CEO Tools Blog » recession tools

What if my market is dead?

ceotools — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:25:59 +0000

September’s ”Twelve Seasons” asks the question: what if your market is dead, just isn’t there?

Well, it is very hard to take market share away from others, but let’s do that first, and let’s also go another route by broadening your market definition. How to gain market share? Clearly not easy, but this always boils down to making more calls on competitors’ larger accounts, finding out specifically why they buy from them and then finding out what else they want and providing both of those things. Every business is different here, but re-read those words and point your selling mechanism at that concept. Of course, your “selling mechanism” might be salespeople but more probably is the “what causes sales” we’ve talked about so many times (see www.ceotools.com, click on New Tools Catalog, and scroll down to last tool).

How to broaden your market definition? An example is: instead of limiting your construction to building homes, remodel them, get into commercial, pursue office building remodels, etc. If you are a remodeler, what about showing folks how to become Do-It-Yourselfers (but do charge for certain aspects of doing that), providing them with special tools, techniques, even designs or just the parts they don’t want to or can’t do (e.g., tile work). The thought here is to broaden our thinking!
Focus on just those two areas, and we’re pretty sure you’ll see that your market is there, just differently accessible.

With best wishes, Kraig

Overcome “but my job isn’t cash”

ceotools — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:16:06 +0000

My great mentor, Red Scott, smartly observed that “cash ain’t cash unless it’s cash!” Lenders these days promise to lend, and then don’t…others send checks that bounce, they offer assurances of payment…then delay, and so on. To bolster your cash, simply talk to your people frequently about how their actions and activities affect cash. Do let them know we’re okay, but we need to focus on cash due to the long-delayed recovery. Get them to forecast where they’re going, and how it impacts cash. By simply creating cash awareness, your cash will improve! See the “Forecaster” and “Cash Manager” tools under New Tools Catalog for more ideas. May your cash really be cash! Kraig

12 Seasons of Business: Get & Keep Customers

ceotools — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:16:54 +0000

Get and keep customers through this protracted economic recovery – so, which customers do we bet on, which will survive and which won’t? First, keep good credit records on your customers…get financial statements from smaller companies, get them from Dun & Bradstreet and credit raters for larger clients. Know which will go chapter. Tighten up credit methodologies — see our blog on Abe WalkingBear Sanchez for great ideas. Next get more customers by asking for the order sooner, offering customers price-payment trades, giving more attention than competitors (including after-hours & weekends ways of reaching you). See our BLOG posting on Top 10 Customer Tools for tips. Best customer wishes, Kraig

“12 Seasons of Business” for June 2010

ceotools — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:58:05 +0000

June’s “12 Seasons” is all about a new, fresh look at what’s going on in our business world and what our responses probably ought to be.

How, at mid-year, to improve cash, credit, clients? Well, how about a brand new focus on those three areas: commission three tiger-teams in your company (or your peer or presidents group) to brainstorm, research the internet, and concoct unusual or maybe untried responses.

Here are some ideas: 1-replace your prompt-pay discount with a prompt-pay rebate, payable the following month (thanks to Abe WalkingBear Sanchez for this idea); 2-ask for cash deposits on orders; 3-teach your customers inventory earn-&-turn and DSO-tracking to improve their cash-flow, and they’ll likely return the favor of prompter pay to you; 4-lease items instead of buying; 5-outsource just about everything.

We’ll continue to publish tips like these at www.ceotools.com/blog, so please visit our weblog and other great blogs regularly for ideas. We’re just now publishing the updated “Top 10 Tools for Financing Businesses” which might be helpful to you.

Once again, helping each other through this recession/recovery is our goal!

With best regards, Kraig Kramers

Top 10 Tools to Finance Your Business

ceotools — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:11:31 +0000

Here’s an update on my Top Ten Financing Tips for ideas to improve your company’s lender/banking. Very best, Kraig

Why not? Introduce New Products/Services…how to

ceotools — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:55:19 +0000

Why not…introduce new products and services to get more volume? Many smart companies are betting on this now. An example might be to extend your offering beyond selling them software to installing, customizing, or integrating the software; while this has been done in that industry, could you apply it to your industry? What if you researched wht others are doing in other countries, other markets, other industries like yours just to get some ideas? You might just get a great, new idea. — Please leave your comment below to add to these thoughts!

Why not? Value Engineering: improves customer & cost

ceotools — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:51:48 +0000

Why not…institute “value engineering” into your products and services. Make products that give the customer more, but actually cost you less. The classic example is improving the packaging of your product to be easier to open or extract the product from, while reducing the packaging cost (yes, it’s do-able for almost any product or service — been there, done that)! Why not brainstorm this with your employees and your customers? – Please share your comment below to enhance these ideas!

Why not? In-Source to you What’s Not

ceotools — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:47:58 +0000

Why not…offer customers cost-reduction by outsourcing what they do to you? Saves them and grows your volume! For example, if you do marketing communications, maybe you could do all of their mark-com for a customer instead of just doing their advertising. — Please provide your comment below to add to these ideas!

Why not? Substitute with Lower Cost Offerings

ceotools — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:44:54 +0000

Why not…substitute costly services for less costly (niche into smaller, more specialized jobs)? Maybe do much smaller jobs and create a niche which your larger competitors haven’t wanted to be in; example might be do remodeling construction instead of major projects. Why not brainstorm this with your key people to see what might be do-able here? — Please leave your comment to add to these ideas below!

Why not? Use Price to Improve Value

ceotools — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:38:40 +0000

Why not…instead of adjusting price, adjust the amount you sell for the price? For example, a pound of coffee isn’t anymore; it’s somewhere between 11 and 12.5 ounces. Maybe you feel it’s sneaky to increase price this way, but it’s being done everywhere, right or wrong. If the customer still perceives value, it’s probably okay. Another idea: airlines, banks, and others have long been adding “fees” instead of just increasing price. Again, right or wrong, it is what is taking place in the world and is now coming to be accepted. The real question is: how can you BEST increase your price, and still assure the customer gets a proper price-to-value deal? Food for thought, analysis, trial, and implementation. — Please add your comment below to improve these ideas!