• Innovative Strategies That Create More Profits

How Innovative Strategies Drive Sales

Innovative Strategies Make Sales

Why innovative strategies to drive sales are critical and how you can create one.

 

 The Situation 

  A constantly changing future 

According to research by McKinsey, more than 80 percent of CEOs at large U.S. firms believe

innovation is crucial for their company’s future success.

Yet, many of these organizations need an effective innovation strategy.

As technology advances, so too does the pace of change. Your industry doesn’t matter —

the choice is the same for all companies: you need innovative strategies to drive sales or get left behind. 

Unfortunately, many business leaders believe they have a strategy when what they have is a goal.

But, a goal without a strategy is simply a wish. To be successful, you need to turn your goal into a reachable and measurable objective.

And this objective could be –in descending order–a corporate, market, product, or marketing strategy. 

You need to identify the top one or two critical problems and the pivot points you can use to multiply your effectiveness.

Then focus and concentrate actions and resources against those pivot points.

To do this, you need a strategy that creates a pathway to show you how to achieve and maintain your goals in our rapidly changing environment.

 

What Is An Innovative Strategy?

A brief description and example.

An innovation growth strategy is a clearly-defined plan a person or team must perform to achieve

the company’s growth and future sustainable goals. While all innovation strategies are different,

they should outline the objective of your organization’s innovation activities to help you achieve your objective.  

 

The Harvard Business Review describes creating an innovation strategy as determining how innovation will create value

for potential customers and ways to capture that value. Plus, which types of innovation to pursue?

Product designs must evolve to stay competitive, and innovation strategies must evolve as the environment changes.

Good business innovation strategies must be simple, straightforward, and easily understood by all participants.

You want everyone on the same page. And if it is a product or marketing strategy, your innovation strategy must sync with your overall business strategy.

Suppose you maintain your traditional way of business because “that’s the way you have always done it,'”

sooner or later. In that case, that Strategy will have you in trouble.

Think Kodak and their inventions of digital photography or Blockbuster’s unwillingness to give up their retail stores and go to streaming.

 

 The Difference Between Tactics And Strategy  

These terms are not interchangeable.   

Strategy and tactics are very different, although they are often used interchangeably.

Strategies are solutions to problems (objectives) and refer to long-term objectives. Tactics refer to the specific actions required to achieve those objectives.

 

Three levels of Innovative Strategy

The process is the same, but the three levels must be coherent.

There are three levels of Strategy: Corporate, business (units), and functional (departments).

Corporate: Senior management determines the company’s mission and long-term performance.

They guide decisions about growth, acquisitions, diversification, and investments.

Business:  These strategies integrate into the corporate vision but focus on specific companies.

They focus on turning business objectives into Strategy and how the business will compete in the marketplace.

Functional. These strategies determine how the functional departments like production, marketing, R&D, H.R.,

and other departments will support the corporate and business Strategy.

   

The Key Elements Of Innovative Strategies That Drive Sales

The process of analyzing and creating a strategy

 

Strategies vary in depth and complexity depending on their objective. The following are the critical components of most strategies.

There are many different ways to analyze and create a strategy.

I am using a description and explanation from Professor Richard Rumelt’s book Good Strategy/Bad Strategy

that is easy to understand and use. They offer a simple understanding of a complex subject.  

It starts with a vision, aggressiveness, and key objective or problem.

Here, your purpose is to determine the key (not multiple) objectives that must be solved to meet your goal.  

 

Then you need to diagnose the problem or obstacle preventing success.

This research will be extensive and include many types of analysis, such as SWOT analysis,

market analysis, potential customer analysis, competitive analysis, industry analysis, and much more.

 

We cover more of these research techniques on our website and our online ClickVisor Program.

This step takes time, but it is critical and necessary. 

 

This analysis also includes trends, opportunities, and potential issues that will or could impact the market positively or negatively.

A few examples: Design (BMW), chain-link systems (Walmart), and anticipation (Toyota and hybrid technology).

Ignoring trends can be harmful also (Kodak).

 

Insight and Innovation. Analyses look backward from yesterday’s data, which is necessary.

But, you also have to look forward to where the diagnosis can lead to creativity, insight, and innovation to create a solution to the problem.

Our minds a wired for creativity, and there are many techniques to help create “out-of-the-box ideas.

We also cover these kinds of techniques in our ClickVisor program.

 

The Guiding policy. The guiding policy is the approach chosen to cope with or overcome the identified obstacles in the diagnosis.

It’s what the company will do and will not do because of limited resources (time, talent, and money).

 

Coherent actions. These are the coordinated actions required to carry out the guiding policy.  

 

Types of Innovation

Sustaining and disruption

 

What is sustaining and disruptive innovations? According to the Harvard Business Review, Business innovation can be sustained and disruptive.

Sustaining innovation continues to improve a company’s products, processes, and technologies within its existing market.  

Disruptive innovation is when a company introduces a revolutionary new product or service

or introduces a low-cost product or service with limited performance or limited capabilities and a much lower price. 

Or, the disruption can be aimed at a new market to gain new clients.

Think of Walmart creating a chain-link distribution system to market low-priced goods to small towns.

These innovative strategies to drive sales are essential considerations if you want to be more than just competitive.  

 

 How To Create A Business Model

What they are and how to use them

 

A business model lets you visualize the company’s components and overall concept.

Strategyzer.com’s famous business model canvas (template) includes nine elements:

customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships,

revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships & cost structure.

This illustration is a copy of Strategizer’s business model canvas.

undefined

In addition to the nine key components you control, it has four elements you do not control (competition, market, industry,

and government regulations). Still, it is equally crucial for strategists to consider.

Update regularly, or the company might miss future trends or challenges.  

 

 

Types Of Business Models

Following are a few more common models

 

There may be 50 or more different business models that companies use.

Many of which you already know. Following are a few to illustrate the variety of models.

E-Commerce or internet commerce is buying and selling goods or services using the internet.

Direct Sales involves selling a product directly to the consumer. That means there are no retail centers for companies that adopt this model. 

Subscription business models charge consumers a subscription fee to access a service.

The razor blade model sells an inexpensive yet durable product, below cost, to capture higher margin disposables over a long period.   

The Pay-as-you-go model is exactly as the name implies. You are pre-purchasing a certain amount of something, such as cell phone minutes,

and you are charged your actual usage at the end f the booing period. 

Freemium models give you a free product or service and charge for premium features or services.   

 Brokerage models connect buyers and sellers and help facilitate a transaction.

They charge a fee for each transaction to either the buyer or the seller, and sometimes both.

 

Business Model Innovations  

Here are a few ways to approach business model innovation.

 

You can achieve innovation through any nine business units,

like a new or improved product or improving your value proposition. 

Business models give you a visual concept of your business and enable you to imagine many different

ways to take the model apart and put it together differently and more effectively.  

Or if you have a problem in one area, like a product not performing, you can focus on that problem

and develop solutions and see how those would work within your business model.

Check out our blog post: Want a creative solution to an unsolvable problem?

With innovative strategies to drive sales, you will come up with different potential solutions

and will need to decide which possible solution is the best. 

