real advances come with new questions and from …...real advances come with new questions and from...

Real advances come with new questions and from seeing old problems in a new light.

Thank you for downloading my book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. The world is full of books promising easy answers. This one bucks the trend by offering hard questions. Answering questions is how one gets insight and insight is what leads to better strategy – a better way of doing things that leads to a new dimension of performance. If you love your business, I think you’ll love these questions. Some are mine, some I don’t know who to attribute to, and some have attribution. Hopefully you’ll find a shakabuku moment – the kick upside the head that results in a new perspective in one of these questions.

• If you are a business coach, I hope you’ll find the questions stimulating and the workbook a logical and meaningful way to have discussions with your clients.

• If you are a business person, you will hopefully find new insights into your business,

maybe opportunities and possibilities you hadn’t seen before.

• If you are ‘on the team’, a banker, lawyer, accountant, insurance agent, marketer, IT professional, or someone else, this may help you advise your clients by better understanding the issues they face and seeing new ways your discipline can bring new efficiencies and effectiveness to the business.

• If you are an employee, this may help you contribute by developing a better appreciation of

the challenges faced by owners and managers. It may provide a frame work for you to suggest a new way to a higher dimension of performance.

Who every you are, I hope you find an ‘ah ha’ moment or two here. Good luck, Jeff Gilman Port St Lucie, Fla 2017

Questions to reimagine and grow

Copyright 2017 © Jeff Gilman - jeffgilman.com - Common Sense Strategy ™ 2



Questions to Reimagine & Grow Businesses

Small and medium sized organizations edition

Table of Contents

Foreword ....................................................................................................................................... 5

The Discussion Guide .................................................................................................................... 7

The Customer .............................................................................................................................. 11

Product Customer Fit .................................................................................................................. 17

Selling Costs ................................................................................................................................ 22

Marketing Management ............................................................................................................. 26

Products and Services ................................................................................................................. 33

Operations .................................................................................................................................. 37

Management & Performance ...................................................................................................... 41

Business Model ........................................................................................................................... 46

Customer Management .............................................................................................................. 50

Distribution and Logistics ............................................................................................................ 53

Customer Interface...................................................................................................................... 56

The Environment ......................................................................................................................... 59

The Competition.......................................................................................................................... 64

Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 69

Appendix ..................................................................................................................................... 70

About Jeff Gilman........................................................................................................................ 82

Stay In Touch ............................................................................................................................... 82

About This Book .......................................................................................................................... 83

Also Available at JeffGilman.com - Managing the SMB for Results ............................................. 84



Copyright © Jeff Gilman 2017 Connect with Jeff at jeffgilman.com Facebook - https://business.facebook.com/GilmanManagement/ LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreygilman Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffgilman Self Published by: A Better Way Publishing jeffgilman.com Steal This Book – You are welcome to share this book with anyone. However, neither content nor attribution may be changed. Also by Jeff Gilman: Managing the SMB for Results teaches owners, entrepreneurs, and managers in SMBs (small and mid-size businesses) the secrets of a conducting proper business economic assessment. This important book teaches that a firm is first and foremost an economic entity and management must carefully align and manage economic resources in order to advance. The message from Managing the SMB for Results is it isn't enough to do things right, the right things must be done too. Free at jeffgilman.com. Also by Jeff Gilman: Better Results From Better Decisions: The Business Process Guide To Decision Making. Available at jeffgilman.com. Good decisions aren’t only the right thing to do, they are the most profitable investments you will ever make. The Guide is about solving problems using the state-of-the-art business consulting method. It is about getting success in business by improving the single most important thing under your control - the decisions you make. Disclaimer: This information is provided solely for educational purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for experience or advice from appropriate experts including, but not limited to, accountants, bankers, insurance agents, operations researchers, marketers, and others. The reader should regularly consult with their team and outside professionals. Be smart. Take this, and all business information with a box of salt. After all, every firm is unique and copying from others without careful fitting to the unique circumstances is unlikely to help, and can even be disastrous.



Foreword This workbook contains the consultant’s best tool – questions. The questions are designed to work at the 10,000 foot level. They aren’t about details. They are about how the firm functions as an economic unit and how to improve it. They are questions that encourage imagination in the search for a new strategy. Strategy is about elevating the organization to a whole new dimension of performance. It is about doing things differently.

In 1954, Sir Roger Bannister became the first man ever to run a mile in under 4 minutes. He succeeded by employing a different strategy: his insight was to not run a 4-minute mile, but instead to run 4 sub-1-minute 1/4 miles. Redefining goals and managing performance resulted in a new dimension of performance. In 2006 Dominos was a failing brand whose stock was selling for under $3 a share. Today it is worth over $188 a share. The key insight was to stop thinking of pizza as a product, but rather as an ordering process. This was the birth of Dominos as a tech company based on the transparent – open for the customer to watch – internet pizza tracking software. Engaging the customer, managing the work, and holding themselves to account resulted in a new dimension of performance.

Every business is ready for a new strategy – a new way of doing things – an insight that will result in a new dimension of performance. If there is anything different about today, it is the pace of change is faster. There are more technical changes leading to more fundamental business changes than ever before. Thus, the one thing certain is that no business will be relevant a few years from now unless they adapt to change.

Every Business is Ready for A New Strategy

Both articles appeared in the newsfeed on the same day in Sept of ‘17. It makes no difference if your

business is retail, services, manufacturing, or something else. Change is the one certainty.



This book will not create a strategy for you. No book can do that. The only path to a strategy is to find a new insight and that requires time and work. This book helps by doing two things:

1. It provides a general frame work – a common sense strategy model – of business. The model posits strategy is matching customers to product to a business model in such a way as to increase economic performance. And,

2. It asks questions. This book is not prescriptive. It is diagnostic. It is a work book and you

must do the work. The questions help find insights, challenge assumptions, and provide prospective. However, these are not the only questions. These are not all the questions. They may not be the best questions or even the right questions. But they are the starting questions. The right question is the one that leads you to the next level of performance.

If you don’t find your ‘right’ question in here, I hope you continue the search.

How To Use This Book You can start anywhere in the book. Feel free to jump around and look to see the enterprise from as many different angles as possible. If I were working with you, I’d start with the first set of questions - thinking about the customer – and then maybe go to the back to look at the environment next. That provides a solid foundation because the customer is the key thing and understanding the environment is an important step to understanding the forces affecting the customer. However, I have no reason to think you need to start like that. You may find the most bang for the buck by starting with marketing or the business model or somewhere else. It’s a search. It’s your search.

Am I Wrong? Spot something untrue? Or better, do you have a question or a story or analytical tool that will help someone gain a new strategic insight? Submit your content and, if I agree, I’ll include it as a learning example and give you accreditation. Contact me via jeffgilman.com.



Examples The examples used in the book are obvious and well known: Apple, Ikea, Dominos and so on. They aren’t there because you should copy them. They are there because they are well known. When the question is, “Is there some work you can assign the customer, can you do something like Ikea, that builds loyalty and improves the customer connection to your products?” almost everyone knows what Ikea does and how they do it. The examples are just short hand.

The Discussion Guide The workbook is built around the most basic business concept - matching products to customers with the right business model to get maximum economic results. The book contains questions and examples which facilitate the discussion of how the business can improve today, realize its full potential, and transform for tomorrow.

14 Parts of the Common Sense Strategy Discussion

Strategy is coping with a complex and competitive environment in which customers, products, and the appropriate business model are matched to achieve superior business performance.



Most of the questions are common sense, which is not to say they are easy. Emerson said, ‘common sense is genius dressed in work clothes’. Like any useful question, these require time and work to get a useful answer. I have a couple of suggestions to help get the right perspective.

Honest self-assessment is the cornerstone of business thinking. Ben Franklin wrote: “like a man traveling in foggy weather, those at some distance before him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all appears clear, tho' in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them.” It takes honest self-assessment to think we too may be in the fog. Get rid of the roses colored glasses when it comes to customers. Because the organization works so hard to serve customers, it can’t help but believe its own advertising. Try to see everything as the customer would. Keep seeking a better understanding of strategic thinking. There are many different ideas of strategy. Some say strategy is a plan. Some think it is a position. Some think it is a pattern of decisions. Some think it is a perspective. Some people think of strategy as game theory. I believe Common Sense Strategy ™ is the best strategic tool because it seeks performance from thinking thru the match of products, customers and operations. If this disagrees with your observations, try something else. After all, it is your business. Be critical of the Common Sense ™ model itself. For example, the Common Sense ™ model assumes product design is important. There are cases, sweet corn for instance, where design isn’t a factor. Not everything applies to everyone and every circumstance equally. The map isn’t the terrain. Trust the discussion to help you see ways to move forward but take everything with a box of salt.

What is certain is all resources are scarce and there are too many potential goals and objectives to pursue them all. There is never enough time, talent, money, or other resources to do everything. Strategy has always been about focusing on the things that make a real difference. The leader is responsible for 3 key things: getting full economic performance from the organization today; realizing its full potential; and preparing it to be a different organization for a different future. That means the leader is making decisions today that affect tomorrow. That’s hard. What is sometimes harder is strategy is as much about what one doesn’t do as about what one does do. The job is to apply resources to opportunities - it is about concentrating time, talent, money, and other resources to the things that move you forward. I hope these questions help with that focus.



One More Thing:

Have an idea for a project? See the appendices for project planning templates and tools. The appendices contain a project planning tool. It is beyond the scope of this book to address project planning in detail but the tool is a useful check list. It is a set of touch points to prevent overlooking key considerations when trying to operationalize ideas.

