling back yet still growing in net income.

4. Milk

To milk a market segment is to say you have reached your maximum growth potential, have a solid return on your investment in serving the market and you simply want to have minimal investment of resources while continuing to maximize your returns. Some markets that have been served for a long time and are going through the maturing process are best served by milking.

5. Withdraw

Withdrawing from a market is exactly what you think -- pulling away completely over a period of time. If you are involved in a market that no longer fits your company's long-term strategy, has no growth potential, or is shrinking fast then the best strategy is to look in a different area and begin the process of getting out. Companies are not required to go down with the ship, so to speak, and it is the wise leader who knows when its time to make a choice to withdraw before any significant damage is done to the organization.

Beware of Bright Shiny Objects

On a recent board retreat held at a scenic resort we found it difficult to stay on task, as it was easy for certain board members to get distracted. We would be discussing a topic of importance and in the middle of a comment a board member looking outside would suddenly say "Look, a fish just jumped out of the water!" And this was the person who actually had the floor before he was distracted!

We joked that he is easily distracted by bright shiny objects. So are managers.

Executives sometimes forget about the company's strategic competencies and see a service or ad campaign or unique approach a competitor is using in the marketplace and they want to do it as well.

Bright shiny objects (BSO) are those things that distract you from your strategic focus, that take your drive in a different direction from the vision, that consume time that could be better used elsewhere.

The BSO effect happens even more so that we are all becoming somewhat afflicted with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). A common practice in companies with BSO syndrome is to constantly be adding products, finding the new and unique marketing campaigns regardless of the branding, and any time a competitor adds a new service then we have to add that same new service. This diffuses efforts and focus and makes the company get away from whatever it is they do best in the marketplace.

I’m not saying never shift your product mix; I’m saying be sure it fits what you do best before chasing a BSO.

Strategic planning retreats are rife with BSOs. Most retreats are at nice places, with ancillary activities planned for the good time factor we feel we owe volunteer board members and hardworking staff. The problem with this set-up is that most executives and boards are being distracted by the beach, the golf course, the fishing charter, shopping trips, and what is happening out the window rather than focusing on the focus of strategic planning.

On one retreat a body builder competition was in town and guys in skimpy Speedo-type clothes were doing a posedown for pictures outside our windows. The meeting came to an abrupt halt, we lost momentum, and the BSO factor was high!

In your planning process be careful not to be distracted by what all services and products you can offer just because either they sound cool or the competition is offering them. Stay focused.

On your board planning retreats work to minimize the BSO factor so people are truly engaged in the discussion and know how important their focused energy is to making the company develop along its strategic competency.

Action Plans: The Work of Successful Plans

The strategic planning document has been written, the vision established and the mission statement agreed upon; now it's time for the work to happen. It's easy to understand a vision, objectives and goals, but the real meaning of a strategic plan, the part that determines whether the plan is a success or not, is how it is implemented. And, this is where most plans fall apart.

Research shows that American businesses typically meet one-third of their objectives in a strategic plan. Adding in action plans to the strategic planning process increases that accomplishment rate to about 60 percent; however, if you closely follow the strategic planning process being outlined here and utilize the implementation process being layout out, you should achieve 80 to 90 percent of your quality, service, financial and strategic objectives.

The action plan should be no longer than two pages in length with fewer than 30 action steps. The heading of the plan should have the full description of the objective and date of last revision and list all parties involved in the action plan. This is mapping out the road to success for this objective. If you have six objectives, you will have six action plans. The worksheet of the action plan should be divided into columns like a spread sheet. Each column should be clearly labeled. For example: Action number, Priority, Action step description, Who is involved, Estimated time to complete this step, Money, Starting date, and Completion date.

Be sure action steps don't turn into ongoing activities. A step has a beginning and an end and moves the objective forward. Be concise. Instead of saying "monitoring on-hold wait time," write "establish on-hold wait time monitoring system."

Everyone has a full plate of work and adding a full set of action plans and a list of action steps can appear to be daunting. They frequently get shuffled down the priority list. Using an action plan system is the best way to incorporate this body of work seamlessly into daily activities, thus making it more likely items will stay on course and actually get done properly and on time.