Making a contribution!

“The circumstances of your life have uniquely qualified you to make a contribution. And if you don't make that contribution, nobody else can make it”. --Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

I saw this quote recently and it made me think about the much-vexed subject of “contribution” for a lot of folk its something we do into a charity tin, but is that really making a contribution or making a small gesture? In modern business “the need for speed” and “making a contribution” are the very perceived cornerstones of operational efficiency where contribution is measured as achieving the “end game”. But real contribution is so much more.

Its long been said that our lives are made up of series of experiences of all sorts and that they contribute to the people we become or strive to become. Few of us pause long enough to conduct the “joined up thinking” and to connect the circumstances and experiences to see the pattern that is being woven into our lives or career. Sometimes, to take a minute, an hour or a weekend, to think about where we have come from and more importantly where we are going might just help us all realize that small and seemingly insignificant experiences, choices and challenges have perfectly positioned us for the opportunities today and tomorrow. The issue is that most of the time we only notice it is when the event is one of significance.

My own experience of life in larger businesses manifested itself as a struggle to really fulfill my own potential and ultimately the decision to move away from a well paid, but career limiting job led initially to a world of risk and uncertainly but also a real world full of chance and opportunity. I now meet more fascinating, engaging and passionate people in one week then I had met in the last five years of my employed career. I have also discovered that the journey I’m now on continues to provide new learning and insights that are so much more rewarding. Networking with like-minded souls has the ultimate reward of opportunity of partnerships, collaborations and shared experience and most importantly shared experiences.

Larger Businesses and the business world in general tend to be solely focused on the end result, where nothing really counts until you arrive at the finish line, ably serving the purposes of the shareholder but somehow ignoring the other stakeholders in the process. So what’s the antidote?

✰ Think about how you can contribute to others success, a helping hand, some well placed advice at the right time or simply be there to listen
✰ With customers focus on value delivery that makes a return many times more than the cost of your product or service
✰ Be a student as well as a teacher, share what you know and surely other will share with you
✰ Put time aside to think about the progress you’ve made and what you still need to know and most importantly how you can coach and teach others
✰ Work to help others without reward, refer a network contact, or give some free time to a good cause
✰ Believe you can be the best you can be!

Making a contribution happens when you realise that all of your circumstances and all of your experiences are what enable you to make a difference and contribute to people, businesses or causes. It is dependant on you realising the value of your journey and all you learn from it. Oh and your willingness to share what you have learned with others.

To your success in whatever you do!

Simply Consulting provides business development expertise to Small and Medium sized businesses, see our website at www.simply-consultancy.co.uk for details of our services and to arrange a free no obligation business development assessment.

Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/SimplyConsultin
LinkedIn Profile http://uk.linkedin.com/in/clivemulligan
Naymz Profile http://www.naymz.com/clive_mulligan_2981131

Hearing Customers? Is That the same as listening?

An experience before Christmas made me think about how businesses communicate with their customers. In the usual mad rush to get all the present shopping done, I picked up a present for my son from one of the major electrical chains, one I had visited many times before and one I guess I had developed a degree of loyalty to. I had reason to raise a query via email with the head office, not to complain but to make, what I thought was a query worthy of their consideration.

Two "standard emails" later I had my answer, but I was left feeling that they had heard or listened to me as a customer. The net result being "I got the hump" and have moved my recent custom to a rival chain where I had a particularly good buying experience during the post Christmas sales. The whole process had been owned by them and my message seemed to get lost in it!

With modern methods of communication being so extensive and frequent there is a real challenge in delivering the important messages to prospective and current customers in a method They can digest and at a time when They have time to digest them in. Do we also consider or Ask them how they would like us communicate with them? Can we tailor the communication? Can we Personalise the offering and can we most importantly Deliver the offering in a way that is Right for the customer?

When I work with clients and prospects I am very conscious in being very clear on how I communicate with them, its frequency, timing and when I am most likely to get their attention and quite possibly a hearing! With social media gaining some pace and with self made video and audio communication becoming the new ways of making Impact statements with prospects and customers who knows what we might be offering five years from now! Anyone like to offer a guess? Is anyone going to Ask what customers want?