What about mission vs strategy? In the context of this book, the goal of strategy is economic performance. It is about attaining a higher dimension of economic performance. The mission is what the organization wants to do - mission is the change the organization wants to bring about. For example:

• The Coca Cola Company mission is: To refresh the world in mind, body and spirit. To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions.

• The girl scouts mission is: Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character,

who make the world a better place.

Strategy is about achieving the mission in a way that achieves economic results - profits. Better strategies produce better results. You pick the mission - that’s your choice. However, there always a best strategy to achieve the mission. You just have to find it.



Common Sense Strategy

Discussion Questions To Re-imagine and Grow



The Customer The customer is someone who chooses to do business with you. Some organizations call customers by other names including ‘client’, ‘patient’, ‘student’, ‘fan’, ‘donor’, or something else. The fundamental issue is they decide to do business with you based on their criteria – not yours. How do you really know what they want? Or are you just assuming they want what you want?

Who Is The Customer?

Knowing the customer is the key to product design, marketing, advertising etc. Knowing who the customer is and what they want must be the focus of the organization. In fact, creating customers is the very purpose of the organization. There are two parts to this question – who the customer is, and what the customer wants. Knowing who she is tells you how to connect with her. Knowing what she wants tells you what to sell and how to sell it. It is important to note there is often more than one customer: a primary, secondary, and tertiary customer. (A primary customer, in a B2B example could be the department that wants to buy your paint or hire your consulting services. The secondary customer could be the quality control department and/or procurement department that approves the sale and negotiates the deal. And the tertiary customer could be the end user who must approve of how it looks on the finished product



or how the consulting service changes their life.) Whatever you do, the product or service must satisfy all the customers. It is also important to keep in mind the customer only wants a benefit and that benefit is very likely not the benefit you want them to have.

Questions

• Hearing what isn’t said is the hardest thing about communications. Is there something happening the customer can’t or won’t communicate?

• Historically, we overestimate change in the short run but underestimate it in the long run. What changes do you see in the short and long run in your customers lives?

• What are our priorities? • Is what you sell necessary? The customer must find

the product necessary by their own definition. More than just ‘nice’ or ‘good’ or ‘better’ than what they have, it must be necessary to them. Consider Mercedes; all cars have 4 wheels and most cost less, but Mercedes satisfies the need for status. It is necessary by the customer’s own reckoning. What makes you necessary?

• How valuable is what you sell? The customer must find value in the product. Water is necessary, but sparkling water creates value at the bistro. Credit card processing is necessary – PayPal costs the customer less to process and thereby creates value. The product must create value by the customer’s reckoning. What is your value? How do you measure it? How do you communicate that value on a bumper sticker?

• Does the customer have a budget for what you sell? The customer must have money or credit for the purchase. The sale is easier if there is already a budget. What budget category, on paper or in the customer’s mind, does your product fit into? How big is that budget? Do you save them money?

• Is there a pressing need? The sale is easiest if the need is pressing. A software that documents legal compliance avoids a fine solves a pressing need.



Flowers are a pressing need when hubby is in trouble. What pressing need do you solve? On a 1 to 10 scale, how pressing is it?

• What do we need to learn to master this area? • Is the product aimed at a big market? The product

aimed at a $10 billion dollar market is better than the product aimed at a $10 million market. How big is your potential?

• Is the product for a growing market? How fast is your market growing?

Who Is The Customer

• Who is the primary customer? • Who is the secondary customer? What is their role? • Who is the tertiary customer? How does your

primary customer learn from your tertiary customer? How does the primary know your services make the tertiary happy?

• Where do you find your customers? Where aren’t you looking that you should?

• What do they read? Where do they get their information? Who influences them? How do you get into that space?

• How much do they have to spend? What do their budgets look like?

• Where do they live? • What do they do for a living? • How old are they? • Do they have ‘constituencies’? Is there a boss, a

wife, a procurement office, a kid to satisfy? • Are they Verizon or T-Mobile people? • What is their favorite product? Their least favorite?

Where do they buy it? Where do they shop? • What is their biggest complaint?

What Does The Customer Want?

• What does the customer want from you? What are they craving?



• What does the customer value? Why do they pick Android or iPhone? Why do they pick Prius or Mercedes? What is the emotion? The status? The utility?

• How do we know what the customer wants? Is it what we at this table think? Or does it come from actual testing?

• Is our understanding really fact based or a HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion)?

• Should there be split tests or another strategy to understand what the customer wants?

• What authority figure would most impress them? • If they looked to their peers for direction, who would

their peers be? What social proof do they follow? • Who do they find to be likeable? If they bought

because they liked someone, who would they like the most?

• How does your understanding of customer want’s change your thinking about your product? About the features of the product? About the product’s support? About packaging? About promotion?

• Do you think the customer is looking for a first class ticket? Or is the customer looking for is an economy package? What kind of value are they seeking? What do they think is a ‘good deal’?

• How do customer’s wants change your thinking about your business model? Should you be connecting in a different way, thru a different channel?

• What are 3 things that might be done differently, inexpensively, to give the customer what she wants?

• Employees are customers. They choose to work for you. What are 3 things that can be done inexpensively to give the customer what she wants? How would that affect retention? Service? Motivation?

• Contractors are customers. They choose to work for you. What are three things that can be done inexpensively to give the customer what he wants?

• Is there any way to crowd source our customer connection? How do we use the wisdom of the crowd to understand our customer better?



Other Questions

• Are we relevant? Will we be relevant in 5 years? –

Debra Kaye • Which customers can’t participate in our market

because they lack skills, wealth, or convenient access to existing solutions? – Clayton Christensen

• Who uses our product in ways we never expected? – Keven Coyne and Shawn Coyne

• What makes our product necessary to the customer? • What makes buying it urgent for the customer? • Who on the executive team or the board has spoken to

a customer recently? – James Champy • Is there any reason to believe the opposite of my

current belief? – Chip and Dan Heath • Do we understand the customer’s journey? – Matt

Dixon • Is that really a light at the end of the tunnel, or is that

an illusion? Or is the tunnel the illusion? • Why don’t our customers like us? – James Champy • How can we be more high-tech but still be high

touch? – James Champy • Do we have enough freaky customers in our portfolio

pushing us to the limit day in and day out? – Tom Peters

Day in the life

• Can you describe a ‘Day In The Life’ of your customer before and after your product? Tipping the Scales in Your Favor

• Identify the advantages the customer sees in switching to your product. • What reasons are there for inertia – for not buying today? • What are the disadvantages of buying or switching to you? • How is your product an order of magnitude better than the competitors? How can it be?



Have an idea for a project? See the appendices for project planning templates and tools.



Product Customer Fit How the product fits the customer impacts most costs. The best fit – easiest to buy, most intuitively needed, most desirable product, etc. - yields the best advertising and lowest customer acquisition cost. It results in lower customer turn-over. The better fit means less waste from delivering unnecessary features. It means less waste supporting unnecessary features. It means less inventory carrying costs because the product itself is cheaper. Fitting the product to the customer is both good economics and good strategy. In your industry, in your business, what is the best way to think about fitting the product to the customer? Is there still something about the customer you don’t know but need to?

Fitting Product To Customer

The marketing challenge is fitting the product to the customer. As the great Peter Drucker said, The aim of marketing is to fit the product or service to the customer so well it sells itself.

The fit is built on understanding the customer, matching them with an appropriate product or service, having a clear value proposition, and being in a strong position vis’-a-vis’ the competition. Note that there are two kinds of fit – real and perceptual. Real fit is the product itself – the taste, the features, the materials.



An example of perceptual fit is the software firm that struggled to sell their B2B product bundled with 24/7 service. When they added an up charge for ‘Week End and Holiday Support’ sales improved dramatically. The reason was IT departments expected to pay extra for the type of service the firm offered - they needed to check the box ‘week end and holiday 24-hour support’ on their procurement process. This unnecessary fee was just what they needed to complete the purchasing process the way they needed to. When the fit is great, customers smile. Customers have been known to smile when approaching Ikea, using the Lyft ride service, and buying Apple. Even hard-boiled procurement agents smile with the deal works just like it is supposed to. These questions should help you fit your goods and services to the customer.

Questions

• What does the customer expect from your product or service? How do you know? How does the fit match that expectation?

• Why do they buy from you and not someone else? Is it because of convenience? Image? Price? Availability? Features? Service? Something else? What change might result in an even better fit?

• What is your key advantage and can you extend it in some way? How do you trash the competition? If you were a competitor, what would you do to beat you?

• What is your position in the customer’s mind? How does the customer think of your product or service relative to the competition? Is that the right positioning? Is the image a good fit to their expectations?

• If we need to change, must it be a big change? Or a series of small changes? Revolutionary change or evolutionary change? What is needed here?

• Why/when does the customer think of you? Miller beer is for Miller time – time is the mental placement. When a customer wants to buy something in your category, why are you the one they think of? Why aren’t you the one they think of? Is the placement a good fit to their expectations?

• Is the product or service in the channel the customer expects? Is the promotion on the right web sites? On



the right shelves? In the right magazines? Is it easy for them to see the reason to buy? Could it be easier? Are your found where they expect to find you?

• What do we need to learn to master this area? • What must we learn from the customer? • Is there a non-customer that could be a customer if

the product was modified or the distribution changed or the positioning improved?

• What value does the product create in the customer’s life? How do you measure that value? Is there a way to take it up a notch? What is the fit to their expectations?

• Can you describe the change in a customer’s life after he buys? What does the before and after picture look like? Is this what the customer really hopes will happen?

• How else does the customer’s life change? Can you describe a ‘day in the life’ of the customer and how it is better because of the change the product or service brought about? Does this fit what the customer wants to happen?

