REVIEWING THE THREE LEGGED STOOL
A three legged stool needs all three legs to be in perfect balance in order for you to sit on the stool without falling. Now imagine that your business is going to sit on that stool and the three legs are made up of: 1) Sales & Marketing, 2) Financial Management, 3) Customer service. You may have these three legs in place, but if they are not strong enough to withstand market changes, customer shifts or an economic downturn your business will fail. Let’s look at these three “legs” in more detail:
Sales & marketing: these two words include the following duties: promotion, advertising, networking, lead generation, working with prospects and generating referrals. Each of these duties can be broken down into more detail to include the latest tech tools and social media for generating leads and customer relations.
Financial Management: This has everything to do with profits and cash flow for your business, making sure that your expenditures don’t exceed your income.
Customer Service: this includes more than the delivery of a quality product or service to a customer. It also includes the operations and the administration of your business.
The process of strengthening each of the legs requires accomplishing goals in each segment on a weekly basis.
In sales and marketing a weekly goal may consist of obtaining 3 new customers each week. If you don’t reach that goal, that leg will weaken and eventually collapse. Financial management may include having a working budget and generating a monthly profit and loss statement. It also includes having enough cash reserve to maintain the business and yourself for 6 months without any income. Customer Service is best measured by the referrals and thank you notes that your customers send you. The ultimate measure is the percentage of your customers that send you referrals.
In BizQuack we introduced the accountability tracker. Weekly goals can be set in any or all three of these areas. The stool can be set up to provide a visual picture of each of its three legs. Design your own visual tracker for each area; it’s easy to maintain a private white board or three tabs in a three ring binder. Knowing in your mind what you have to do in each area is not enough, nor is keeping a folder in your computer file. By keeping a physical, easy to review, system in each area and then reaching your weekly goals will help you achieve your desired business success.
The three and perhaps only things that should be on your desk are the Accountability Tracker and your record of action in these three areas. These are the legs that hold up your business, and by paying attention every day you will grow a successful and profitable business.
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