I worked with a client that had been struggling for over 10 years to get their financial performance above the bottom 10% of their peer group.
Their poor performance had continued for many years and they couldn’t seem to find their way out of below average.
Every year they hired consultants that helped them assess their markets and compare performance metrics to their peer group and they would then spend the next year struggling to move the needle just one degree.
The planning and effort just wasn’t making a real difference in the end.
Their problem wasn’t lack of effort.
They put time into their plan every year.
They even hired consultants to help them formulate what they thought were good ideas.
In reality they were missing two key things.
One, they weren’t diagnosing the root cause of their problems.
Even their consultants stayed on the surface of their real issues.
Two, they weren’t communicating their strategy clearly and consistently enough to keep their team engaged in executing their plans.
It became apparent that even management didn’t believe in the plan enough to stay engaged with it.
That is when I entered as their guide.
We spent 2 days with their management team diagnosing the real issues that were causing their performance to languish.
It took a bit of digging, but once everyone recognized the real issues, they got really excited about solving them.
That was just one step of the Market Beating Strategy.
Then, as we outlined actions that we felt could have the biggest impact, we then dug deeper into them; determining the resources, cost and timeline to get it implemented.
We also estimated the real financial benefit.
We did this with every idea to ensure we put our resources behind only those initiatives that would have the biggest impact.
Then we mapped out a timeline showing everything that needed to get done and assigned owners and team members.
We made it clear what the cost of not getting this done would be to the client.
Then we had every management team begin communicating the plan with their teams.
Teams were updated on progress every month.
As each initiative got done, they started to see the bottom-line impacts and within 6 months they made more progress than they had the previous 10 years.
Here is even more exciting news.
3 years later they reached top quartile performance.
Instead of being in the bottom 10%, they are now in the top 20% of their peer group in financial performance.
This also sparked their ability to grow organically, which they were unable to do before.
Their improved performance got noticed, and top talent in their markets started knocking on their door looking for employment.
They are a perfect example of the old adage that “success breeds success”.
Now, they look forward to updating their strategic plan every year.
They come armed with competitive information and data from their teams that has improved their plans yearly.
It’s has been exciting to watch their transformation.
So, you may be thinking, “what did you do those other consultants didn’t do? What is it that you bring to the table?”
Here are 4 key skills I bring to my clients:
Experience turning both large and small businesses around. From banks to manufacturing companies, to restaurants, I have worked with almost every type of business out there.
The right mind-set. A belief that even the most difficult problems can be overcome. With the right ingenuity, effort, and commitment, there are ways to transform almost any business into one that can thrive.
A bottom-line focus. It takes money to make money. You can’t fall in love with elements of a business that don’t make money unless you can find other ways to pay for them.
It’s all about what the customer wants and needs. It always starts with solving someone’s problem or challenge. Solving in a way and at a price that is reasonable to them and in a way that sets you apart from your competitors.
If your business needs new life after COVID, or if you need to get your team excited again about achieving the next level of success, schedule a free strategy session………you can take it from here and put a bow around it.
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