• What changes are brewing in the environment that may cause the customer to rethink your fit? What is happening to the customer’s expectations as they age?

• Are there environmental changes (new technologies, anything else) that might help you fit the customer better? What can you do with that information?

• Are there any legal, environmental, political changes occurring that might make the customer more or less in need of your product? What should you do about that?

• Is the market for your product growing? Shrinking? Upwardly mobile? Downwardly mobile? Do these mean you should think about how to change your product to fit customer better? Should you change your positioning or pricing to better match expectations?

• How can we break convention? - Shane Snow • In retrospect, of that projects that we pulled the plug

on, what percentage do we wish had been allowed to keep going and what percent do we wish had ended earlier? – Rod Ander



• Who do we think the world wants us to be? – Geoffrey Moore

• How do we build a 100-year startup? – Phil Liben • What successful thing are we doing today that may be

blinding us to new growth opportunities? – Scott Anthony

• If you had to rebuild your organization without any traditional competitive advantages (i.e., no killer technology, promising research, innovative product, service delivery model, etc.,) how would your people have to approach their work and collaborate together in order to create the necessary conditions for success? – Jesse Sostrin

• Is there a product problem we are just kicking down the road?

The Product Requires A Value Proposition The value proposition of a product can be described with this formula. Our product is for: (target market) Who are dissatisfied with: (current situation) Our product is: (description) That provides: (the value it creates) It is unlike: (current alternatives) Planet Fitness Value Prop Example

• Our product is for: people who want a low-cost gym and a fitness experience that they define – one without pressure or judgement.

• Who are dissatisfied with: long term contracts, someone else determining how much or how we exercise, and high prices.

• Our product is: A no contract gym, that offers the No Judgement Zone and even offers pizza to members for just $10 per month.

• The solution it provides: is a friendly and compatible environment for Average Joes. • It is unlike: muscle head gyms and intensive gyms because there is no judgement, no

pressure, no contracts, and low prices.



What is your value proposition? Have an idea for a project? See the appendices for project planning templates and tools.



Selling Costs “Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Success and failures in both lines are due to like cause. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman’s standards. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per work on an average advertisement. Therefore, every ad should be a super salesman. A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertisers mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.” – Claude Hopkins. Selling is expensive and managing the selling process is a rich in opportunity to increase effectiveness and lower costs. Can the firm have more manageable and measurable selling systems? What potential can be unleashed with changes in selling? What new markets can be opened?

Selling Costs Deserve Management Too

Every part of advertising and marketing should be subject to the discipline of tight financial scrutiny. Test, measure, improve, and don’t waste money. The reality of promoting is it is impossible to predict the results of a promotion. The advertisement loved by people who work in the firm may actually un-sell the product. One



advertisement may cost 10 times as much to attract a customer as another. A headline might be re-written to work 10 times better in another. No advertiser has ever been able to accurately and consistently judge how their promotions will work in advance although large organizations with deep pockets put a lot of money into doing just that. The only solution is to test everything and make things incrementally better. The best way to advertise is to keep testing, measuring, and improving. The best way is to develop a database of experience that helps develop promotions into steadily improving campaigns. These campaigns should be replayed like a singer who repeats favorite old songs time after time. New promotions should be developed, but not at the expense of discarding the tried and true. Advertising, sales funnels, marketing, etc. are large expenses. They deserve to be managed. The key issue is the firm is relentless about measuring results and is committed to constant improvement more than creating new promotions. Hopefully, these questions will get the creative juices flowing.

Questions

• What do you really know about your advertising results? What information do you base your judgements on? Do you know your base lines? Can you identify your cost to acquire a customer? Do you know long you retain your customer? What else do you think you need to know about your campaigns?

• What other metrics would make sense to manage your selling efforts? How do you get that information? Who should be charged with gathering information and monitoring?

• What can you do to make advertising into more of an investment and less of an expense?

• Are your promotional promises clear? Is your value proposition consistent?

• On average 5x as many people read the headline as the copy – does the headline sell 5x better?

• What advertising promises work best? Worst? Why? How do you test your promises?

• When is the last time you ran a spit A|B test? What kind of split test could you run tomorrow?

• What don’t you know about the customer, or the product customer fit that, if you knew it, would improve your selling?



• Do you know where your customer gets her information? Is your advertising aligned to those sources?

• Is public relations be a way to reach the customer? How could PR best reach your customer? Is there a PR opportunity to connect with the customer where she currently gets her information?

• How would you measure the results of a PR campaign?

• Is there promotion that would align with the how and where customers currently get information?

• How is the internet affecting your advertising mix? What would happen to your customer acquisition costs if you moved 25% more money from print, TV, etc. to the internet? Can you test that?

• What social platforms are your customers using? How do you test that? Is there a desirable customer using a different platform? How do you know?

• What would happen to your acquisition costs if you moved 25% of your money from the internet back to print?

• Do your customers use Yelp! Google business? How well do your internet placement ads support your business? Is your value proposition clear in the ads and listings?

• Do your advertisements pitch your lead and strategic products? Is your advertising aligned to the strategic result areas?

• Do you use coupons to track results? Should you? What is a creative way to coupon and gather new information on customer interests?

• Do your accounting systems accurately reflect marketing expenses? Are discounts clearly identified? Are expenses incurred from promotions (BOGO, free extras, etc.) accurately recorded? What difference might knowing these real costs have?

• Who are the internal customers for marketing information? What do they need to see?

• What kind of discussion could you have with your customers about how they found you, how they view you, and what would make it easier for other people to find you?

• Should you use a professional agency?



• What kind of sales funnel would make a difference? • Can you properly chart your existing funnels? Can

you identify and measure the choke points? • Is the problem you are solving well defined – does the

customer see her solution in your message? • Is the ad presented consistently – giving the buyer a

chance to see it – as opposed to just once and forget? (Ads often need be repeated 20 or more times to sink in.) How often does a customer see your ad before taking action? How often would make sense?

• What are some great books you’d like to read on marketing and selling?

• What do we need to learn to master this area?




Marketing Management Marketing management means creating value by 1) matching customers to products in the right way – it is the execution of strategy. The aim is to fit the product or service to the customer so well it sells itself. And, 2) it is about managing the costs of connecting with the market. The purpose of the firm is to create customers. What is the most effective way to do that?

Make Marketing Management Both Effective and Efficient

A theme of this book is the number one job is fitting the product or service so perfectly to the customer that people buy it – that no selling is needed. This fitting can be done in ‘reality’ – with real products, real prices, real service. Or it can be done with ‘perception’ – with experiences, with endorsements, with emotion, or something else. This makes marketing the most holistic of disciplines – by definition, it includes products, operations, management, the business model, distribution, and everything else under the general ‘marketing umbrella’. When it comes to marketing, everything is relevant. The product and its position must fit the customer’s expectation. How well it fits the customer is the key determinant of selling costs and pricing. Or to say it more eloquently “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself… The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” – Peter Drucker



Questions

Marketing Planning

• How can we spot and select the right market segments? - Kotler

• How can we differentiate our offerings – Kotler • How should we respond to customers wo buy on

price? - Kotler • How can we compete against lower cost, lower price

competitors? Kotler • How far can we go in customizing our offering for

each customer? – Kotler • How can we grow our business? – Kotler • How can we build stronger brands? – Kotler • Now can we reduce the cost of customer acquisition?

– Kotler • How can we keep our customers longer? – Kotler • How can we tell which customers are more

important? – Kotler • How can we measure the payback from advertising,

sales promotions, and public relations? – Kotler • How can we improve sales force productivity? –

Kotler • How can we establish multiple channels and yet

manage channel conflict? – Kotler • How can we get the other company department sto be

more customer focused? – Kotler • Marketing Plan: Is the plan simple? – Kotler • Marketing Plan: Is the plan specific? – Kotler • Marketing Plan: Is the plan realistic? – Kotler • Marketing Plan: Is the plan complete? - Kotler • What, in one word do we want to own in the minds of

our customers, employees, and partners? – Matthew May

• What does it take to be the market leader? Can we be the first with the most to dominate our market?

• Can we cut prices before the competition to show leadership and discourage copy cats?

• How do we ‘hit them where they ain’t’ – deliver something the customer wants that the competition isn’t offering?



Marketing Intelligence • What decisions do you regularly make? – Kotler • What information do you need to make those

decisions? – Kotler • What information do you regularly get? – Kotler • What special studies to you periodically request? –

Kotler • What information would you want you are not getting

now? – Kotler • What information would you want daily weekly,

monthly, or yearly? – Kotler • What online or offline newsletters, briefings, blogs,

reports, or magazines would you like to see on a regular basis? - Kotler

• What topics would you like to be kept informed of? – Kotler

• What data analysis and reporting programs would you want? - Kotler

• What are the four most helpful improvements that could be made in the present marketing information system? - Kotler

• How do you know the message is getting thru? Gilman

Consumer Behavior

• Who buys the product or service? • Who makes the buying decision? • Who influences the buying decision? • How is the purchase decision made? • Who assumes what roles? • What does the customer buy? • What needs are satisfied? • Why pick a particular brand? • Where do people look to buy the product or service? • When do they buy? Is there a season? • How is the product perceived by customers?

What are the customer’s attitudes toward the product or company?

• What social factors might influence the purchase decision?

• Do customer lifestyles influence the decisions?



• How do demographics and geography and psychographics influence the decision?

Business Market

• How is the business market different than the consumer market?

• What is the environment business and government consumers must work in?

• Who are the participants in the business and government buying process?

• How do government and business buyers make their decisions?

• How can you build strong relationships with business and government buyers?