 

Or, if you have a fiercely competitive market, you should examine each unit of your business model

to see how you add or eliminate parts to make that unit more effective or reduce costs or value to the entire business model. 

If you reimagine and innovate each unit, you will improve your value proposition

and make it difficult for your competitors to copy what you have accomplished.

Or, if your market growth is slowing, you may want to change your business model with different products or services

or expand your marketplace beyond the traditional industry or market to convert current non–buyers into new buyers.

Or, you can create a business model canvas for each of your competitors to see

where their strengths and weaknesses are –and if they change over time — so you can improve your position or anticipate future changes.

Net: you will need to create innovative strategies to drive sales.

 

  Innovative Strategy Benefits

Seven significant benefits of having an innovative strategy to drive sales.

 

To start, think about this: what if you took the opposite view?

How would you compete in the marketplace if you didn’t have a strategy?

You wouldn’t know where you stand or where you are going.

Answer: having a strategy is critical to a company’s success. Following are some of the benefits of having a strategy.

Creates A Competitive Advantage. An innovative strategy enables you to improve every aspect of your business model.

This Strategy allows you to maximize your resources, reduce unnecessary costs, improve your value proposition,

and create a competitive advantage that would be difficult for the competition to copy. 

 Improves Your Financial Success. A strategy requires you to review your costs and eliminate any unnecessary charges.

It also requires you to look for ways to enhance your offering, add premium pricing, create new offerings, or even enter new markets.

It enables You To Make Better Decisions. Because you are analyzing your current situation and creating a vision for the future,

you will use your experience and critical thinking skills and broaden your perceptions of the

company, industry, markets, products, and services. This type of analysis will enable you to make better decisions.    

It helps Build Your Brand. Because of all your work in preparing your Strategy,

you know who you are and who your audience is; you can create a distinctive and memorable brand.

Plan For Today And The Future. To create a strategy, you must identify the key steps to reach your goals.

This requires you to define and evaluate your company and your offering (value proposition’s) strengths and weaknesses

to determine what, if anything, has to improve or be eliminated.

It also helps you plan and allocate resources more efficiently and anticipate resource requirements

that will be needed in the future. You will have to challenge some entrenched assumptions to do this.

Improves Your Organization And Processes. A strategy helps you organize the company to support your values

and help you reach your goals. It can get your entire organization on board and focused on

helping execute the tasks needed to reach your goals. This focus is vital because the execution of your Strategy is as important

as the Strategy itself. Poor execution — rather than the Strategy — is a significant reason plans fail.

It gives Management Control and Reduces Risks. A strategy gives you control over

all activities that affect your goals and let you measure progress toward those goals.  

 

Conclusion

 

About 80 percent of companies believe strategies are essential, and many believe they have a strategy.

Unfortunately, few do. What they have are mission statements and goals.

But goals are wishes unless you have an innovative strategy to drive sales, so you have a pathway to achieving that goal.

An innovative strategy describes how the company will capture the new or additional value and which types of innovation to pursue.

There are also three innovative strategy levels: corporate, business, and functional (department responsibilities).

A business model canvas is a conceptual structure that explains the viability of the business

through the company’s essential nine components. Companies may use 50 or more different business models—

many of you already know- like E-commerce, subscription, and direct sales.

Business models are essential for both new and established businesses.

Also, you must update regularly, or the company could miss future trends or challenges.  

 

The way to approach business model innovation depends on the company’s situation.

Does it have a significant problem preventing it from achieving its objective, or does it need to break out of the competitive market,

or the company’s market is slowing down, and it needs to find new buyers?

 

There are seven significant benefits to having an innovative strategy.

It creates a competitive advantage, improves financial success, enables leadership to

make better decisions, helps build your brand plans for the future,

enhances the function of your organization and gives management better control, and reduces risk.

 

The First Five Steps To Your Business Strategy Journey.   

 

Go through the five steps below and begin to question and probe for answers to each question.

It will take some time to prepare an overview of how you will approach putting together your business plan.

Thistiewill be well spesnt. On the other hand, set a time limit for getting this done. Don’t delay all the benefits that result from a business strategy. 

Step One: Establish a plan to keep up with the constant pace of change in your marketplace. Involve your team.

If you have three people, you will get three different answers to the questions and other responses to future suggestive ideas.

It would be best if everyone were on the same page when you executed your proposed strategy.   

Step Two: Determine the overall objective of your future strategy. How aggressive do you want to be?

Do you have a specific problem to solve or an opportunity you want to achieve?

Are you looking for an incremental or radical program?

Step Three: Go through the first three steps in creating your strategy: define your objective

– which has to be the most critical objective, –it has to be achievable and measurable.

Then, diagnose the problem/opportunity– you only need information that helps you solve the problem, not an encyclopedia.   

Step Four: Determining your general policy. This step is difficult because it means saying no often.

After all, you have a concept you want to implement and limited time, talent, and money to do everything,

so saying no to additional ideas is challenging. Then, put your plan together on how you will execute this strategy.

Step Five: Monitor and measure the results of your programs and adjust as often as necessary.

This strategy program is a work in progress, so there will be many starts, stops, and rewrites.

Try out some strategy ideas, and let me know how they worked out for you.

Jim Zitek

Innovative Strategies Make Sales

 

Strategies Make Your Marketing More Effective

Growing pot of flowers demonstrates how strategies generate results

Want To Make Your Marketing More Effective?

Close the efficiency gap between strategy and marketing 

Reaching revenue goals, for most companies, is very difficult. According to Reflektive.com, 90 percent of companies do not meet their goals. Why?

They do not have an effective business growth strategy.

There is often a gap, difference, or disconnect between the business growth strategy and the company’s marketing messages.

They are often not identical. Consequently, this gap damages sales and marketing results.

To close that gap, you must first create business growth strategies to generate revenues.

Why? Because your business strategy is your story. Marketing is how you tell that story. 

 

A strategy looks simple when you look back at it.

Here are a couple of examples:

BMW designs, engineers, builds, and sells “The Ultimate Driving Machine” (for that unique slice of the upscale car market).

Walmart: “Save Money. Live Better.” They created a strategy to chain-link an operating system

to get the population density needed to serve small towns with brand choices and lower prices in larger city stores like K-Mart.  

Netflix: “See What’s Next” anticipated the power of cloud computing and its ability to reach individual computers and individuals.

They pivoted from a disc rental company and created a new video-streaming strategy for the world’s homes and businesses.

 

Today, business growth strategies must generate more revenues.

Market boundaries do not have to stay permanent. 

Most business leaders accept market boundaries and industry conditions are fixed.

The assumption is that it’s always been that way.

Therefore, you must strategically choose between differentiation OR low cost to succeed.

But you can’t do both: add value AND lower costs.

This belief hurts product and market innovation for companies in very competitive markets.

We have learned from professors and strategists like Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy

to rule breakers like Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne‘s insightful Blue Ocean that this belief is false.

You need to be more creative.

What is true is that strategies have been crippled by believing this value–cost trade-off rule is impossible.

Consequently, this viewpoint narrows your perspective and limits your potential product and market opportunities.

We are not just talking about creating disruptive technologies.

We are talking about competing in very competitive markets.

 

You can shape your market boundaries.

