Every year, probably since the dawn of time, people have been using the relatively arbitrary start date of a new year to think about the future.
Now I don’t typically make resolutions, as I think the’re best done through out the year, but now’s as good a time as any to think about things. Here are some questions that I think you should ask yourself, and the answers just might cause you to take action and contact us.
How much do you spend on employee productivity?
This question is a bit tricky, but a white board, or a paper and pen, along with 10 minutes of your valuable time should give you a ballpark. You might know exactly how much you spend on marketing, or even exactly how much you spent on employee training, but how much did you spend on all productivity related items. This includes IT related purchases that are supposed to make people better at their jobs. Now, how much of that was on the periphery? How much was spent on the tools they use most often? I won’t beat you over the head with the logical conclusion.
How predictable is your business?
Can you know in advance if you are going to hit your targets? What data points can you use for planning? Do you have an accurate forecast from your reps? Do you have a system in place to track that data and make it not a complete PITA for those that work for you?
Do you have unused power at your fingertips?
During the past year I’ve heard “We’re not using the system to it’s fullest. We just don’t have time to improve.” C’mon. 2010 is the year to make the list of things that you know you should be doing and tick them off the list. Need help? Ask.
How clean is your database?
Do you have someone who is officially, not “should be”, in charge of how clean your customer data is? When was the last time you looked at data that calculates how clean? When are you going to implement a clean up/refresh plan? Pro Tip – If you can get your customers to clean it up for you it’s a lot easier. This is very easy to do in NetSuite… Ask me how.
How intelligent is your marketing?
Do you use rules to segment your leads? What about customers? Do you employ drip marketing to nurture contacts and valued clients. Do you add value to your recipients lives while blasting them with email? We can fix that…
So… with 2010 upon us, lets do all those things we thought we’d been doing in this space age year.