The first quarter is well underway. Business optimism is increasing, the oil price is holding above $50, and there are positive economic indicators both north and south of the border.
It’s time to step on the gas…especially if you’re in the energy sector!
To help you achieve a record first quarter, here are best practices I’ve observed over 25 years of consulting with privately held small/medium enterprises. If it’s good for smaller companies, it will be great for larger companies that have even more capacity, scale, and leverage.
Figure 21.1 The Acceleration Triangle
Customers
- Proactively call and visit your best customers.
- Offer them something of value for free to strengthen the relationship.
- Act like a strategic business partner because you are one, or should be one.
- Give them the right of first refusal on your future capacity, especially in exchange for helping them plan the next three years.
If you lost your best customer, what would you do to win them back? Well, show them that love now.
Employees
- Don’t just engage your employees, protect them.
- Protect them from leaving, from getting bored, from being stolen by your competitors.
- Lock them in with long term profit sharing or equity positions.
- Treat your best employees like the star players they are.
If you lost your best employee, what would you do to get them back? Do you really want them working for the competition?
Management
- Management needs faster information to make better decisions.
- Information needs to be real time.
- Don’t wait for last month’s financial statements.
- Use a daily and weekly flash report to measure and report on sales, operations, and cash, in real time.
- Set weekly goals for improving on the factors most important to your customers and to your employees.
Is your management team analyzing information to determine what happened yesterday, or how to make tomorrow even better?
Your biggest risks in business are retaining your best customers and your best employees. What are you spending your time focused on?
Full speed ahead to a record first quarter!!
If you’d like to discuss how I can help you accelerate business success, please call me at 1-306-992-6177 or send me an email at [email protected].
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