• What do you need to know about the law to work with government buyers?

• What information sources and resources do government and business buyers use?

• What do we stand for? What are we against? – Scott

Goodson • Is there any reason to believe the opposite of my

current belief? – Chip and Dan Heath • Are we challenging in the sense that Mac challenged

the PC or Dove challenged the Beauty Myth? – Mark Barden and Adam Morgan

• In what way can we redefine the criteria of choice in our category in our favor, as Method introduced style and design to cleaning and Virgin America returned glamor to flying? - Mark Barden and Adam Morgan

• In the past year, what have you done (or could have done) to increase the accurate perception of this company/brand as ethical and honest? – Robert Caildini?

• What are we most afraid of? • Who is the ideal client/customer? • What does the ideal customer value? • Where do the ideal customers congregate? • What is the best way, costs and other things

considered, to reach the ideal customer? • To whom do you add value? – Dave Ulrich and Norm

Smallwood



• Why should people listen to you? Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood

• What was the last experiment we ran? Scott Berkun • Are our clients Apple or Android users? • What is your story? Why does the firm exist? Does

the customer know that? Should they? • Is the product or service properly placed for the kind

of customer you already have? Should the placement be different? Should the firm try to change customers?

• Is there anything about the customer – changing demographics (age, etc.), economics (upward or downward mobility, etc.) that can affect the product placement?

• What placement would be strongest for your preferred customer? How does the product have to change to fit that customer?

• Is the price consistent with the placement? What pricing changes should you think of? Are there product add-ons or other features that allow for more profitable pricing?

• Is there a proper price entry point and proper up sales?

• Is the product’s promotion consistent with its position and price? Is there anything – discounting – that might damage the position and ability to maintain prices?

• How is the competition positioned? How are their prices positioned against yours? How is their promise positioned against yours?

• Are there environmental factors that might create substitutes for your product and thereby force a change in price and placement?

• "In marketing, I've seen only one strategy that can't miss - and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last." ― John Romero. How does your firm approach new product releases? Do you know the best customers and how to reach them?




Know Your Ps

Do your Ps align to the customer and to the environment? The brand is a promise of what your product or service is. Are all your Ps consistent with the brand you want? Are they consistent with your service? Are they consistent with your quality? Are they consistent with your design?




Products and Services The quality and value in a product or service is what the customer gets out of it, not what the firm puts into it. The product discussion is about meeting customer expectations and matching goods and services to customer values. How do you engineer some ghee whiz into what the customer gets? What actual changes or perceptual changes will wow the customer? What can you do to improve the bottom line?

Products Must Create Value for Customers and Margins for You

What the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or service does for the customer. – Peter Drucker 3 Bottles of Water – 3 Values – Three positions

• Kona water sells for over $400 a bottle. It is harvested deep in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii and distilled and otherwise made drinkable. Kona knows their customer.

• Sam’s Club water is the cheapest water found on a Google search. It is consistent with its

channel – Walmart and Sam’s Club – and the promise of saving money.



• Nestles is sold in stores next to Sam’s. But for 20% more. Nestles understands something about the customer Maybe the desire for something better? Maybe a way to show the family the shopper cares? Maybe something else? Nestles has created a price premium with their product by understanding some need in the customer.

In each case, the product creates some special value in the customer’s mind. The questions for the business are,

• ‘do we understand what the customer values?’ and • ‘do our promotions, placement, advertising, business model, etc. and products align to

create real value in the customers’ mind?’ and, • ‘how does this equate with improving our bottom line?’

Questions

• What should we stop selling? • Are we failing differently every time? • What do we need to learn to master this area? • Do we aggressively reward and promote the people

who have the biggest impact on creating excellent products? – Jonathan Rosenberg

• If the customer were my grandmother, would I tell her to buy what we’re selling? – Dan Pink

• Do we say no to customers for no reason? – Matt Dixon

• What does the customer get out of our products? • What do we want our customers to become? –

Michael Schrage • Is the array of products complete? Will the customer

find what she is looking for (e.g., the right size(s), right feature(s), right service(s))? Or is the array fragmented? Must the customer go elsewhere for satisfaction? What needs to change?

• Is the line up of products comprehensive (e.g., does an advertising agency offer the services to comprehensively meet the customer’s expectations, or must they get other serviced elsewhere)? Is there a product the customer considers appropriate to be included in the line up that is missing? What should be done about that?

• Are the products consistent (e.g., Rolex offers a range of watches, but they are all premium. There is no



Timex equivalent.) Are the products consistent with the marketing and logistics? Or are there misfits that don’t logically belong?

• Are the products or services creative? Do they attract attention because of their very nature?

• Are they coherent? Does the customer naturally group the products together in her own thinking? Should there be any changes in distribution channels? Are there products that should be dropped? Added?

• Are the products consistent with the positioning, price, promotion and other Ps?

• What can be done to make the products easier to sell and more profitable?

• What can we do about inventory and carrying costs? How do the products, or product management have to change to find savings?

• What do the sales reports say? What about the inventory reports? Are the products consistent sellers, or are there dogs that simply don’t belong in the line up?

• What does the customer expect of the product? How well does each deliver on those expectations?

• What experience does the product provide? Is that consistent with the customer’s understanding of the firm’s position?

• Is the environment going to change my customers’ expectations of the product? Will they expect it to be built on new technologies or meet new needs? Are the customers aging or changing tastes or otherwise changing their expectations? Think about the last time you stood in line at the post office – have your expectations about service, speed, etc. changed? How does that lesson apply to you?

• Is the environment going to change your ability to make or deliver the product? Are there new laws, regulations, demographics, etc. that may affect my design or other logistics?

• Are there quality issues? What should be done to rectify them?

• How does the quality feed back loop work? Is it possible you don’t know about problems? What ideas should you explore?



• Are there more cost effective ways to handle, store, service products? Is there a test we can run to see?

• How many SKUs are there? Should that be rationalized? Should there be more? Less?

• If products were classed as A, B, and C where A had a .01% chance of stocking out, B a <5% chance of stocking out, and C and <15% chance of stocking out, how much cash could be taken out of inventory?

• Can anything in the line be mass customized? Is there a way to save money with mass customization, or a way to wow the customer with customized products?




Operations Computer aided design, outsourced support, just in time inventory, mass customization, 3-d printing, outsourced manufacturing, and web enabled real time software inventory management are just a few of the many changes in operations. Most firms have real opportunities to save money and/or wow customers in operations. How much do you spend on operations? How much fat can be trimmed? Can operations be used to ‘hook’ customers as Dominos did with pizza tracking?

Business Operations

The two great opportunities: lower costs by rationalizing processes (faster, better, cheaper) and, to wow customers. Dominos invites customers into the operation with pizza tracking – it synchronizes operations and improves service. Apple and Dell let customers design their own computers which is both fun and cuts inventory carrying costs and waste. There is a movie theater that lets you book a numbered seat and cut the line, for a fee, because some people hate lines. Operations management is often associated with mathematics and analysis: risk assessment, inventory economic order quantities, process improvement, assembly line balancing, project management, outsource and insource value analysis, and so on. If you need help, get it. However, there are lots of ideas that can be explored with just a thought experiment - with ‘what if’ analysis. A realtor can ask, “what would happen if we put the property on line with a 3D walk



thru video?” An ice cream store can ask, “what would happen if we let customers make their own sundays?” A chemical plant or winery or brewery can ask, “what would happen if we made our economic manufacturing quantity equal to just 1 tanker, one case, or one glass?” These questions should help with ideas on how to improve performance, wow customers, and add to the bottom line by doing things differently.

Questions

• What is your competition doing to reimagine their operations management?

• If you were a customer, buying from you, what would you like to see? How could the order be better? If a movie theater can sell assigned seats on-line so customers can skip the ticket line, what can you do to make your customer’s life easier?

• What is your economic manufacturing quantity? Can it be less? Should it be more?

• How much ‘friction’ is in your systems? How much time do your products and/or materials spend sitting?

• Can you engineer more personal touch into your processes? Would customers be excited if they were more involved? What experience would it take for customers to tweet your brilliance?

• Can operations become part of the selling process as Dell Computers and Apple do?

• Some restaurants perform operations (cook) at the table – is there a way your operations can involve the customer to a similar degree? Some restaurants deliver food. Is there a way your operations can involve the customer to the same degree?

• Are there any 90/10 opportunities – when 10% of the customers create 90% of the costs? Or when 10% of the products require 90% of the support. Are there products to quit or change to cut costs?

• Is there something you should stop doing? • Are there design changes from new technology that

can lower production and operating costs? What is going on in the environment that could change the way products are made or delivered?

• Are there design changes from customer demands that would make selling more efficient?



• Are there any demographic changes that could cause a change in operations? Are customers getting older? Younger? What would you do if all your customers aged 10 years overnight?

• Can any work be economically outsourced? Or insourced?

• What opportunities are there to save money by rationalizing inventory? Is there too much money tied up in some area? Or too little inventory resulting in lost sales? How do you know? Do your systems answer those questions, or should they be reviewed?

• What is the reporting and accountability process for managing inventory? Who is responsible for managing costs? Do they have the authority they need to make decisions? Is there someone who can say, “let’s get this off the self and get what we can out of it?” Or is there money just sitting in inventory?

• Where are the choke points? Can you diagram work flows to identify constraints? What would it take to simplify operations? How much would that save?

• Who in the organization needs operations information? Are they getting what they need? What information would change what areas of the business? What inventory or production information does the sales team need?

• Is there operations information needed by people outside the organization? What does the customer need? What do partners, vendors, contractors need to know? How can they get it?

• Are the items in inventory consistent with the firm’s position, price and promotions?