That being said, selling is a people business and we must all be aware of how our customers want to interact with us, for many "corporates" this is not something that they can easily assimilate. The pressures on achievement of volumes and profit targets mean they have to select one delivery route and "one sized fits all" product delivery and to some extent "blow the consequences"! Or at least thats how it feels as a customer! Losing sight of the customer can be a high risk strategy.

The moral of this piece? The retailer I have "walked away" from has already lost some £1000 of my custom is some three weeks. In the time I have been shopping at the chain, some 12 years, my best estimate is that I have spent around £10,000 on a complete menagerie of electrical goods, but more than that I have related this story to probably 25 people since and with the power of networking including this blog who knows how many people may hear of my "bad experience"? It's not me as a lost customer that is consequential, it is the loss of my network that might just be some much more significant!

In your business, make sure you develop raving fans, a small low cost high perception trade, can, not only keep a customer, increase their lifetime spend, but in time make them a raving fan of your business. This will do so much more than any advertising can ever do.

The lifetime Value of a customer is the amount they spend multiplied by the number of purchases over one year and then again, by the number of years you keep them as a customer. Work those numbers on your business and your key customers relatiosnhsips, it will prove to be a sobering thought! In a recent example with a restaurant client this amount to £1,000 per customer, better kept than lost I think you will agree.

Keeping an existing customer is Eight times cheaper than finding a new one, it is possible to double the profits in a business purely by keeping your existing customers, selling them more products, more often and winning some new customers in the process. Simple!

To your success! Have a good week.

Simply Consulting provides business development expertise to SME businesses, see our website at www.simply-consultancy.co.uk for details of our services and to arrange a free no obligation business development assessment.

Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/SimplyConsultin

LinkedIn Profile http://uk.linkedin.com/in/clivemulligan

Naymz Profile http://www.naymz.com/clive_mulligan_2981131

Does anything really change?

Well the festivities are now starting to be a fading memory and life starts to settle back to normal. A friend of mine told me in an email over the weekend that he was looking forward to "getting back into a routine". "Thats interesting" says I, "last week you were telling me about the new years resolutions you going to make and this week is back to the old routine". For a considerable number of us making resolutions rarely last beyond the end of the first week of January and for this very reason I stopped making changes to my life in January some years back apart from paying so scant attention to lowering the calorie count, once the new year arrived.

For most small businesses change has to be a way of life, not a time of year thing, or a nice to have thing, but a real thing, reacting to the market and your key customers is part and parcel of running a successful small business. I sometimes think that providing he most to your customers is anticipating the next big thing, like the killer pass that opens up the defence in sport or foreseeing a need before the customer does. Just imagine a business anticipating the current salt shortage and how they might have been able to have placed their customers at an advantage.

It not all about financial advantage, running a successful small business is all about delivering value to clients and customers, being there when you customers arrive at the point when they need you the most is going to deliver real value to your client. 2010 has had an unprecedented start lets hope its energies now focus on an unprecedented recovery.

Have a great week!

www.simply-consultancy.co.uk

Blackberry or Raspberry?

Something that concerns me with the approach of Christmas and probably the only remaining true family time left in this busy world we all populate.

That is "How many Blackberrys' will be on the Christmas dinner table this Christmas"? Nestled quietly between the plethora of trimmings to the traditional turkey just on the off chance that Santa might just need to email the owner to get directions to the chimney of the relevant homestead!

Now I must pin my colours to the mast here, being a music lover, ooh and self employed my gadget of choice is the iphone, much less corporate, and granted difficult to switch off it will reside quietly in a draw for the christmas break unless it is needed to pump the inevitable christmas tunes through the sound system!

Peace for all men? I'll settled for the peace of not hearing the inevitable "ping" from an incoming communication!

Wishing you peace this Christmas. Join me in blowing a Raspberry to the Blackberry!