How to win through resilience in your business
Earlier this month 30 local Business Leaders came together at our Business Leaders Forum to explore the concept of Winning Through Resilience. Here is a list of gems from the workshop
Elon Musk’s vision of travel was an exciting and challenging insight into the future (read to the end as we have included the video link). It exemplifies how the speed of change directly impacts on all areas of our lives and particularly our business resilience.
As business leaders we need to identify, mitigate or adapt to the needs of our stakeholders, markets, operations and capital to ensure our business remains resilient. The warning signs exampled above are some of the issues that compromise business resilience.
Customer centricity drives our customers experience and return on investment for our business. ‘Front loading’ or creating a ‘wow factor’ with new clients early is easier and more cost effective that trying to hang on to them as they are walking out the door.
The customer loyalty ladder is a good measure for where our current customers are on the ladder and can be used to design strategies to move customers up the ladder. The more emotionally connected we are with our customers the higher the value of their engagement, in fact an HBR study showed fully connected customers are 52% more valuable.
Customer success is integral to resilience. In most B2B sales only 5-30% comes from the initial sale whereas 70-95% comes from customer retention/renewals and up selling. The most cost-effective way of driving new sales is through referrals from existing happy customers, making customer retention the drive of new leads in a business.
Customer success management is the new focus of innovative businesses. It is proactive is focus ensuring customer longevity. A CSM’s role starts at on-boarding and continues for the customer lifetime, ensuring they actively use and get the concrete value from the product/solution that they were expecting from it. This nurturing should result in a lower churn rate and an increase in the renewal rate, since the more customers grow successfully their business, the more likely they are to stick with the tools/products they have been using.
Avoiding blind spots through scenario or contingency planning is a priority and using the PESTEL analysis tool can help avoid or defend against threats to business longevity. Some of the defences included cash flow and reserves, industry training, 2iC appointed, early adoption of technology and more.
In leadership there is a distinct difference between persistence & tenacity. Tenacious people test, pivot or adjust and test again. It is the ability to pivot and change is what makes all the difference. Tenacity is the trait we should be seeking in all our leaders and team members.
There are a number of things we can do to improve our self-awareness and the consensus of the room was the importance of sharing our knowledge given the Johari Window showed knowledge is often held and not shared, therefore limiting our leadership skills.
Here is what some of the participants had to say:
“Very thought provoking with tools that you can take away and use to implement ideas into your business.” Melanie Zander ~ MJA Business Solutions
“The day was a great overview of what we can do/look at within the business.” Ben Charnock ~ X Corp Builders
“Great concepts and ideas presented challenging us to take action and implement positive change for self and team.” Marilyn Brien ~ Leadership Management Australia
“The morning was run well, good information that was received well by attendees. As the market is changing, re-evaluation/reflection/adjustment is paramount. Thanks again.” Matt Gosling ~ Gosling Electrical
Next Workshop
The next forum is planned for the 16 February 2018 where we will again work collaboratively on key business challenges, share ideas and insights to help business leaders to grow their business, their people and themselves. So stay turned and we will send more details very soon.
If you are interested in being part of this unique, invitation only group and gaining my support to drive the growth of your business (and you as a leader) please send me a brief email to arrange a 15 min call to discuss your needs further: connect@bizbydesign.com.au
By Sean Martyn
@ Business By Design
PS – As promised here is the link to the Elon Musk Earth to Earth Video