• Are we paying enough attention to the partners our company depends on to succeed? - Ron Adner

• What is the smallest subset of the problems we can usefully solve? – Paul Graham

• Are production timeframes consistent with customer expectations?

• Are you taking your customer in the direction of better revenue or cheaper cost? – Michael Raynor

• Is there a 500-pound gorilla in the room we are ignoring?




Management & Performance It is said that 90% of the success of any organization occurs in the office. It’s true because the only thing an organization does naturally is degenerate in to wasteful confusion, everything else requires management. Only management can get meaningful results. Management by objectives works if management knows its objectives. Does your management know what it is trying to do?

Business Management

The tasks of management include measuring, monitor, reporting, designing systems, and otherwise making things run. The duties of management include getting the most results from the firm as it is, finding the firm’s potential, and preparing the firm for the future. General management doesn’t play just one instrument, it conducts the orchestra. Is management conducting the orchestra, or is it merely following along? Management is composed of functional tasks – accounting, HR, finance, operations, advertising, security, information systems, audit, executive, and so on. This work book is about integrating all those functions – about bringing scarce time, talent, and other resources together to do something special. Management isn’t about playing an instrument – it’s about playing the orchestra. In what ways could your management do a better job of ‘playing the orchestra?’



Questions

• What is the mission? Why does the organization exist? What does the mission mean to you? To others? How has the mission been furthered? - Drucker

• What are the current challenges? (Suggest one review the business environment and PESTEL / 5 Forces analysis with this question.) - Drucker

• What are the current opportunities? What does a competitive analysis suggest could be opportunities? (Suggest one review the SWOT analysis with this question.) – Drucker

• Should the mission be revisited? Is it focused? Is it understood by all? Does it define what you do? Is it broad enough? Does it address opportunities? Is it inspirational? Does it match the organization’s competence? Does it say what the organization ultimately wants to be remembered for? - Drucker

• How does the organization define results? Are there non-economic result areas? What other results are important and useful?

• Does management have a clear sense of its Critical Success Factors and does it manage them well?

• What are the Critical Success Factors for the industry? How are these different from the firm’s CSFs?

• What change are we trying to bring about? Is our business model aligned to that change?

• What does your capital do for you? Ally Bank doesn’t have ATMs or tie up millions in cash to stock ATMs. Rather, they reimburse customers the ATM fees to provide award winning service and cut capital costs. Uber has a million taxi cabs but never bought a car. What capital investments are non-producers? What could produce more?

• Are there proper budgetary controls in place? How does the organization monitor economic performance?

• How well does the firm do in relation to others based on its financial performance? Are common ratios



used to evaluate performance vis a vis the competition?

• For non-financial results – how does the organization monitor those results?

• How does the organization monitor progress and achievement? – Drucker

• What results are currently being achieved? – Drucker • How well do we know the customer? Is that

knowledge measured? When is the last time a senior manager met with a customer? Was on a customer site? Sold to a customer? Used the products the way the customer does? Tried to buy the products the way the customer does?

• How strong is the management team? What should change? Why?

• “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” ― Sun Tzu. What is the plan? Is it a winning plan? Or is it a plan that takes you to war and hopes you figure out how to win along the way?

• If you were replaced tomorrow and your replacement came from the world of marketing, what would she do with the business? If she came from accounting what would she do differently? If she came from operations? Or finance?

• How are we developing leaders for tomorrow? • Are costs and overheads well understood? Is there a

cost allocation system in place? Is it meaningful? • Is there an incentive system and is it tied to the right

results? • Does HR create value for the firm? How about

finance? How about accounting? Does IT create value? How does the firm think of value?

• Would it make sense for departments to think of other departments as customers? What would that change?

• Does management create good processes and procedures that result in smooth and efficient operations? What is the best system? Why? What is the worst system? Why?

• Is there an appropriate committee process for project work and coordinating efforts?

• Has management made the business scalable? What is holding it back? What should change?



• Is the business adaptable to change? What prevents quick response to problems or the failure to take advantage of opportunities? What should change?

• What is our Big Hairy Audacious Goal? Jim Collins • Is strategy driving our strategy? Or is the way in

which we allocate resources driving our strategy? – Mark Johnson

• How is the way you as the leader think and process information affecting your organizational culture? – Ari Weinzweig

• What do we need to learn to master this area? • What is it like to work for us? What is it like to work

with us? • What trophy do we want on our mantle? - Marcy

Massura • Do we have ‘bad’ profits? – Jonathan Byrnes • Are we counting the right key performance

indicators? • What is the smallest change we have made that has

had the biggest positive results? What was it about the small change that produced the large return? – Dr Robert Cialdini

• What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective leader? – Marshall Goldsmith

• What are the implications of this decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years from now? - Suzy Welch

• What should we stop doing? – Peter Drucker • If I got kicked out and the board brought in a new

CEO, what would he do? – Andy Grove • Do our best employees see themselves with our

company in 2 years? In 5? • If I had to leave the organization for a year and the

only communication I could have with employees was a single paragraph, what would I write? – Pat Lencioni

• Is there any reason to believe the opposite of my current belief? – Chip and Dan Heath

• Do we have the right people on the bus? – Jim Collins • Do we aggressively reward and promote the people

who have the biggest impact on results?



• What is something you believe that virtually no one else agrees with you on? – Peter Thiel

• What happens at this company when people fail? – Bob Sutton

• If you could go back 5years, what decision would you make differently? What is your best guess as to what decision you’re making today you might regret five years from now? – Patrick Lencioni

• What stupid rule would we most like to kill? • How do you encourage people to take control and

responsibility? – Dan Ariely • What is the plan? - Drucker • What should be abandoned? – Drucker • What should get more effort – where should there be

more concentration? – Drucker • How is innovation measured? How are tomorrow’s

successes spotted? Nursed? Brought to life? – Drucker

• How much risk is the organization willing to undertake? Is it enough? Too much? How does the plan assure risk is managed?

• How does the organization implement its plans? Is it purposeful? Should the implementation process change?




Business Model Business models used to be called ‘distribution systems’. The modern term is more appropriate as it includes suppliers, contractors, agents, partners, affiliates, out sourcing, and even the firm’s relationship to the customer. For example: dog food used to be distributed from factory to wholesalers to retailers. Competition revolved around advertising to create demand and battling for premium shelf space. Today, Chewy’s business model disintermediates the channel by selling a subscription with delivery straight to the home. The competition revolves around creating subscribers. No doubt distribution and business models are changing in your industry? What kind of firm can you become to lower costs, improve service, retain customers longer, be more scalable, and generally dominate your markets?

The Business Model

The goal of the business model is to create a better customer experience and more value for the firm. Dog food example: my wife enjoys not stopping at the pet food store and lifting heavy bags, so we get Chewy delivered – a satisfying experience. The business model cuts costs by disintermediating the wholesaler and retailer’s commissions. It creates additional value by making sales predictable: the order is processed at the same time every month – and there is little risk of the customer’s eye wandering when faced with a shelf of competitors in the store. Their model has created value for the customer with simplicity and for the business with a ‘moat’ (subscription) around the product.



The goal of the business model is to increase the value of the firm by its mere existence. Value could be defined as creating a barrier to entry or a ‘moat’ around the product, making sales more predictable, lowering the cost of distribution, a better customer experience, less inventory, less cost of financing inventory, lower capital requirements, or something else.

• Moat. The subscription service (e.g., for dog food or razor blades) is a moat. So is the $10 price at Planet Fitness gyms. And so is the subscription to the antivirus software on your PC. In each case, the method of doing business makes the transaction so easy the customer is unlikely leave the service.

• Predictable sales. The subscription service also smooths sales. The antivirus software on your PC is a near guaranteed sale scheduled and automated with credit card on file – there is little risk of the customer delaying the purchase.

• Lower cost of distribution or selling. Planet Fitness’ systems make the sale of a gym membership very inexpensive. Golds gym needs a salesperson to get the contract signed. The business model results in different cost and pricing structures.

• Customer experience. As previously noted, the business model that makes doing business transparent and seamless or just plain fun has a promotional value all its own. Dominos integrating pizza ordering with the cell phone is an example of improving the experience while lowering the cost of to take an order.

How you do things is just as big a deal as what you do. Maybe even a bigger deal. How can you change your operations to increase value, cut risk, and stymie the competition?

Questions

• If Amazon bought your business, what would they do to your business model? What are the 5 biggest changes they would make?

• If you mastered delegation, how big could you grow? • What are your competitors doing about changing their

business models? • Historically, we overestimate change in the short run

but underestimate it in the long run. What changes do you imagine possible in the short and long run in logistics? In business models?

• What is a ‘transaction’? At a retail counter, it is handing cash to a clerk. But in real estate, there are showings and open houses leading to offers leading to approvals leading to closings etc. What is your transaction? Are all the costs accounted for? How can it be re-engineered?



• Are there similar businesses – but not necessarily competitors – that are redefining their business models? (e.g., can the motor cycle dealer learn something from the car dealer?) What can you learn from them?

• No one ever walked into the doctor and said, ‘I need a heart transplant.’ And no doctor ever said, ‘I’ll get right on it’. There is always an extensive diagnosis. What is the status of diagnosing the company’s business management? Has there been testing? Or are we dealing with opinions?

• Can you produce more recurring revenues? How? • If there was an iPad in the lobby for customers, what

would it help them do? • How much cash is required to finance sales? Is there

a way to do it with less? • Can you change the overheads so there is always a

pricing advantage? • Can you change the rest of the cost structure so there

is a pricing advantage? • If a customer used a cell phone to learn something

about your business, what would it be? • If the customer used a cell phone to buy, order,

design, customize or otherwise get something from you, what would that be?