Innovative strategies enable you to create your own boundaries to generate revenues.

You can shape your market boundaries and target customers,

creating differentiation (more value) and lower costs. Here are a few examples:

Southwest Airlines broke the industry “hub and spoke” model and flew direct routes to smaller airports.

They have been the only consistently profitable U.S. airline since its inception.  

Apple broke the industrial computer market by introducing a beautiful, easy-to-use computer for individual consumers.

That worked pretty well.

CitizenM Hotel created a “five-star hotel” experience with four-star prices

by eliminating the things “five-star” customers didn’t care about,

like lobby check-ins and a concierge service.

And then added in items they did care about,

like King size beds, better mattresses, cotton sheets, and better pillows.

As a result, customers told their friends, and the hotels became an instant success.

 

Disruptive technologies’ successes often go viral.

More money is made from adapting those technologies

New technology is important and disruptive technology is and should be well rewarded.

But history shows that “big” money comes from applying technology and creating new strategies and markets.

Some popular examples from the New York Stock Exchange are

Apple, Google, FaceBook (Meta now), Airbnb, and others exploited the new technologies. 

Therefore, if you have an open mind and a broad perspective, you can change how you see opportunities.

You can go from fighting fierce competition to creating a bigger market.

A market consisting of current buyers and previously ignored nonbuyers

who become buyers because of your unique, new business growth strategy.

 

  Are you tired of constantly fighting your competition?

Take your company to the next level with an insightful strategy.

If you are willing to entertain new ideas and are committed to involving your team, you can make it happen.

 Getting started on your insightful new business growth strategy could put you ahead of your competition.

About 70% of companies say they have a strategy, but only a few have an actual strategy.

The problem is their definition of strategy is goals or a mission statement.

Goals are mostly wishes without a strategic plan on how to achieve them.

 

Unfortunately, only 15% have real, achievable, measurable, specific strategies.

And of these companies with real strategies, about 40% still miss achieving their objective. Why?

Not because of the strategy but because the execution of the strategy is often neglected for many different reasons.

So, having a strategy AND executing it are important.

Also, because execution takes time, it can lose its priority. Success takes a long-term “team” effort.

On the positive side, if the team is included in the process,

they will become more excited as the execution becomes more and more of a reality.

Conclusion

You will be ahead of most of your competitors just by starting your journey toward an effective business growth strategy.

Looking forward can seem daunting at first.

But, once you see your strategy, if done right, looking backward, the strategy looks simple and easy.

Even though the world is getting more complex and seems to be moving faster, we can help make it as easy and effective as possible.

If you have an open mind and broaden your perspective,

you can shape your marketing boundaries by creating differentiation AND low cost.

 

 

Why Business Growth Strategies Generate Revenues

Want To Make Your Marketing More Effective?

Close the efficiency gap between strategy and marketing 

Reaching revenue goals, for most companies, is very difficult. According to Reflektive.com, 90 percent of companies do not meet their goals. Why?

They do not have an effective business growth strategy.

There is often a gap, difference, or disconnect between the business growth strategy and the company’s marketing messages.

They are often not identical. Consequently, this gap damages sales and marketing results.

To close that gap, you must first create business growth strategies to generate revenues.

Why? Because your business strategy is your story. Marketing is how you tell that story. 

 

A strategy looks simple when you look back at it.

Here are a couple of examples:

BMW designs, engineers, builds, and sells “The Ultimate Driving Machine” (for that unique slice of the upscale car market).

Walmart: “Save Money. Live Better.” They created a strategy to chain-link an operating system

to get the population density needed to serve small towns with brand choices and lower prices in larger city stores like K-Mart.  

Netflix: “See What’s Next” anticipated the power of cloud computing and its ability to reach individual computers and individuals.

They pivoted from a disc rental company and created a new video-streaming strategy for the world’s homes and businesses.

 

Today, business growth strategies must generate more revenues.

Market boundaries do not have to stay permanent. 

Most business leaders accept market boundaries and industry conditions are fixed.

The assumption is that it’s always been that way.

Therefore, you must strategically choose between differentiation OR low cost to succeed.

But you can’t do both: add value AND lower costs.

This belief hurts product and market innovation for companies in very competitive markets.

We have learned from professors and strategists like Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy

to rule breakers like Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne‘s insightful Blue Ocean that this belief is false.

You just need to be more creative.

What is true is that strategies have been crippled by believing this value–cost trade-off rule is impossible.

Consequently, this viewpoint narrows your perspective and limits your potential product and market opportunities.

We are not just talking about creating disruptive technologies.

We are talking about competing in very competitive markets.

 

You can shape your market boundaries.

Innovative strategies enable you to create your own boundaries to generate revenues.

You can shape your market boundaries and target customers,

creating differentiation (more value) and lower costs. Here are a few examples:

Southwest Airlines broke the industry “hub and spoke” model and flew direct routes to smaller airports.

They have been the only consistently profitable U.S. airline since its inception.  

Apple broke the industrial computer market by introducing a beautiful, easy-to-use computer for individual consumers.

That worked pretty well.

CitizenM Hotel created a “five-star hotel” experience with four-star prices

by eliminating the things “five-star” customers didn’t care about,

like lobby check-ins and a concierge service.

And then added in items they did care about,

like King size beds, better mattresses, cotton sheets, and better pillows.

As a result, customers told their friends, and the hotels became an instant success.

 

Disruptive technologies’ successes often go viral.

More money is made from adapting those technologies

New technology is important and disruptive technology is and should be well rewarded.

But history shows that “big” money comes from applying technology and creating new strategies and markets.

Some popular examples from the New York Stock Exchange are

Apple, Google, FaceBook (Meta now), Airbnb, and others exploited the new technologies. 

Therefore, if you have an open mind and a broad perspective, you can change how you see opportunities.

You can go from fighting fierce competition to creating a bigger market.

A market consisting of current buyers and previously ignored nonbuyers

who become buyers because of your unique, new business growth strategy.

 

  Are you tired of constantly fighting your competition?

Take your company to the next level with an insightful strategy.

If you are willing to entertain new ideas and are committed to involving your team, you can make it happen.

 Getting started on your insightful new business growth strategy could put you ahead of your competition.

About 70% of companies say they have a strategy, but only a few have an actual strategy.

The problem is their definition of strategy is goals or a mission statement.

Goals are mostly wishes without a strategic plan on how to achieve them.

 

Unfortunately, only 15% have real, achievable, measurable, specific strategies.

And of these companies with real strategies, about 40% still miss achieving their objective. Why?

Not because of the strategy but because the execution of the strategy is often neglected for many different reasons.

So, having a strategy AND executing it is important.

Also, because execution takes time, it can lose its priority. Success takes a long-term “team” effort.

On the positive side, if the team is included in the process,

they will become more excited as the execution becomes more and more of a reality.

 

How you can generate revenues and make your competition irrelevant.

Join our ClickViser program. We’ll help you step-by-step reach your objectives.

Join our “ClickVisor” program. This program was created to help you regardless of the stage your company is currently at,

from an entrepreneur to an established business. It gives you the information you need to create and develop each stage of your business growth strategy.

