Time to Plan for Your 2010 Model
2009 was a rough year for most people. Congratulations for hanging in there! 2010
should be better, and spending an hour or two now will ensure that you're riding
the wave to success during the next twelve months.
Ready for goal planning? Let's break it down into two main areas: business and personal.
Your business is going to have different requirements then you, personally. And
to be a more effective business owner, it helps to be a well-rounded individual
as you can bring lessons from one area into your business.
Annual Goal for Your Business
Pick one really big goal for your business; such as you're going to increase your
conversion rate. Make it a really big goal, slightly more then you think you can
achieve. First, you should be tracking certain metrics around your business, for
example, your conversion rate. For example, let's assume you have a clothing shop,
and for every 10 people who come into your shop, you make one sale. Your 2010 goal
could be to improve that conversion rate so that 3 out of 10 people who come in
will purchase something. This will potentially increase your revenue by 200% (and
perhaps you can also look into ways of increasing the per person sale).
Now, how are you going to get there? Well, take a deep breath. It's your annual
goal. You've got a year to achieve it, and no one but you will grade your progress.
So write down "By December 31, 2010, my conversion rate in my store will be 30%."
Of course, you should choose a goal that fits your own business.
You can do the same if you sell services. We've talked in the past about metrics.
You should be tracking the number of people who call, and how many become clients.
You should also be tracking the time it takes to convert someone into a client (3
phone calls, 2 months, etc.). So, say for a real estate agent, for every 5 people
who call you, one retains you to represent them to purchase a property. And, so
now you take a deep breath and say, "By December 31, 2010, my conversion rate for
new clients will be 40%" (or 2 out of 5).
Now that you have your focus for the new year, here's the good news. Only 3% of
the population achieves their goals, and those 3% are the most successful. So if
you get close to that target, you're in a group of elite achievers.
Set aside an hour and review the business. Gather up the demographic information
you kept during the year, gather up your ad campaigns, gather up your phone logs.
Spend 20 minutes reviewing all of the ads you placed this year. How effective were
the campaigns. Did they bring in any new potential customers?
Spend 20 minutes reviewing your phone logs. How many came in? How many did you take
personally? Did you miss calling back anyone? How long did it take from the first
contact to convert to a customer? Were there any trends such as more calls in the
Spring and Fall and fewer in Summer? Was there one particular thing that people
who didn't convert were looking for? Going back to the real estate agent, what if
you specialized in South Lake, and more people were calling you from Fort Worth.
This could tell you that your name is being advertised incorrectly.
Finally, spend 20 minutes analyzing your demographics. Are all of your clients similar?
Did they change from the beginning of the year until the end? Did any of your advertising
campaigns bring in a new target demographic? What new demographics do you want to
track in 2010?
Why are demographics so important? Let's go back to our example of a clothing store.
What if you sold clothing that you thought was hip, but when you track your conversion
rate, you see you're getting quite a few under 30 year olds (men and women) coming
in and then immediately leaving. There's obviously a disconnect somewhere as to
what you are selling and what people's expectations are when they come into your
store.
And if you're tracking demographics, what if you determine that the one in five is a woman over 35 who is very involved with charity. You would want to get more
customers like that, wouldn't you?
The next step is breaking it down into smaller project steps. What would it take
to increase your conversions? Would you need more people to call or stop by? Would
you need better-qualified people?
Identify new areas to advertise your business
Identify new ways to advertise your business (i.e. email, postcards, hiring people
to cold call for you)
Brainstorm your brand (we'll talk more about this next month)
Look into more geo-targeted advertising
Expand your customer resource management system. What's that? That's effectively
the notes you take about someone when you talk with them on the phone, or when they
come into your office or store.
Create a customer rewards program if appropriate. If you have a customer rewards
program, it will also allow you to track repeat customers more easily, as well as
offer them special coupons to increase the amount they spend and shrink the time
between their visits.
Identify people to ask for referrals.
Remember to choose one area to work on each month. If you think the goal will take
longer than a month, try to break it down even further. You want to have a sense
of achievement, and you don't want to get overwhelmed. Move steadily towards your
annual goal, and you will be amazed at how much you've achieved when you review
in December 2010.
What if you haven't been monitoring your business and have no idea about any of
this. Then this year, your goal will be to start tracking your business metrics.
Spend an hour creating a plan as to how you will start tracking them. Obviously,
when someone calls, you can't ask them their age, where they live, etc. However,
you can track their name and if they're male or female. You can also ask where they
found you. As you talk with them, you can ask questions to identify what their goal
is. Are they looking to buy or are they gathering information. Build the relationship and track what you learn. This will help you identify who is contacting you. If
it's a referral, don't forget to thank the person who referred them to you.
Annual Goal for You
It's important to take one
of your someday maybe wishes and turn it into a reality this year. It will allow
you to feel a sense of achievement, and it will improve your time-management skills.
If you sign up for a photography class, and you know you need to go for 2 hours
a week, plus schedule another hour taking photos each week, it will help you stay
focused on work when you're at work. And hopefully it will allow you to choose to
leave work on time each day. Having a solid work-life balance allows you to recharge
every night and come in with a genuine smile each day. And that will always improve
your business conversions.