• What is your biggest distribution cost? What business model changes could lower that cost?

• What is your biggest service cost? What business model changes could lower that cost?

• How do customers see you? Is there a business model change that is appropriate?

• Do we have inconsistencies in service or quality or something else that could be addressed by a business model change?

• Is the model consistent with the value proposition? Or should there be changes to better match customer expectations?

• If the business model were different, would it open a new market to us? Are there people we can’t serve because of the business model?

• Does the business model have a ‘free’ way for the customer to engage with the business? (e.g., the tax preparer offering a ‘free analysis of your return’ or



the lawyer offering a ‘free review of legalzoom’s work’?

• Is there a ‘fremium’ idea that should be incorporated to the business model?

• Is there a low-cost entry to the company’s services? A free trial? An inexpensive sample? A low-cost subscription?

• Are there up-sales missing? • Are there cross sales missing? • Who would be most afraid of change? Most

resistant? Someone or group in the firm? Or a customer?

• What does it cost for a customer to switch to your firm? Is there a way to lower that cost? Is there a way to make it more expensive for them to leave you?

• How scalable is the firm? What must happen to add n% more customers?

• Does the business model reward the right people for the right things? Is the incentive system in sync with the model?

• Are there systems you could abandon? Activities left over from by gone days that don’t contribute?

• What would happen if you abandoned your customer feedback systems and encouraged customers to communicate – and complain – strictly on the web? On Yelp?


• "The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men." ― Sun Tzu What is your strategic advantage?





Customer Management Not all customers are created equal. They should not be treated equally. It doesn’t cost more to sell to someone who buys $1000 at a time than it does someone who buys $10 at a time, at least it doesn’t cost 100x as much. Managing customers is about controlling the costs associated with selling. It is also about using customer information. What are your ordering or selling costs? What more can you learn about customers thru your customer management systems? What are the opportunities to do better and spend less?

Managing the Customer

Acquiring a customer is expensive – possibly the most expensive thing your firm undertakes. Treat your investment in customers like gold, because it is. In the movie Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruz worked for a large, soulless, mega sports management firm. That fictional firm was based on the real-world IMG (International Management Group). IMG managed Palmer, Nicklaus, Tiger and almost everyone and everything else that mattered or matters in sports and arts. The idea for IMG was Mark McCormack’s and was born in Arnold Palmer’s home office. The business made Arnold hundreds of millions and made billions for McCormack. IMG’s insight was to change how customers (athletes, artists, performers, etc.) were managed.



Back in the day, an agent – a lone wolf Jerry Maguire type agent - managed a client’s career. An agent’s success was measured by the quality of his clients. And the reverse was true – the athlete or performer strove for a better agent because the agent was often the source of the better deal. A quality agent and quality client was the desired norm. McCormack saw this system was flawed. Agents lacked the wide range of skills needed to serve the modern client. And there was a lot of money left on the table with the B and C level talent that didn’t earn enough to get great representation. McCormack saw specialization as the way to help and profit on all kinds of talent. Instead of matching quality talent with a quality agent, he matched talent with a quality business. IMG serves clients with a maze of specialized departments and services that maximize client income and company billings. There are services for early stage talent, talent at the height of its career, and talent who had gotten old and was no longer capable of top performance. And services for every quality of client – even a guy with an average book for sale can get a gig and IMG can make a buck. No wonder Jerry Maguire hated the big company – it made him less important and systems and other members of the firm more important. IMG did what Henry Ford did, it applied an assembly line to create value. Every organization can rethink its customer management process. How could yours become more effective and efficient? Where can you create more value?

Questions

• What is the key outcome the firm wants from its customer management activities?

• Is there a grand design for managing customers? Or is it just catch as catch can?

• What are you learning about yourself from social media and public comments? What is the customer learning about you from social media?

• Is there anything about customer management the customer should be doing herself? Are there any tools the firm should provide to her?

• How well do your information systems support customer management? What needs to change?

• At what level is customer information captured? Can it be captured at a lower level?

• Who uses the customer information? Is it the right information?

• How well do the systems support the design and product efforts of the firm? Do you share what you



learn about the customers and the product customer fit?

• How is selling organized? Geographically, by industry, by customer, by specialty? What is the most logical way of serving customers? Is the most logical way the most economic?

• Does the customer management process reflect what the customer wants? Does it serve the secondary and tertiary customer as well?

• Are the right people assigned to the right customers? • Are incentives and rewards aligned to actual results? • Who is responsible for the customer management

systems? How is their performance measured? If you put someone else in charge today, what would you expect in terms of results?

• What is the definition of quality when discussing customer management? How is it measured?

• What could you do in customer management that would all but guarantee customer loyalty?

• Do you know the cost of acquiring a customer and the life time value of keeping a customer? How do those costs and benefits make you rethink the customer management systems?

• What should you stop doing? • What have you wanted to happen for a long time but

haven’t done? Why? • If the board replaced you today, what would your

replacement do about customer management? • Do the people managing customers have all the power

they need for successful resolutions? Do they know it? Is the rule book clear?

• Should the customer management job be centralized or decentralized? Or a hybrid?

• What is your biggest customer fear?




Distribution and Logistics Distribution and logistics is the movement of material. If you buy an Apple product, there is a good chance it won’t be on the shelf but assembled in China and shipped to you via UPS. Carrying thousands of items including cell phones and computers means a purchase can be delivered for maybe just $30. Compare that to the costs of maintaining inventory, warehouses, trucking, and all the other overheads associated with traditional distribution and you start seeing Apple’s genius. They have rethought distribution and logistics to cut overheads and save money. Everyone has some opportunity to rationalize distribution. What is yours?

Distribution and Logistics

The supply chain is a major cost center. Manufacturers pay for raw materials, value added work, storage, and so on. They also pay for returns and replacements. Service firms without raw materials also have a supply chain to manage – the consultant or professional services firm can invest large sums in overheads, proposal writing, selling, and related expenses in addition to large amounts of professional time before a project produces positive cash flows. Supply chains are a major opportunity to improve operations and cut costs. Every firm has the chance to lower operating costs dramatically. Software companies have done it by getting out of CDs and into internet delivery. Real estate firms do it with online videos of properties for sale. Razor blade companies have done it with direct shipping to the end user. Consulting firms have done it with work group collaboration software. Apple, Dell, and Dominos



do it with make to order inventory management. Ikea does it by making the customer assemble the furniture. How can your firm dramatically lower the costs of logistics?

Questions What do you learn if you analyze where the customer dollar goes? What ideas does it lead to that may dramatically lower costs? Use of Customer Dollar

• Physical Movement of materials o From supplier to warehouse o Thru manufacturing / assembly o To finished goods o To distributors o From distributors to retailers o Retailer fees

• Selling o Advertising o Promotions o Salaries o Commissions o Other

• Cost of money o Capital o Working capital o Trade credit o Consumer credit

• Direct shipping o Pack o Ship o Returns o Breakage o Other

• Manufacture / assembly • Raw materials • Service and Support • Purchased services – outsourced costs • Management, administration, overheads, etc. • R&D • Profits



Other Questions

• What is the competition up to? How are they changing their logistical foot print?

• When Apple manufactures in China, the customer waits a few days. What will your customers wait a few days for to save some money? What would they wait for? What wouldn’t they wait for.

• Is there a way to model your distribution costs? Is there some optimal central location to ship from? Is UPS, FedEx or USPS the better system? How do you know?

• Should returns be handled in the same way as outgoing product? How do different priorities change the returns process?

• Is there anything that shouldn’t be returned at all? • Is there any opportunity to outsource distribution –

fulfillment centers for instance? • Zappos keeps sales and customer service in Los

Vegas where labor is plentiful and cheap. It does distribution out of Kentucky to be near the UPS air distribution center to take advantage of faster delivery and discounts on last minute air shipping. How does your service and delivery systems align for maximum profits? What could change?

• Is there work to put on the customer, as Ikea does with furniture assemble?





Customer Interface Often, the experience is the product. It isn’t possible to buy an airplane ride – you buy a first class, business, or coach ticket. All passengers leave and arrive at the same time – the experience is the product, not the trip. Hyundai and Mercedes are both subject to the same speed limit but one is worth more. The experience is valuable. Apple changed the customer experience by charging batteries before delivering product. Early cell phones had to charge for 12 hours or the batteries wouldn’t properly hold a charge. Apple fully charged batteries which cost a little more but rewarded them in two ways: the charging accompanied a longer quality diagnostic which produced fewer returns and, it was a WOW moment to actually be able to use the phone you just bought. There is value in every customer experience. How do you weave the entire product, marketing, management, and distribution process into a valuable experience?

Managing The Buying Experience

Like everything else, value is measured by the customers’ standards, not the company’s. It is not what the company puts into it, it is what the customer gets out of it that matters. We know the experience changes the product. Properly plated food tastes better. People pay hundreds to see Yo Yo Ma perform at Carnegie Hall, but nothing to see him play on the street corner. The Ikea effect – liking the product better because you assembled it yourself – is real. What can be done to present your product in a way that creates more value?



Questions

• What is your real sale? An experience, solution, service, product? Is the customer’s buying experience consistent with what they are buying?

• Is the customer on boarded systematically and appropriately?

• How does the customer see you? How should she think of you?

• What do you need to learn to create the best experience?

• How do you show the customer how much you look forward to your relationship with her?

• What is the budget for the customer experience? Who is in charge of it? You know what it costs to acquire a customer, what is the budget for keeping the customer?

• Is the product or service delivered in the way the customer values most? What could be done differently?