The stages follow this pattern:

Start by identifying the ONE, most important problem preventing you from your objective or opportunity.

Then research and diagnose the situation until you get that insightful solution.

Then, because everyone has limited resources (time, skills, money, etc.), deciding what the company will do and will not do, is based on your strategy.

And finally, define the coherent plan of action required to reach your objective. 

 

You can look for an innovative strategy solution within your industry and markets.

Or depending on market growth rates and/or competition, you can

look at your objective across industries and markets to include expanded markets

and current non-customers (future customers), which is often thought of as a Blue Ocean Strategy.

 

Three ways to create your business growth strategy and story.

From Do-It-Yourself to We’ll help you do it.

Everyone is pressed for time and needs a flexible schedule. Our job is to help you

get an innovative and effective business growth strategy –at an affordable price — that will help you reach your objective.

You can do that through the following three programs.

Option One: Use our ClickVisor  Coach Program.

This online digital program can be accessed at any time you have time.

The information is divided into modules: strategy, execution, marketing strategy, etc.

so you can get the information you need when you need it.

It also includes free email so you can ask questions.

Option two: The ClickVisor Advisor Program

This program includes the ClickViser Coach program plus telephone or Zoom calls.

We are only a phone call away if you have questions or need charity about a unique issue.

 There is an additional charge for this based on the time used.

Option Three: our Consulting Program.

The Consultanting Program includes programs one and two,

plus one-on-one sessions to help you through the entire strategy creation process.

This customized program is set up together. If this program interests you,

we will need to set up a phone appointment to discuss what needs to be done.

Conclusion

You will be ahead of most of your competitors just by starting your journey toward an effective business growth strategy.

Looking forward can seem daunting at first.

But, once you see your strategy, if done right, looking backward, the strategy looks simple and easy.

Even though the world is getting more complex and seems to be moving faster, we can help make it as easy and effective as possible.

If you have an open mind and broaden your perspective,

you can shape your marketing boundaries by creating differentiation AND low cost.

 

Join one of our ClickVisor Programs to get the critical information you need

to create your own business growth strategy and make your competitors irrelevant.

Remember, your strategy is your story, and marketing is how you tell that story,

Thanks for your time,

Jim Zitek

P.S. For more information, check out the blog post “Why your business growth strategy is your story.”

P.P.S. Also, look at “Innovative strategies for revenue growth: exploit market changes.”

 

How To Get Better Reults In Less Time

How To Get Significantly Better Results In Less Time

No one has enough time, especially business executives.

We always try to do more, learn more, and produce more. 

But there are only 1,440 minutes in a day, and no one gets more time, no matter who they are. 

But there are ways to get much more done and get better results if you know how to use your time correctly.

The following is from author and entrepreneur Kevin Kruse’s book, “Leaders Have No Rules.”

Enjoy.

Start by asking yourself these questions.  

What do I love doing? 

What is my expertise? 

What do I hate doing? 

What do I do that isn’t a priority? 

Here is the first step if your goal is increased productivity and faster, better results. 

Get rid of the jobs you hate to do and those that are not a priority. 

If you hate doing them, you are probably not very good at them either. 

Plus, they take more time than they should. Time is not a renewable resource. 

Maybe someone in the company loves that kind of work and would be happy to do it. 

If not, hire someone from the outside to do it. That’s probably less expensive than you doing it. 

You have just saved time and used it on higher-priority projects like driving revenues and profits. 

Wait, there is another way to use your time more effectively. 

What if you closed your office door, turned your phone and email off, and told people not to disturb you for three or four hours? 

The result would be no interruptions, no time for meanless chit-chat, no distractions from emails that were not critical, and more.

Imagine four hours free of disruption –every day –what you could accomplish with that much extra time.?

I’ll bet significantly more than twice as much.

Conclusion

Now, you can focus on the priority jobs where you have the expertise. 

That’s how you become an exceptional leader that gets better results in less time.  

Jim Zitek

Harbor Capital Group

It is a short week, so I kept this short

 

 

 

Want A Creative Solution To An “Unsolvable” Problem?

 

There Is A Creative Solution To Most Problems

 

You’ve done your research using (your analytics and other diagnoses) on the problem. Now you need a creative solution.

But all the research and data have looked backward at the information and concepts you already know.

You have to look forward, not just backward, to get an insightful or creative solution.

The way you do that is to use creative problem-solving techniques and tools.

If you do, you will be able to create a solution to your “unsolvable” problem.

 

 It isn’t that you can never get insight from all that research.

It can happen, but your mind already has all this information.

Your mind must be confronted with something new or different, requiring it to take an unfamiliar concept or word

and fight to fit it into your current mental database.

Therefore, the mind must fit this new word into what is already known and create a new concept.

Here is a simple example of how the creative minds works

Creativity is simply looking at things differently. Edward de Bono, in his book “Think,”

explains how the mind works this magic. Your mind continuously builds up knowledge over time.

Following is a game he uses to illustrate how the mind works. 

Start with the letter’ a’

Add the letter ‘t,’ and the new word is ‘at.’

Add ‘c”. The new term is ‘cat.”

Add o’. The new word is ‘coat.’

Add ‘r.,’ And things have to change. The new word is ‘actor”.  

But the letter ‘r’ required the mind to restructure the use of the previous words. This process is creativity.

Therefore, you need to get your mind off the traditional path to get new ideas.

A goes directly to B (the pattern already in your mind) and moves at a different angle

from the conventional thought pattern.

For example, you could use a random word to disrupt your known routine

and asymmetrically open your mind to a new way or idea you can choose to use or not.

This process also means that anyone can accomplish creativity.

It is a skill, not an exceptional talent only some people have.

Here is a great 4-minute video on creativity by Edward De Bono that you should see if you have time.

Use random word techniques to achieve creative solutions

You want to start by selecting some random words as your starting points.

One of the best ways is to use the dictionary. Open the dictionary to a random page,

put your finger on a random word, and select the closest word (a noun).

Choose about five more words. Write them down. 

 

Be sure you know the definition of each word because you will associate the characterizations of each word

with your focus idea or question (for example, create a new concept for a restaurant.).

Focus on the word and relate it to the question or problem you want to be solved. 

Work quickly through each word, but don’t judge your responses now.

Each idea response represents the possibility of a great idea.

Spend about 5-10 minutes exploring each random word. 

 

For example, focus on a concept for a new restaurant  Random word: wallet.

One concept would be a restaurant where people order food, pay immediately,

and take the food elsewhere to eat vs. ordering in, eating the food at the restaurant,

and only paying after eating. 

A restaurant where people are charged by the amount of time they spend at the restaurant. 

A restaurant known for one special, unique and expensive dish served at one particular time every day.  

This is only one creative technique of many. But, this random word technique is easy to use and can be done quickly.

We cover other techniques for individuals and teams as well.

 Creative Solution Concepts

According to Merriam-Webster, a concept is conceived in the mind: a thought, a notion.

For example, the concept of gravity.

The importance of concepts is developing alternatives and new ideas

by extracting the image and looking for ways to deliver this concept through a specific idea.

Ideas are a way of putting the concept into action.

The concepts you create can be functional or operational, and these concepts can be vague to very detailed.

You can create value concepts (why is this a value?)

