Client Pain Points

In my elevator pitch, I always say that I help my clients to address their pain points. When it comes to business ownership and growth, there are quite a number of common pain points. I want to walk you through the 10 common problems that help my clients to resolve.?

?I usually divide them into 3 categories

Finance related

1)? ? ? Unsatisfactory profitability and a high fix cost structure; lack of cost transparency – this can lead you to grow and not leverage your product and service profitability

2)? ? ? Low cash generation ability: inflexible cost structure and high working capital needs – you depend on borrowing money (and accepting potentially unnecessary high interest rates)

3)? ? ? Lack of defined processes and effective systems to capture and effectively manage financial and operational data – it takes you too long and might become costly to obtain data needed to make fact-based decisions, consistent operational and financial measurements can function as an early warning system

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Human Talent related

4)? ? ? Weak leadership team or key leadership team members – as a business owner or leader you are needed too often to provide guidance and make decisions, no time to think strategically about the business

5)? ? ? Insufficient definition of roles and responsibilities leading to conflict and frustration – you might not have the adequate people assigned to critical roles, things do not get done or take too much time

6)? ? ? Owner dependency that means decisions cannot be made without the owner/head of company – there is the risk, that decisions are not being made timely or not at all because you are not available or around, the company leader and/or owner struggles with work-life balance

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Operational/Ability to grow sustainably

7)? ? ? Client and/or Supplier Dependency – the majority of revenue is made from one or a few customers, same for suppliers, a majority of key supplies are provided by a few suppliers, the well-being of your company is depending on them

8)? ? ? Lack of communication, management reporting, long and cumbersome ME Close process – your key employees and leadership team might not have the full picture about the financial situation and outlook of your organization, it might take weeks to get an overview of your P&L and your balance sheet

9)? ? ? Lack of strategic foresight and planning – your organization might not have put the effort into developing a longer term plan – 3 to 5 years – for your company, that means your decision-making might be reactive and not adding to a common goal

10) ? Focus – you might be offering too many products and/or services, which does not allow you to apply the excellence needed to separate yourself from your competition and to achieve the profitability possible; your manufacturing depth might restrict your ability to increase profitability

I’ve found that clients often need help with one or more of these challenges.

I like to use my initials CRO and interpret them as Challenge Reveals Opportunity – it is true that by analyzing and addressing difficulties, we discover better and new ways to do things.

Stay tuned for posts over the next weeks and months diving deeper in some of these pain points.

What are your pain points? Contact us at [email protected] to discuss.

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