• Is the delivery seamless? Should it be? Should there be some assembly or other work required?

• What is the competition doing to create an experience?

• What change are we trying to bring about in the customers’ experience?

• Can the way the product is packaged, shipped, delivered, etc. be changed to create more value?

• How do you add ‘the new car smell’ experience to your product or service?

• How many steps does it take to buy your product? How much simpler can that be?

• When buying your product does the customer want the transaction to go faster? Or slower? To be more transactional? Or more experiential?

• Can the experience be translated into social media feedback?



The Environment The firm is one entity in a world comprised of the economy, technologies, demographics, laws, and other forces. The customer functions in this environment as does the competition. The environment is to the firm what the sun is to the planets - the center around which everything revolves. When things change in the environment – a new technology or a change in demographics - an opportunity or threat is born. Knowing these forces is fundamental to understanding customer motivation and making decisions.

The Environment

Knowing the business environment is a key to understanding the customer. Knowing the environment is also necessary to conform to legal requirements, adjust to changes in the economy, and so on. The environment is where new technologies come from. The customer lives in the realities of the environment. The competition is born of the environment. The firm that understands the environment has the advantage. There are two exercises in this section – a set of general questions and a PESTEL analysis (political, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legal). The PESTEL analysis is a common strategic thinking framework to help avoid overlooking anything important.



Questions:

• What changes are happening in your business environment? (refer to the below section on PESTEL analysis for a comprehensive set of questions).

• What effect might these changes have on your business?

• What opportunities might they create for you? • Can you identify any possible changes as a result of

political decisions? • Can you think of how economics might change your

business? How about from increases in health care costs or stagnant wage growth or college debt?

• Are there social changes that could affect you? Is there a demographic group that you should serve but aren’t?

• What technologies could impact your business? • Will the smart phone help you or hurt you? How? • Are there environmental issues that could affect you? • What about new laws or regulations? Is there

anything on the horizon that could assist or hurt you? • If energy were free, what would we do differently? –

Tony Hsieh • If we weren’t already in this business would we enter

it? And if not, what should we do about it? – Peter Drucker

• Do we know the industry key performance indicators? • What are the rules and assumptions my industry

operates under? What if the opposite were true? – Phil McKinney

• Are we changing as fast as the world around us? – Gary Hamel

• What don’t we know about the environment that we should?

• Is there any reason to believe the opposite of my current belief? – Chip and Dan Heath

• Do the decisions we make today help people and the planet tomorrow? – Kevin Cleary



Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Environmental Legal Framework

Political The extent to which government and policy impact an organization or industry. This includes stability (e.g., priming the pump or raising interest rates), trade, fiscal and taxation policies, etc. Depending on the country one is doing business in it may include:

• Levels of corruption • Rule of majority or minority • Regulation and deregulation • Privatization or socialization of assets • Easy of doing business • Forced partnerships • Etc.

Economic

The factors that impact on the economy and its performance which in turn impacts on the organization. Factors include interest rates, unemployment rates, healthcare costs, raw material costs, foreign exchange rates, government spending, business confidence, etc. Other factors may include but not be limited to:

• Stage of the business cycle • Impact of globalization or isolationism • Labor costs • Innovation and capital formation • Etc.

Social

Focuses on the social environment. This is about understanding customers. Factors include changing family demographics, education levels, cultural trends, attitude changes and changes in lifestyles. Other factors may include, but aren’t limited to:

• Population growth • Gender and ethnic diversity • Health and education • Social welfare • Economic disparity



• Digital disparity • Personal tastes • Social mores and attitudes • Etc.

Technical

Includes the rate of and types of technological innovation and development that affect a market or industry. It may include changes in digital capacity, mobile technology, automation, research and development trends, and so on. Think of Moore’s Law – computing capacity doubles every 18 months. This may be useful in determining the features of next generation products. Consideration must be given to new methods of distribution, manufacturing and logistics. Think of a company selling razor blades by subscription. And think of Amazon. Their distribution models disintermediate the retailer. My neighbor had a lawn mower delivered by UPS this morning – what is the role of Lowes in this world? What is the role of the store that located in the Lowes Plaza to take advantage of the automobile traffic? Other factors might include, but aren’t limited to:

• Rate of technology transfer and diffusion • Emerging technology • Funding for technology • Employment effects of technology • Artificial intelligence • Etc.

Environmental

Relates to the influence of the surrounding environment and the impact of ecological considerations. With the rise in corporate responsibility thinking, fears and effects of global warming, and so on, this is becoming more important. Factors include climate change, recycling, carbon footprint, waste disposal, and sustainability. An obvious case is tourism related business built around natural environment. Recently, airplanes could not take off in the US Southwest because it was too hot to fly. Subjects that might be at issue include, but aren’t limited to:

• Invasive species • Rising water levels • Drought • Excessive heat • Etc.



Legal

Relates to what is allowed within the areas the organization operates. It involves the effects of changes in legislation on operations. Factors include employment legislation, consumer law, health and safety, international as well as trade regulation and restrictions.

Political factors are not legal factors; the difference being political factors are connected to government policy (e.g., infrastructure spending), whereas legal factors must be complied with. Factors to consider may include, but aren’t limited to:

• Discrimination • Compliance with homeland security regulations • Equal opportunity • EPA regulation compliance • Etc.




The Competition Competitive analysis means to understand how an industry works and how competitors behave. It is understanding the fundamentals upon which competitive decisions are made. This insight is powerful when assessing how the competition will respond to opportunities and challenges. This knowledge is the basis for disrupting an industry. What potential disruptions are facing your business? How can you be the disrupter?

The Competition

What is the logic driving competition? How can you disrupt the industry? There are two parts to this section. There are questions and there is an analytical framework from Michael Porter called the 5 forces analysis. The model is presented below.



Questions

• How can we become the company that would put us

out of business? – Danny Meyer • What prevents our company from making the

decisions that will make us first in class? • What change do we want to bring about in the

industry? In lives? • What do we need to know about the competition?

What else should we know about industry dynamics? • How likely is it our customer would recommend our

company to a friend or colleague? – Andrew Taylor • What don’t we know about the competition that we

should? • Who are we going to put out of business and why? –

Brad Feld • What have we done to protect our business from

competitive encroachment? – Tom Stemberg • What is your theory of human motivation and how

does your compensation plan fit with that view? – Dan Ariely

• How can your business compete on the basis of things other than what you sell? Like McDonalds, can you compete on the basis of things other than food? Location, speed, price, etc.?

• What threats of substitution do you face? How to you prevent defection? Is there something your product be a substitute for?

• What power do your suppliers have? Is it the same for all your industry rivals? Or do some get better treatment? How do you get the best treatment?

• What power do your customers have? Is there a way you can get more control of the relationship?

• If energy were free, how would we run our business? • What are our priorities? What should we do first?



Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis

Threat of new entrants Profitable industries attract new competitors. These entries decrease profitability for all firms due to competition. Unless the entry of new firms can be made more difficult the industry will tend towards perfect competition – no one having any advantages.

The following factors affect how much of a threat new entrants may pose:

• The existence of barriers to entry (patents, rights, etc.). The most attractive segment is one in which entry barriers are high and exit barriers are low.

• Government policy • Capital requirements • Absolute cost • Cost disadvantages independent of size • Economies of scale • Product differentiation • Brand equity • Switching costs



• Expected retaliation • Access to distribution channels • Customer loyalty to established brands • Industry profitability (the more profitable the industry, the more attractive it will be to new

competitors)

Threat of substitution

A substitute product uses a different technology to solve the same need. Examples of substitutes are landlines and cellular telephones; airlines, trains, or ships.

Potential factors:

• Buyer propensity to substitute • Relative price performance of substitute • Buyer's switching costs • Perceived level of product differentiation • Number of substitute products available in the market • Ease of substitution • Availability of close substitute

Bargaining power of customers The bargaining power of customers is the ability of customers to put the firm under pressure. This includes the customer's sensitivity to price changes. Firms take measures to reduce buyer power including loyalty programs, long term contracts, engineering extra value into the product and so on. Buyer power is high if buyers have many alternatives and low if they have few choices. Potential factors:

• Number of competitors in industry • Degree of dependency upon existing channels of distribution • Bargaining leverage, particularly in industries with high fixed costs • Buyer switching costs • Ease of substitution • Buyer information availability • Availability of existing substitute products • Differential advantage (uniqueness) of industry products



Bargaining power of supplier Suppliers of materials, components, labor, and services can be a source of power over the firm. If you are a printer and there is only one person selling ink, you have no alternative but to buy from them.

Potential factors are:

• Switching costs • Differentiation of inputs • Substitute inputs • Strength of distribution channel • Competition • Employee solidarity (e.g. labor unions) • Contractual deals – such as franchisees who require the use of particular suppliers

Industry rivalry

The intensity of competitive rivalry varies from industry to industry. Potential factors:

• Competitive advantage from the ability to innovate • Competition between online and offline companies, domestic or foreign suppliers • Level of advertising and promotion • Various competitive strategies • Number of competitors



Summary According to Wikipedia: Galen of Pergamon(/ˈɡeɪlən/), was a prominent Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy

and logic. Galen had even developed and marketed a secret potion which he promised would cure any ailment. There was a problem with Galen, however. Galen was untroubled by doubt. Each outcome of every experiment he conducted confirmed he was right no matter how equivocal the evidence might look to someone less wise than he. And not everyone who drank Galen’s elixir was cured. [And here's Galen's quote] "All who drink of this treatment recover in a short time, except those whom it does not help, who all die.” "It is obvious, therefore, that it fails only in incurable cases." What’s the point? The world is full of people with guaranteed cures for what ails you or your business. Keep asking questions and don’t take any baloney from them.