Or purpose concepts (why are we doing this?) Also, descriptive ideas.

 

The importance of concepts is developing alternatives and new ideas

by extracting the concept and looking for ways to deliver this concept through a specific idea.

Ideas are a way of putting the concept into action.

There can be functional or operational concepts describing how something is done, from broad to detailed.  

There can be value concepts (why is this a value?)

Or purpose concepts (why are we doing this?)

And descriptive concepts.

Try this creative solution technique for yourself. 

Try it on a focus of yours. Take five words and give yourself 5-10 minutes for each word.

The more you do, the more you learn and the more ideas you will get.

Conclusion

You have to look forward, not just backward, to get an insightful or creative solution.

The way you do that is to use creative problem-solving techniques and tools.

If you do, you can create a solution to your “unsolvable” problem.

Creativity is simply looking at things differently.

Therefore, to get new ideas, you need to get your mind off the traditional path A to B

(the pattern already in your mind) and move at a different angle from the traditional thought pattern.  

The random word technique is a quick and efficient way to generate new concepts and ideas. 

The focus on a new kind of restaurant is an example.

The concepts you create can be functional or operational and can be very broad to detailed. 

 

To learn more about “How to get a creative solution to that “unsolvable” problem,” go to our website: https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com

PS. You may also be interested in our blog post:   https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com/a-strategy-for-business-growth-jim-zitek/

PPS. This post may be of interest as well: https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com/want-better-sales-results-tell-your-real-story/

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope it gives you some food for thought.

Jim Zitek

 

Why Your Business Growth Strategy Is Your Story

Solve Their Problem, And The Money Is Yours.

 

 

 Many companies do not reach their revenue and sales goals.

A primary reason is that they jump right into marketing as a way to achieve their goal quickly.

Marketing tactics alone, while important, will not solve the customers’ problems. That’s your job. 

You need to tell prospects your real story, and the real story is your company’s insightful solution to their problem:

your business growth strategy. 

Your business growth strategy is your story. Marketing is how you tell your story. 

That’s the story you are passionate about because it solves their problem.

Solving their pain, as you know, is why you need a strategy first.  

 I think the “strategy is your story” line is from an article by Ben Horwitz

You need a strategy to solve your prospect’s problem to reach your goal.

Without a strategy, there is a big hole in your story.

You need to fill that hole. So, to get on track to meet your revenue goals, you first need a strategy (your story),

and only after you have your strategy can you effectively and passionately market your story.  

With a strategy, your product or service solves a targeted customer’s problem in a better or more desirable way.

Plus, a strategy includes a reachable and measurable pathway to reach your sales objective.   

A strategy also makes your marketing cost-effective.

Your message will target and focus on the specific solution the customer needs and wants.

There are five parts to creating an effective business growth strategy. 

 Following is a very condensed description based on Richard Rumelt’s book, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy.   

1. Understanding your goal and the number one problem in reaching that goal, then turning that goal into a specific, measurable objective.   

2. You need to diagnose the problem based on experience, research, analytics, and critical thinking skills, so the information is as objective as possible. 

3. Next, create new insights and concepts using creative thinking tools to solve the problem or take advantage of the opportunity. 

 4. Once you have the insightful solution needed, you need to define what the company will do and not do

This step is difficult because it means many” no’s” because of limited resources.

5. Finally, prepare a coherent plan to execute this strategy.

Now that you know your company’s growth strategy (story), you can begin telling that story.

But, your marketing program needs a strategy also because the market is very crowded.

And you have to stay coherent with your business strategy.

For example, about 70 million posts are made each month on WordPress  

So, how will you compete against all the other marketing messages?

You must be on page one or two of “Google’s” search results. 

 

Competition is stiff if you use inbound marketing like websites and blog posts.

You must have a strategy for your marketing programs, using the same process described above for the company strategy.

What can you say or write differently, uniquely, and on point with your strategy?

Most visitors do not go beyond the second page of Google’s results.

Therefore, you need a strategy to get your blog posts seen and then read.

And this problem exists for all the media. It’s not impossible, but it takes a plan and some time to accomplish.

Your marketing plan may include outbound marketing (like direct mail and advertising) and direct sales.

Most people are familiar with the different marketing platforms and programs, so I will not cover them here.

Allocation of resources

Strategy is also important because it requires you to allocate resources to the entire company program, including marketing.

Every company has resources that are limited for marketing also.

So, spend enough time and resources to make each program successful.  

Don’t put 100 dollars into ten programs because you want many leads.

You may have to put the $100 into one program and make that program successful.

Then you can expand into the next scheduled item.

With a business growth strategy, you can get measurable results.

Two words of caution

Marketing programs also take time, a precious resource, especially for “free” social marketing programs.

Also, marketing programs need to be tested and adjusted as required.

For example, $100 for advertising may need to be scheduled monthly to get the exposure frequency high enough to work.

Or you may have to plan $25 every three months. 

Also, focus on only the marketing plans and programs that support your overall strategy.

Every employee and every program must sync with your company’s business growth strategy if you want to deliver what you promise in your marketing messages. 

Remember, your strategy is your story, and marketing is how you tell that story.

The following are three ways to move your company forward and reach your goals.

If you want to create a business growth strategy or update your current story, Harbor has three ways to help you.

These three programs enable you to design and decide what you need and how much time you can devote to creating your company’s programs.

 

The ClickVisor internet program gives you the information you need anytime.

You don’t have to hunt for the info. Just click and learn.

Plus, new information is added weekly and monthly.

The data is divided into modules to access the information you want quickly.

 

Workshops discuss specific strategies like defining and articulating your value proposition.

Learning various innovative techniques to create new concepts and ideas, how to

create your Brand or differentiate your products and services, or how to

position your Brand against the competition to become the preferred choice.

  

Consulting Program is custom-designed to help you transform challenges into opportunities and

benefit from the power of business and marketing Strategies.

 They are one-on-one or team designed to help you through the entire strategy creation process.

If this program interests you, we will need to set up a phone appointment to discuss what needs to be done.

 

 Conclusion

 

There are many reasons companies move forward too quickly by spending money on marketing programs; just to be disappointed,

You need to have a strategy defined and in pace first.  Then you can create an effective marketing program.

If you take the time to get your strategy right first, you will save a lot of time and money

and have a higher probability of reaching your objectives.

 

To learn more about the concept of your strategy is your story. Marketing is how you tell your story;

go to our website: https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com

I would love to hear your thoughts on having a written business strategy. Comment here.

 

PS. You may also be interested in our blog post: How you approach problem-solving matters.

PPS. And this post also: How To Define And Solve The “Real” Problem

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope it gives you some food for thought.

Jim Zitek

Innovative Strategies That Create More Profits

7 Effective Business Growth Strategies

Business Growth Strategies To Increase Revenues

 

 

 

After a difficult two years, and maybe another challenging year coming up, it may be time to update your current strategy

or create a new strategy to help deliver revenues and profits.

These 7 effective business growth strategies to increase revenues can help you do that.  

 Your business strategy covers much more than revenues; no one would read a blog that long.

So the focus here is on business growth strategies that create revenues.

