In life and in business there will be problems and challenges. To deny this is setting one’s self up for disappointment. The trick is, to identify what the true problems or bottlenecks are that may be hiding under the surface. Once you discover these you can begin to implement problem solving strategies that truly fix the bottleneck, rather than just putting a bandage on the problem.
Here’s an example. Let’s say your advertising does a great job of getting the phone to ring. However, you do not close a lot of the business. Many business owners would say, “Well, the advertising was a flop. Let’s trash the campaign and try something else.” This may be the right choice. But you don’t know unless you take a look at all of the underlying issues. There may be multiple bottlenecks that caused the inability to close business. Here are some possibilities:
1) Is the phone being answered? You’d be surprised how many times the phones are not answered. Roughly, and this varies by industry, 40-50% of leads are simply ignored in some industries.
2) Is the correct procedure being used when the call is answered? Is there a script? Are people listening and asking questions to best clarify the situation and what the prospect needs? Is the person who answers the phone building rapport or are they simply sounding “clinical” or “mechanical”?
3) Is the advertising attracting the right type of people? Selling a Mercedes to a 5 year old is pretty much impossible even if your phone scripts are wonderful. Then it is a problem with the advertising as you are attracting the wrong type of people.
The trick is to truly take time and to analyze what the true problems are. The goal is to make it EASY to buy and to remove any bottlenecks to accomplishing this goal.
The same concept applies to websites. Is the checkout process easy on your website? Do people know where to go and how to buy? There are numerous tools in existence that can show you when people leave a website. If you are getting a lot of traffic to a website, yet people are not checking out you need to determine WHY this is the case.
Ultimately, it is easy to pass blame on someone else, but the problem, at least the REAL problem, is rarely the problem.
Critical analysis and accurate thinking are not easy to come by, and it is usually easier to just blame other people when things don’t go well. But if you truly look for the bottlenecks in your business, you will develop a competitive edge over your competitors and your business will begin to grow.
What bottlenecks are in your business? How can you get rid of them?
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