The 2 Primary Activities Every Business Must Focus On That Will Boost Profit and Reduce Cost by at least 15%
One of the many ridiculous things a business can indulge in is doing dumb stuff repeatedly and hoping it turns to profit at the end of the month.
And guess what?
Most businesses are as guilty as sin when it comes to that…including YOU.
Before you go into the “my-business-is-different mode“, continue reading.
For any business to function properly and profit, there are a series of activities that must align to keep the heartbeat.
Each of these activities must be constantly evaluated and optimized. Unnecessary and unproductive activities should be immediately eliminated or outsourced.
The issue here is many businesses want to be like the Joneses.
In other words, they spy another business and copy exactly what they are doing without questioning how good or profitable that model really is.
Business B copies Business A’s dumb ideas and expects to be profitable, not realizing that what they have copied leaves them vulnerable to the defects of such ideas.
Let’s get this straight: There are primary and secondary activities that every business engages in.
Primary Activities are the core activities that are the bread and butter of your business.
Secondary Activities play support roles so that the primary activities can be done.
Two primary activities that cuts through every business no matter what industry are:
- Marketing
- Customer Service/Satisfaction
Marketing
Marketing is the blood of your business.
Without it, your business will find it very hard to stay afloat.
When I say “marketing”, I mean a systemic approach to attracting and onboarding new customers on a daily basis so you can have a predictable and consistent stream of income.
[Want to learn how you can create an effective marketing system for your business in just 5 easy steps? Get Started Here]The marketplace is congested with so many other businesses using all sort of strategies and techniques to get the attention of your prospective customers.
Your #1 goal as a business owner should be to get a customer at break even or profit.
This demands a very strategic approach that will position you as the one and only preferred choice in a noisy marketplace.
So, the big question is what is your strategy?
A good strategy is multi-channeled, systemized, trackable, scalable and to a great extent, automated. It takes into consideration online and offline media.
But, it all starts with having a gameplan designed to take potential customers from not knowing you exist to happy customers and raving fans.
Customer Service/Satisfaction
In business, your chances of getting repeat sales are slim without a good customer service strategy in place.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos said he’ll rather invest money in improving the customer’s experience than on marketing.
Marketing and customer service go hand-in-hand.
A satisfied customer is more likely to buy from you again than a grumpy, unsatisfied one.
Keep in mind that all customers are not equal. Therefore, incentives should be constantly given to multiple-time buyers as a way of saying thank you.
Just like a good marketing strategy, a good customer service strategy should be multi-channeled, systemized, trackable, scalable and moderately automated.
Automation is great but can work against you if not used properly.
Nothing beats human-to-human interactions.
My advice when it comes to customer service is to automate to discover the problem and then let a human take on solving the problem.
What You Need To Do Next?
You need to focus 80% of your energy on these primary activities (marketing and customer satisfaction) because these are the activities that will drive income into your business.