Before we get started, a word of caution, because of the current economic situation and rising inflation, you have to put all of these strategies in perspective.

You may have to cut some expenses to raise money to implement new strategies, these strategies, 

Also, it’s essential to focus on your long-term goals. All right, let’s get started.

1. Increase Market Share Or Market Penetration

Of course, the way to do this is to keep trying to sell more products or services to your existing market.

Go back to your basic strategy model and reevaluate the initial assumptions you used to create your strategy.

But, do it for a positive analysis (how may I increase sales to our market?),

and Don’t use a negative statement (why can’t I increase sales to our market?). You are looking for new answers, not excuses.

For example, you might consider adding additional products or services.

Focus on a few products and increase the promotional budget on other products.

You can lower your costs on some products and use the savings to invest in other products.

You can also resegment your markets with a special offer, maybe find different suppliers, can you improve any of your current products, and more.

2. Develop New Markets 

Developing new markets is an excellent way to expand your revenues.

Not easy, but worth the time it takes to analyze the opportunities.

Looking for new markets should be something constantly on your radar.

Anticipating future events and changes is a powerful way to leverage your growth strategy.

For example, Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne’s book, “Blue Ocean Strategy,”

an analysis where you make a graph isolating each prominent feature of your company and your major competitors and the value customers put on each element.

This analysis quickly visualizes the differences between you and your competitors and should give you some food for thought.

You should get ideas on where to be more competitive and areas that may be open to new product entrants into the market.

3. Alternative Channels

You may already use different channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others.

Many other channels are now available, and the list is growing, including Parlor, Substack, and individual platforms.

Also, there are podcasts on every topic you can think of, and most are looking for people to talk to be on the show. 

Remember, however, that each of these additional channels will take a considerable time for you to use,

respond to and create material for use on the channel.

So, keep the number of channels in line with your available time.  

4. Product expansion

 

Product expansion is a great way to get additional penetration into existing and new markets.

Maybe it’s time to explore some of the product or service ideas you have thought about for some time. 

Also, you can use “creative design” to develop many new products or services.

You may not be able to think about new products and instantly come up with some ideas,

but you can use creative thinking tools. 

For example, anyone can use the “random word” tool and generate many ideas in minutes.

You pose a positive question and then use a random word (a noun) and apply the characteristics of that word to your positive question.

More information on this tool is available on our website and blog.

If you want to explore new products or services with a group of employees, you could use the “six hats” creative tool,

which is designed for groups and is much more effective than the old “brainstorming” technique.

You can also find more information about this innovative tool on our website and blog.

These creative tools are from Edward de Bono’s many books on creative thinking.

5. Market Segmentation

 

There is more to market segmentation than demographics.

Market segmentation is another practical possibility to achieve your business growth strategy.

If your market is large, you can use a different lens to look for new areas within that market,

like product purchases that go together, levels of usage, or psychographics or mindsets.  

If your market is small, you may be able to divide it into even smaller markets

or “splinter” markets by the customers’ own perceived product value.

For example, the auto industry is large but divided into many niche markets.

But, within these niche markets (e.g.luxury cars), there are splinter markets (they still have to be large enough to be profitable).

Think BMW, a luxury car for special people that want the “ultimate driving machine.”

Of course, you have to deliver that promise.

So, the entire company must sync with the strategy to deliver the promise.

And with a strategy, everyone should be in sync with the strategy.

Remember, your business growth strategy is your story, and marketing is how you tell your story.

Strategic Partnerships

 

Joining forces with other companies is one way to expand your reach and product capabilities.

Theis relationship should benefit both companies.

It could also be for reasons other than sales. You could get skills and resources that you don’t have and could use.

You could also go to act.com for additional information on the administration of working with many people.

This partnership could also be for sales. For example, you could exchange client lists or referrals to companies

with complementary products or services.

You are not in competition with each other; you complement each other.

Market Disruption

 

Market disruption means introducing a new product into a new market.

This idea started with Clayton Christensen and the concept of entering a new market with an inexpensive product and limited functionality. 

The large companies would ignore this new company because of its limited functions and low price, meaning no margin.

Then, the new company starts adding additional functions and value and, at the same time,

keeps getting more and more of the market.

Done right, in time, the company will become a significant player in the market.

  

Other business growth strategies

 

There are some other strategies out there that are more limited to specific kinds of businesses.

In other blog posts, we will write about these (like franchising and licensing deals).

 

Conclusion

 

The 7 effective growth strategies to increase revenues listed above are some of the ways you can become a more robust and profitable company

— especially in the challenging years ahead.

To stay on top of your market, it would be best if you continued updating your strategy

and anticipating new trends and opportunities to improve your business growth strategies. 

 Jim Zitek

 

PS. You might also be interested in our blog: Why your business growth strategy is your story

PPS. Also, check out: How To Turn Negative Problems Into Positive Results.

If you want to update your current strategy and need to create a new strategy, go to our website.

You can get started today for only $39 per month for three team members and no contract.

 

What Is Customer Lifetime Value? LTV

What Is Customer Lifetime Value? LTV

 

About 55% of companies with increasing revenues think customer lifetime value is “very important”, and 29% of companies with flat or declining revenues do not think it is very important according to a study by Hubspot. Which group makes more sense to you?

Here is why Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is critically important. it determines how much you can spend to acquire a new client based on your current client’s profitability. It gives you a picture of your business’s short-term and long-term status and financial viability.  It is also an indicator of product-market fit, client loyalty, and recurring revenue from existing clients.

When you know what a customer will spend with your business over time, you can consider more options for long-term planning. Yes, it does take some time depending on the depth of information you need. For example, knowing what the customer lifetime value is for each market segment is also very important. If you are a SaaS company and need extensive information almost daily, there are companies like Baremetrics that have the measurement and management tools to get you to the depth of knowledge you need.

There are two basic ways of calculating CLV, depending on what data you have available.

1 Accumulated data

If you have historical sales data, this method is far more accurate. It puts together all orders by individual customers to get their own real CLVs. 

2 Average estimate

If you don’t have granular data, you can estimate an average by the following formula: Average order value times number of orders per year.

How to calculate Customer Lifetime Value

For instance, if your customer base will, on average, buy ten times per year at $10 per transaction (or $100 per year) for ten years, the lifetime value of a customer is $1,000 (minus costs). If your profit is 25% of sales, the CLV is $250 (25% of $1,000). Therefore, you could technically afford to spend $250 to attract a single new customer. However, many marketers suggest that you do not spend more than 33% of CLV or, in this example, would be $82.50.

Another view. If you could improve each of the three CLV numbers by 10%, you would increase profits by 33 percent, giving you a profit of about $332 (plus $82). This additional profit could then be added to your marketing budget to grow even faster the following year.

Now, how can you improve each element of your customer’s lifetime value? 

Now that you know the lifetime value, you want to spend some serious time examining how you can improve your revenues and profits. This information will also give you a long-term look at your business and help you plan for the future. To improve your results, you should do the following things sequentially: 

  1. Increase the dollar amount of each sale to a customer. 
  2. increase the frequency that customers purchases from you. , 
  3. Try to increase the number of products or services you provide for your customers.
  4. Then, you can begin to increase your market share by going outside — to increase your market share by working on your competitor’s customers.

