Life and Business Balance Part 3
October 9th, 2019 // 12:58 pm @ Scott Manning
I’m jumping in all the way here this week. In a business, if you want balance you have to remember what the key points are.
In short, you have to get new customers and you have to maximize those customers’ value. The only way to do that is to retain them, as much as your business is suppose to. Hopefully it’s not entirely transactional and has a component based on long-term relationships where you can cultivate value over time. That is not to say that you shouldn’t focus on getting money early in the process; as long as it is done in a healthy and not detrimental way – the equivalent of stepping over long term dollars to pick up short term pennies.
This is a very big lesson right there. Inside of that paragraph alone contains one of the most important aspects of BALANCE in your business that you must master in order to have compounding growth over time.
On top of this, of course, as much as we love the selling, love the experience, love the making of the money – you have to LOVE what you do, what you deliver, what your customers, clients, and patients are buying. Bottom line: if you want longevity in your business YOU MUST have balance with the front and back of the business.
You’ve heard about the fastest way to shut down a restaurant… really great marketing with really bad food.
Sadly, this is not uncommon. Some business are really great at getting lots of customers but not really great with a) doing anything for them to their benefit and b) keeping and engaging them for any length of time to create a real relationship of trust with buy-in in both dollars and belief.
This is the worst cycle you could ever fall into. It will lead to rising overhead, diminishing profit, and endless frustration. It gets harder and harder and more expensive, because you aren’t operating a balanced business that makes the most of each individual customer and do what is necessary for them.
Now, there is the flip side of this, which is far more often the case only because most businesses never master marketing and sales. The flip side is being superior at the product or service, but never having enough customers who are excited and willing to pay for it.
This is the syndrome called the ‘starving artist.’ Great work just no one who wants to buy it.
No matter how you look at your business, there must b3 balance in marketing, sales, experience, delivery, and I would throw at the end satisfaction. There are so many reasons why this start-to-finish cycle matters, not just because of money but also referrals, efficiencies, leverage, and predictability.
I’m going to go deeper on this next week and talk about another type of balance related to your customers, yourself, and your team.
Just in terms of tactics and systems, I want you to take a hard look at your business and follow the flow from intake to output and everything in between.
What and where are you missing something that completes chain of events?
What and where are you not putting enough attention that could make a big impact?
If you were to assess your balance all the way through by using my two extreme examples, where do you fall?
It is quite possible you are out of balance a little bit on both sides… not being completely effective with your customer retention and satisfaction but also not having enough focus on marketing for your ideal customers either.
While there are success formulas, they do have to be lived out. You can’t wish them into being; you have to have systems and dedicated effort. You have to have focused approaches and a real balanced perspective of all sides of your business if you want to be successful.
I will leave you with the example I have used for years that goes way back to the old days when you were in school. You got your report card and maybe one grade was off, a little lower than the others. As you would work extra hard to make that grade better, you’d get the next report card to only see another grade might have slipped.
BALANCE is all about not having this teeter totter of focus where for one thing to be going well then something else has to suffer. If you want to have a successful and sustainable business then you will find a way with dedicated time, checks and balances, and a strategy to ensure EVERYTHING is in alignment and balanced in order to achieve your goals.
Lot’s to think about here. So get to work. Where you are out of balance in your business is most certainly what will lead to an immediate breakthrough, profit windfall, and reaching levels you’ve always been hoping for.
Go find it, go balance it!
Category : Blog