One Swiss Franc is currently worth more than one Dollar. The Euro has also significantly weakened vs. the Franc. The Swiss economy is dependent on exports that must now be under threat due to the high price of Swiss goods. If Swiss industry does not find a good solution the strong economy there will suffer greatly. How quickly can Swiss industry react successfully?
3. Stop Wasting Sales’ Weakest Link
The two tactics of the 1st two posts about Swiss Business under Threat can add a lot to the bottom line, but they will not bring much if demand is not there and cannot be created easily. (The speed and reliability we achieve in point 1 creates a competitive advantage that will attract more sales. But if 20 – 50% capacity is discovered sales will have a huge job – they need to develop new customers at a much higher than usual rate.)
In reality the sales process is not much different from production. To gain a new client there are usually a series of steps the sales organisation must go through before the client will buy. One can look at this process as similar to production (or possibly even projects). In any case there is usually a limiting factor that is slowing down sales gains.
If the process is similar to the production process then wasting the limiting factor of that process will damage the ability of the company to gain new customers. Customers are gained more slowly and some will be lost prematurely because they are fed up with a too lengthy process.
Go through your sales process steps – from identifying potential to closing the deal and estimate the sales organisation’s capacity at every step. This does not have to be 100% accurate. You need to know the relative capacity of each step. Once you know where the weakest link is, then you can analyse how capacity is being wasted there, how you can exploit the available capacity better or how you can add to capacity. As in production the decision how to get the most out of the limiting factor will determine how everyone else should behave. The impact here can be the same as in production – a significant capacity increase coupled with a faster process.
There is another aspect that can accelerate sales gains. The speed and reliability advantages achieved in points 1 and 2 are advantages that must be sold correctly. They will help accelerate your business.
Careful! If you are successful with these 3 points companies will want to buy from you. Your capacity can be filled very quickly. Quickly or slowly you must monitor capability and NOT take on new business when the risk of missing due dates becomes too high. Due date reliability starts to suffer at about 85% of your (new) system (sales, production ...) capacity. Don’t waste clients by becoming unreliable again.
Please don't forget clients have very long memories (like elephants!) when they experience hardship! Don’t risk customer loyalty; its better to slow down sales for a while than to annoy them. Regaining a customer, particularly if his business was damaged, will not be easy!
A book recommendation: "The Cash Machine" by Klapholz and Klarman
We wanted to see moose. They cross roads frequently and we were told to be careful. However, not a single one to be seen. So we took tis picture!
Technorati Tags: Availability, Continual Improvement, Cost, Distribution, Focus, Goldratt, Production, Sales Process, Sales
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