Automating Your Business
No matter what your company does, what your business is, what you do each
day is probably not what you envisioned.
It is all too easy to spend your days caught up in the details that are part
of keeping a company running instead of doing what you really want to do, what
the company is in business to do. Getting bogged down in all the tasks that are
part of operating a company many times keeps you from doing the very things that
make a company successful.
Once your business is automated, it runs itself to a degree, allowing you to
concentrate on developing new business, improving processes, new product
development, or take a real vacation.
Creating a well-documented business operations manual not only helps you
define your business, but also everything involved in building and running it,
including newly hired employees. It is an extension of the business plan.
It also frees you to focus on business development, marketing, and sales, and
the big picture.
The advent of technology over the last decade makes it possible to:
- Automate much of your business development
- Lead generation and scoring
- Nurturing leads into prospects
- Managing customer service
- Building long-lasting customer relationships
- And providing value beyond the products and services you sell
And that means you gain control, operate more efficiently,
fatten that bottom line, and have time for some fun!
Because, at the end of the day isn’t that what it’s really all about?
- Define your goals. By how much do you want to increase revenues
over the next 12 months? Is your business seasonal? How will that
affect sales on a quarterly, monthly, weekly basis?
- Develop an editorial calendar of print and electronic newsletters,
seasonal promotions, holiday messages, and customer appreciation
notes for marketing and for sales.
- Determine an annual marketing budget that is relevant to your
company’s annual revenues.
- Implement the tools, systems, and technology to execute your
communication program. These include:
– Working closely with your direct mail printing consultant
to schedule print projects
and drop dates;
– Setting up your email marketing solution with designed templates;
– Designating the person/s responsible for content;
– Monitor campaign tracking and statistics and follow up while interest is high;
– Nurture new leads and qualify them before passing them along to sales;
– Follow up with sales to make sure they and those valuable leads and customers
have everything they need to do business with your company.
– Re-calculate the great new ROI that’s a result of all your well-invested efforts!
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