The End ####



Appendix



Project Work Plan Tool



Project Identification Document Date: Project Title: Description: Project Goals:

•

•

•

•

Project Outline

Steps Start Finish Budget Who Is Responsible?

Results / Deliverables

1

2

3

4

5

Key Business Ratio Analysis:



Income Statement

Income Current Expected Change Sales Cost of Goods Gross Profit

Expenses Selling Expenses General Expenses Administrative R&D Interest Net Profit



Balance Sheet

Assets Current Expected Change

Cash Receivables Inventory Supplies Prepaid Expenses Current Assets Plant Property Equipment Buildings Total Assets

Liabilities Notes Payable Accounts Payable Wages Payable Interest Payable Warrantee Liability Unearned Revenue Notes Payable Bonds Payable Other Total Liabilities Equity Common Stock Retained Earnings Total



Sources and Uses of Cash

Source Short Term Credit Vendor Credit Outside Equity Personal Loans Term Loan Total Sources

Uses Cash Reserves

Inventory Working Capital Labor Plant Equipment Buildings Other Total Uses Cash (+ / -)



Break Even Graph



Key Business Ratios



Free Book of Business Ratios http://160592857366.free.fr/joe/ebooks/tech/Wiley%20Business%20Ratios%20and%20Formulas%20A%20Comprehensive%20Guide.pdf Profitability Ratios

• Gross Profit Rate = Gross Profit ÷ Net Sales Evaluates how much gross profit is generated from sales. Gross profit is equal to net sales (sales minus sales returns, discounts, and allowances) minus cost of sales.

• Return on Sales = Net Income ÷ Net Sales Also known as "net profit margin" or "net profit rate", it measures the percentage of income derived from dollar sales. Generally, the higher the ROS the better.

• Return on Assets = Net Income ÷ Average Total Assets In financial analysis, it is the measure of the return on investment. ROA is used in evaluating management's efficiency in using assets to generate income.

• Return on Stockholders' Equity = Net Income ÷ Average Stockholders' Equity Measures the percentage of income derived for every dollar of owners' equity. Liquidity Ratios

• Current Ratio = Current Assets ÷ Current Liabilities Evaluates the ability of a company to pay short-term obligations using current assets (cash, marketable securities, current receivables, inventory, and prepayments).

• Acid Test Ratio = Quick Assets ÷ Current Liabilities Also known as "quick ratio", it measures the ability of a company to pay short-term obligations using the more liquid types of current assets or "quick assets" (cash, marketable securities, and current receivables).

• Cash Ratio = ( Cash + Marketable Securities ) ÷ Current Liabilities



Measures the ability of a company to pay its current liabilities using cash and marketable securities. Marketable securities are short-term debt instruments that are as good as cash.

• Net Working Capital = Current Assets - Current Liabilities Determines if a company can meet its current obligations with its current assets; and how much excess or deficiency there is. Management Efficiency Ratios

• Receivable Turnover = Net Credit Sales ÷ Average Accounts Receivable Measures the efficiency of extending credit and collecting the same. It indicates the average number of times in a year a company collects its open accounts. A high ratio implies efficient credit and collection process.

• Days Sales Outstanding = 360 Days ÷ Receivable Turnover Also known as "receivable turnover in days", "collection period". It measures the average number of days it takes a company to collect a receivable. The shorter the DSO, the better. Take note that some use 365 days instead of 360.

• Inventory Turnover = Cost of Sales ÷ Average Inventory Represents the number of times inventory is sold and replaced. Take note that some authors use Sales in lieu of Cost of Sales in the above formula. A high ratio indicates that the company is efficient in managing its inventories.

• Days Inventory Outstanding = 360 Days ÷ Inventory Turnover Also known as "inventory turnover in days". It represents the number of days inventory sits in the warehouse. In other words, it measures the number of days from purchase of inventory to the sale of the same. Like DSO, the shorter the DIO the better.

• Accounts Payable Turnover = Net Credit Purchases ÷ Ave. Accounts Payable Represents the number of times a company pays its accounts payable during a period. A low ratio is favored because it is better to delay payments as much as possible so that the money can be used for more productive purposes.

• Days Payable Outstanding = 360 Days ÷ Accounts Payable Turnover



Also known as "accounts payable turnover in days", "payment period". It measures the average number of days spent before paying obligations to suppliers. Unlike DSO and DIO, the longer the DPO the better (as explained above).

• Operating Cycle = Days Inventory Outstanding + Days Sales Outstanding Measures the number of days a company makes 1 complete operating cycle, i.e. purchase merchandise, sell them, and collect the amount due. A shorter operating cycle means that the company generates sales and collects cash faster.

• Cash Conversion Cycle = Operating Cycle - Days Payable Outstanding CCC measures how fast a company converts cash into more cash. It represents the number of days a company pays for purchases, sells them, and collects the amount due. Generally, like operating cycle, the shorter the CCC the better.

• Total Asset Turnover = Net Sales ÷ Average Total Assets Measures overall efficiency of a company in generating sales using its assets. The formula is similar to ROA, except that net sales is used instead of net income. Leverage Ratios

• Debt Ratio = Total Liabilities ÷ Total Assets Measures the portion of company assets that is financed by debt (obligations to third parties). Debt ratio can also be computed using the formula: 1 minus Equity Ratio.

• Equity Ratio = Total Equity ÷ Total Assets Determines the portion of total assets provided by equity (i.e. owners' contributions and the company's accumulated profits). Equity ratio can also be computed using the formula: 1 minus Debt Ratio. The reciprocal of equity ratio is known as equity multiplier, which is equal to total assets divided by total equity.

• Debt-Equity Ratio = Total Liabilities ÷ Total Equity Evaluates the capital structure of a company. A D/E ratio of more than 1 implies that the company is a leveraged firm; less than 1 implies that it is a conservative one.



• Times Interest Earned = EBIT ÷ Interest Expense Measures the number of times interest expense is converted to income, and if the company can pay its interest expense using the profits generated. EBIT is earnings before interest and taxes.



About Jeff Gilman Jeff Gilman is from Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his MBA at Case Western Reserve University. He has consulted in the United States, Pakistan, the West Indies, and Saudi Arabia. His clients and employers have included Peat Marwick/KPMG, The US Agency for International Development, The Social Security Administration, The Saudi Ministry of Post Telephone and Telegraph, Shell Oil, The Barbados Central Bank, a large Catholic Diocese, and many other businesses and non-profit organizations. In the US, he has worked as a consultant for Orion Consulting (now CGI, Inc.), hospitals, restaurants, nonprofits and owned two franchises and two other businesses. Jeff has free Strategy workbooks and other business-building resources available on his website.

Stay In Touch Connect with Jeff at: Facebook - https://business.facebook.com/GilmanManagement/ LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreygilman Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffgilman



About This Book

Every business is facing a challenge – within a few years their business model will be obsolete. Today’s dramatic changes will leave some firms behind. We see signs of change daily as retailer’s close stores and new business models appear. The truth is, management skills developed in the pre-internet age don’t necessarily prepare businesses to transition to this challenging new world. A new book from A Better Way Publishing provides a way to think about transforming your firm in this time of change. It is a book of questions asked by successful people about their businesses.

Jeff Gilman, former Big 6 consultant, MBA, and owner of several businesses, has developed a work book and discussion guide to help owners develop new strategies for this age of uncertainty. The book is unlike others in that it doesn’t give a simple cookie cutter recipe for success. As Jeff says about those cookie cutter solution books, ‘never have so few made so much selling so little to so many with no measurable results.’ The workbook is for people who don’t believe they can follow someone else’s path to success.

The book contains over 200 essential business questions that help owners think thru the challenges they face. These questions range from ‘who is the customer?’ to ‘how do we become the kind of firm that would put us out of business?’ It isn’t a ‘fun’ read, it is a challenge to deep thinking about your future.

The book is a discussion guide to finding a new strategy. Each firm must choose their own right customers, providing them with the right product(s) and service(s), and develop the business model that creates the most value. These have always been the fundamentals for success. The book’s questions, gathered from great business thinkers including Drucker, Buffett, etc. plus many more from the world of consulting and coaching, help owners think thru their choices and fit the parts of their businesses together for maximum effectiveness and efficiency.

Whether the firm is a startup, small business, or medium sized business; whether the reader is owner, a business coach/consultant, or employee, The Business Strategy Workbook, Essential Questions to Reimagine and Grow Your Business is guaranteed to help create new insights and see new ways to reimagine and grow the business.



Also Available at JeffGilman.com - Managing the SMB for Results Business success begins with the economics of the firm. A new book from Jeff Gilman teaches owners, entrepreneurs, and managers in SMBs (small and mid-size businesses) the secrets of conducting proper business economic assessment and strategic planning process. This important book teaches that a firm is first and foremost an economic entity and management must carefully align and manage economic resources in order to advance. The message from Managing the SMB for Results is it isn't enough to do things right, the right things must be done too. Managing the SMB for Results guides the user thru a method used by management consultants to discover the firm’s opportunities and locked in value. It is an invaluable resource for SMBs in distribution, retail, manufacturing, if fact, in any field. The secret is that high performance firms align and apply money, time, talent, effort, and other scarce resources to opportunities in the correct way. This allows the firm to reach its full economic potential. A proper ‘alignment’ often isn't done and that hurts many firms. The book is available free as a download from JeffGilman.com. Jeff Gilman is a former Big 6 consultant and owner of several businesses. He consults with SMBs on business management, strategy, and marketing. He publishes business books thru his company A Better Way Publishing.

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