This process also forces you to look at different market and customer segments. For example:

  1. Who are your best customers and worst customers using CLV? How can you get more of the good customers and maybe less of the lower value customers? 
  2. Which products provide the most revenue and profits? Can you add value to your products and increase the price?  
  3. Which industry or market segments provide the most or least CLV? Are you in the best markets, best niches, and aiming for the best clients?

You also want to generate many alternative ways to increase your customer lifetime value.

Now, you can focus on developing many alternative ideas and practices to increase your CLV. You want to focus on your overall business strategy, potential innovations, and marketing strategy. More information is available on our ClickVisor program to help you accomplish these crucial tasks.  

Consider Multiple Marketing Approaches

This process also requires you to expand your marketing approaches based on the industries, segments, and types of customers. It is also a good idea to have more than one marketing approach that you continue to use long term. You need to try and test different approaches as the world, and people change. 

Customer lifetime value will change as you create and implement new programs

As you implement your marketing program, this lifetime value should change as the variables in the process change. So, reviewing your CLV regularly make sense. It will cause you to rethink many things you’re doing as you are always looking for ways to improve that number. 

 Conclusion 

Client Lifetime Value is an essential concept for every business. It goes hand in hand with customer repeat orders and retention. It is also a great concept to broaden your thinking about your company and its mission. Plus, businesses with a high CLV can service their client better and grow continuously over time.

Thanks for your interest. Learn more at our website.

Jim Zitek, ClickVisor Program

jzitek@https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com 

P.S. We would love to get your thoughts on CLV.  Also, sign up for our free blog  posts at: https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com

PPS. If you know someone who could use this information, please pass it on.

 

 

How To Create Strategies For Business Growth

How To Use Business Growth Strategies To Become A Superior Competitor  

 

If you are in a competitive market long-term, you will likely go out of business because eroding margins are the consequence of destructive competition.

Therefore, you need a powerful strategy for business growth to become a superior competitor.  

The good news is there are three strategies we will cover in this blog that you can repeatedly use:

keep creating new ideas and innovations to acquire new clients,

get them to purchase more,

and increase the number of times they buy each year.

Learn how to get out of that long-term competitive race with a superior, long-term strategy for business growth.

Our strategic framework will elevate your products and services over the competition—no more short-term tit-for-tat competitive strategy. 

You will have a process that will deliver endless business growth strategies, opportunities, and revenue growth, making you the market’s value leader.

Without the hype, buy now marketers we see so much of today.

 

This Strategy For Business Growth Blog Will Briefly Cover:  

1. How to make better decisions more often. It covers expertise and critical thinking from one’s perspective and vision.

2. Then, three ways to increase revenues and what you can afford to spend to acquire a new client.

3. And then, we will discuss only three things — business growth strategy, creative insights, and marketing strategy —

you can repeatedly use to keep improving value and increasing revenues and profits. 

Let’s talk about decision-making first because you may want to change how you approach decision-making.

And we know you must make many daily decisions as a business leader. So, let’s start with a question.

 

With So Many Growth Strategy Decisions, How Often Do CEOs Make The Right Decision?

The answer is 52%. You only have to make the right decision 52% of the time to be a top decision-maker — 2% more than the flip of a coin.

Remember New Coke or the Edsel car? Billions were spent and lost by brilliant people making poor decisions.

Why is this number so low? The first reason may surprise you. It’s due to our reliance on expertise.

They specialize in their industry, markets, and products to get to the top of their company and industry.

They have built a kind of wall around their perception of the world.

They know the norms of their industry and are comfortable. So they are comfortable making informed decisions.  

 

Many Executives Have Put Themselves In A “Limited Perception Box.”

Executives often limit their business and industry worldview.

This limits their situational perception, which is a significant reason they can’t get past 52%. 

For example, If you looked at the front of a house, you would have a real, accurate perception of that house.

If someone else looks at that house from the rear, they would have a different and precise perception of it. 

 

Here’s a fun perception example that I like from Edward de Bono.

This group of 12-year-old boys tends to pick on or tease Bobby because the group thinks it’s fun.

They show him two coins one day, a large one (worth $1) and a smaller one. (worth $2).

Bobby picks the large one, and the group laughs and has a good time at Bobby’s expense.

They do this several times over the summer. 

One day, an older man sees what’s happening and afterward tells Bobby that the smaller coin is worth twice as much as the larger one.

Bobby says I know that. But, if I had taken the $2 coin, they would never have kept offering him the opportunity again and again.

Perceptions can be valuable and increase opportunities.

This short story shows how vital your perception is,

and the broader your perception, the better you will be at solving problems, coming up with new ideas, and making good decisions.

You can’t limit your perception of your industry, market, or how you think about your company.

 

Why “Perception” Matters When You Are Trying To Create Business Growth Strategies

 If I asked you what you do, you might answer: I own a hardware store, I am a doctor, or I manufacture light fixtures, or whatever.

You probably would say yes if I asked if you wanted to grow the business. 

So, now let me REFRAME your answer by changing your perception,

Let’s say your first answer was. “I own a hardware store, and I sell products and services.

That perception may then limit your market growth.

But what if you reframed your answer to, “I own a marketing company that sells hardware and services.”

Now, you have a different and much broader perception of what you do and how you would approach your objective or goal differently.  

 

Your job is marketing which means you focus on increasing sales and profits.

You can now focus on ethically building your company, sales, and profits, not as a hustler.

This change in perspective gives you a broader perspective and have you searching for ways to market your business by focusing on your clients.

Note: your focus is now on the client because a client is someone you care about and want to help solve their problems. A customer is a transitory perspective.

 

There Are Only Three Traditional Ways To Get Additional Revenues.

1.  Increase the number of your clients. Start by looking at the “lifetime value” of the client.

If you sell a product for 1,000 dollars, the client makes a purchase once per year,

and the average customer remains a client for five years; the lifetime value of that client is $5,000. 

I assume you would prefer the $5,000 to the $1,000. So, you now know you can spend up to $5,000 (less your costs) to acquire a new client.

If you could increase the number of clients by 10%, you would increase your revenues by 33.5 percent.

2. Increase the average size of the orders

Start by satisfying the client with add-ons or solving the client’s problem better or differently, which might require additional or different items.

Maybe the way they sell cars.

After you agree to purchase the car, they show you the sunroof to make your driving more fun, the better radio that brings in more stations, and more. 

3.  Increase the number of times they buy each year

Create other ways for clients to use your products or services.

A great example is American Express or Visa, which enables you to purchase plane tickets, theater tickets, and a frequent flyer miles incentive program.

Or maybe a special spring and fall sale at your store for current, specially invited clients only.

Those are all excellent traditional things you could do to improve your revenues. But an even better approach will give you continuous revenue growth.

 

How To Achieve A Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Generally, if you are in a competitive market long-term, you will likely go out of business because of eroding margins

due to the problematic competitive nature of competition. 

But, there are only three strategies you can repeatedly do to keep coming up with new ideas to get new clients and get them to purchase more,

plus increase the number of times they buy each year.

Revenue Opportunities Start With Your Strategy For Business Growth. 

