Add Fuel To What Works Well

In my previous post, listen and create your charter, I described two simple steps in deciding where to focus:  listen to your team and quickly create a charter for your short-term focus.  The post focuses mainly on “fixing” areas of weakness, but you must also take notice of areas of strength and add fuel to the fire.  Let me provide you with examples of “fixing” and “fueling.”

For growth companies, identifying and finding ways to relieve the bottlenecks to growth is a focus on “fixing.”  For example, assessing the quality and quantity of the existing sales staff is a crucial exercise.  If you are short on sales coverage, you likely need to add to your sales team.  Examining how leads are currently generated both by sales and marketing is an important follow-on exercise.  If no cold-calls are being made by the sales staff, by all means, script, teach, deploy and measure new ways of getting the word out to potential clients.  If a standard sales methodology is lacking, adopt one.  Insure you have a mentor who knows the method and can teach salespeople its key principles.

In contrast to bottlenecks, identifying success areas is equally important so you know where to apply more “fuel.”  If, for example, your direct marketing lead generation methods are effective, focus resources on fine-tuning and add to your investment.  If your existing clients love your products and services, look for and experiment with creative ways to increasing your sales to them.  Whatever your charter, it should be simple and understood by your team.  Adding fuel to what works well always pays a dividend. 

At Explore Consulting, we successfully utilize our web site for building relationships with potential and existing clients.  Second only to word-of-mouth, much of the company’s leads are generated from natural and paid search, a cost-effective way to advertise our products and services.  Because Explore offers best-in-class search engine optimization (SEO) services to our clients, applying those practices for our own benefit has paid off in spades.  We are adding fuel to that fire by investing time and money into the site daily.