Build a Next Generation Business

This stress test is revealing the state of your business versus competitors. Even though we will get back to a "normal", the Covid 19 economy is a smoke test for the future.

Going digital is the way of the world. This "restricted" professional environment is actually a vision of near term future.

People want more information without minute by minute disruption. How are you going to sell without business networks or cold calls?

Yester-Generation Business Model

Let's start with what most company leaders consider solid business practices. Generally there are 3 tenets we uncover in any aging organization:

• Leadership believes their business is a 1 off anomaly
• Based on myopic experience, there is nothing "new" to learn
• They themselves or their teams have forgotten more than most will ever know

Pulling these forward, we break them down to clearly break perceptions.

Yes, all businesses are unique but very few are Unicorns. Why is P&L Statement a universal term applied to every company?

If we look at Marketing and Sales as universally applied terms we start to find more commonality between businesses. In the end, nearly every business is more the same than we realize. Tactically companies and their cultures are much different, Strategically even a pickle canning company and a digital ad agency are similar.

Trying to evolve without a specific goal and an adapted business strategy leads to business as usual. Most companies do not actually commit to change a norm. It's very uncomfortable for old guard to reorganize and take on unfamiliar roles. The same complexity exists when new strategy is incorporated with new leadership. There is no real guidance to predict future success compared to the last few decades.

Knowledge is absolutely power and experience has enormous value. That said, imagine people avoided the telephone for the fact calls dropped or refused to send emails based on bad internet connections. Many times knowledge coupled with personal perceptions insulates people from understanding more about the ever-changing world.

Business Systems Approach

Did you drive a car, operate a bicycle or walk around inside a building, residential or commercial? All of these are examples of systems we use not thinking about all the individual mechanisms working in concert with one another.

Cars - From the key fob used to unlock the door to the long pedal on the right we use to accelerate, systems surround us in our cars. They are so ingrained in our day to day behavior we seldom recognize them until they stop working. (Ever had a gas gauge stop working?) Looking at our business organization like a group of interrelated systems we can start to draw down comparison from everyday items.

Bikes - Still transportation, bicycles are simpler associations. Pedal to go, hand brake to stop, right? We can also look at the system of spokes, frame welds and reflectors as passive systems adding to consistent experience. These are actually quite sophisticated when we think of the fasteners, alloys and manufacturing processes combined to produce an end product.

Buildings - Everyday we enjoy a comprehensive delivery of temperature control, safety and comfort embedded in our homes and businesses. Next time you enter a building look around you, consciously aware of the roof, walls and flooring. If there are stairs or an elevator to help get you up and down the stories in the building, think about everything it takes to support and facilitate that activity.

Modern Business

The world is changing.

Like telephones and email we need to start to understand the nuances of Marketing and Sales channels as they are today. At one time people were only walking from town to town, going door to door shaking hands, introducing new products or services. That evolved from smoke signals to mailers, telephone, radio, TV then email. Now we have more ways than most of us know to reach our audience with our messages. Before drilling into all the possibilities or tactical approach to Marketing, we should discuss Strategy.

The major challenge with the business world today is all the noise about the latest and greatest channel and the next software a company "Needs" to be successful. It really is the wild wild west in the business world. No maps, guidance or understanding of what we actually need to thrive. This is where a real business strategy serves organizations. Both today and into the future.

Every business can use essentially the same framework to kick off their strategy. Because most business organizations are based around a sale, we work under pre-sale and post-sale categories. We are clearly calling out work before and after the sale with interrelated stages and tasks. Whether a business separates actual business activity into Marketing and Sales, we always categorically separate pre-sale activity into Marketing and Sales workflow. This helps define and clarify when, where, who, how and why work is done within an organization.

Marketing is assigned Target development and the work to reveal product/service benefits to Suspects. As Prospects learn more about a business and it's Value Proposition, Marketing creates calls to action to identify interest or Lead development. At this point Sales takes over with tight Stages and Tasks designed to solidify a Sale at the end of a confirmed Lead AKA Opportunity.

By following this course a customer discovers a specific business and becomes visible, we then breakdown workflow to nurture prospects. Segmenting Marketing and Sales "Labor" with specific sequential goals, creates a clear path to closed/won Opportunities. This is the course organizations who successfully onboard CRM software take to drive new sales records.

As this strategy matures companies start to map from initial targeting to 2nd, 3rd and 4th Opportunities. Sequencing Target to Customer culturally embeds strategy creating more business. We give a nod to the fundamentals companies grew from while developing, integrating and evolving business rules with new tools and tactics.

Understanding how to survive the current business climate is EXACTLY the same as the course businesses should take to compete in the future. It's a matter of "Mastery, Purpose and Autonomy", as Daniel Pink said to motivate change. Blend in a little Simon Sinek "Why" , a Strategic framework and an honest effort to change to predict scalable growth for the next generation to enjoy the success of yester-year.