Using your new perception, create a new strategy for your business

based on your goal or a problem that needs to be solved to reach your objective or goal.

We could talk for days about what strategy is, but Richard Rumelt, author and professor,

explains a practical and straightforward definition that makes a complex description simple and easy to understand

 

A strategy Process Is: 

1. Identify and define your problem or objective.

2. Diagnose the objective or situation (data is essential but not sufficient) because you rarely come up with new insight

because your mind is dealing with the information you already know

3. Innovate through insight and creative thinking. There are many innovative techniques you can use to create new ways of solving problems, and knowing how to reach the objective,

4. There is never enough time or money to do everything, so you must prioritize and ensure the solution conforms to your strategy

4. Prepare a coherent plan and execute it.

There is never enough time or money to do everything, so you must prioritize and ensure the solution conforms to your business growth strategy.

 

Then Creativity And Innovation:

I need to talk about innovation briefly because many people think they are not creative, but everyone is creative.

Again, Edward de Bono shows why your mind is set up to be creative.

It requires you to learn innovative techniques to put your mind in gear to do the creative work.

And it’s a great way to get business growth strategy ideas.

Humor is a beautiful example of how the brain works.

Humor indicates how our information system gives rise to perception and how you can see the world differently.

You might enjoy this example from a Winston Churchill story. 

A woman MP meets Churchill in the hallway (after lunch and a few drinks) and says to him,

“If I were married to you, I should put poison in your coffee.”

And he replies, “and if I were married to you, I should drink the coffee.” 

Our information system gives rise to perceptions and how you can see the world differently.

Perceptions set up in one way can suddenly be reconfigured in another way. Humor is the essence of creativity. 

One can use many creative thinking techniques to create different concepts, insight imaging, and ideas and turn them into innovations.

For example, the random word technique is an easy and quick way to get many ideas.

See our blog post, “How to turn negative problems into positive results. or Michael Muchalko’s book, “ThinkerToys.”  

 

Then Marketing Strategies For Business Growth

Marketing strategy and tactics are the third groups of tools we can repeatedly use to reach our objectives.

It begins with the same strategy format explained above — objective, diagnosis, insight, and a coherent execution plan — but is applied to marketing strategy.

Apply a market strategy to every tool used. For example, you need a marketing strategy in b2b for your website, blogs or ads, publicity, and other marketing tools.

You might want to see our blog posts on websites and value propositions.

For example, over one million blog posts are created every day.

How would a potential client find and read your blog post?

You need material the client is looking for, not necessarily the material you want to give him;

you need to be different and have a strategy and some creative insights to make it effective.    

Also, because your perspective is now broader, you can use marketing strategies and tactics – from any industry-

to get new clients, get them to purchase more items, and buy more often. 

 

Conclusion

Long-term, it is difficult to compete profitably in a competitive market because of eroding margins.

However, you can win this competitive race with better thinking, a broader perspective, and tools that can be used repeatedly.

To achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, you need to start with your business strategy for growth and keep adapting it to market and buyer changes.

Then use your creativity — everyone is built to be creative. It is a learned skill, not a talent. Learn to create ideas and then turn them into innovations.

Then create your marketing strategy for each objective and program  — like website, blogs, advertisements, publicity, etc. — you will use and make sure you also have a coherent execution plan.

How will you use this approach to strategy for business growth to drive more revenues and profits?

Tell us what you think  Also, if you would like more information like this blog post, sign up for our free blog post program.

PS. You might also be interested in the blog post, Why Your Business Growth Strategy Is Your Story.

How Much Can You Spend To Get A New Client?

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is an important business metric. It is the total revenue your business earns from a customer over time. It gives you a picture of the business’s short-term, and long-term status and financial viability. It is also an indicator of product-market fit, client loyalty, and recurring revenue from existing customers. You can’t continue to improve if you don’t measure.

Know what your customers will spend over time

CLV gives you an understanding of the costs and profits of your business as it relates to acquiring, generating revenues, and retaining customers. Also, getting repeat orders from existing customers brings in a healthy cash flow regularly into the business. When you know what a customer will spend with your business over time, you can consider more options for your acquisition budget. 

Two basic ways to calculate CLV

There are two basic ways of calculating CLV, depending on what data you have available.

1 Accumulated data

If you have historical sales data, this method is far more accurate. It puts together all orders by individual customers to get their own real CLVs. 

2 Average estimate

If you don’t have granular data, you can estimate an average by the following formula: Average order value times number of orders per year.

How to calculate Customer Lifetime Value

For instance, if your customer base will, on average, buy ten times per year at $10 per transaction (or $100 per year) for ten years, the lifetime value of a customer is $1,000 (minus costs). If your profit is 25% of sales, the CLV is $250 (25% of $1,000). Therefore, you could technically afford to spend $250 to attract a single new customer. However, many marketers suggest that you do not spend more than 33% of CLV or, in this example, would be $82.50.

Another view. If you could improve each of the three CLV numbers by 10%, you would increase profits by 33 percent, giving you a profit of about $332 (plus $82). This additional profit could then be added to your marketing budget to grow even faster the following year.

 Now, how can you improve each element of your Customer’s Lifetime Value? 

Now that you know the lifetime value, you want to spend some serious time examining how you can improve your revenues and profits. This information will also give you a long-term look at your business and help you plan for the future. To improve your results, you should do the following things sequentially: 

  1. Increase the dollar amount of each sale to a customer. 
  2. Increase the frequency that customers purchasing from you. , 
  3. Try to increase the number of products or services you provide for your customers.
  4. It gives you a customer feedback loop so you can improve customer service
  5. Build customer loyalty
  6. Analyze and improve customer pricing
  7. Better target your customer through segmentation
  8. It helps you plan both short-term and long-term strategy
  9. Then, you can begin to increase your market share by going outside — to increase your market share by working on your competitor’s customers.

This process also forces you to look at different market and customer segments. For example:

  1. Who are your best customers and worst customers using CLV? How can you get more of the good customers and maybe fewer of the lower-value customers? 
  2. Which products provide the most revenue and profits? Can you add value to your products and increase the price?  
  3. Which industry or market segments provide the most or least CLV? Are you in the best markets, best niches and aiming for the best clients?

You also want to generate many alternative ways to increase your Customer Lifetime Value. 

Now, you can focus on developing many alternative ideas and practices to increase your CLV. You want to focus on your overall business strategy, potential innovations, and marketing strategy. More information is available on our ClickVisor program to help you accomplish these crucial tasks.  

Consider Multiple Marketing Approaches

This process also requires you to expand your marketing approaches based on the industries, segments, and types of customers. It is also a good idea to have more than one marketing approach that you continue to use long term. You need to try and test different approaches as the world and people change. 

 Customer Lifetime Value will change as you create and implement new programs.

As you implement your marketing program, this lifetime value should change as the variables in the process change. So, reviewing your CLV regularly make sense. It will cause you to rethink many things you’re doing as you always look for ways to improve that number. 

Conclusion 

Client Lifetime Value is an essential concept for every business. It goes hand in hand with customer repeat orders and retention. It is also a great concept to broaden your thinking about your company and its mission. Plus, businesses with a high CLV can service their client better and grow continuously over time.