I spend most of my time talking about growing business, the importance of great customer service, building strong business strategy etc etc. But sometimes all people want to hear about is “More profit!”
So, here we are 11 Profit Improvement Hacks (Read more in my Grow Your Digital Agency book.)
Profit Improvement Hacks – Part One
Increase prices by 3%
– this goes straight to the bottom line. You might lose some clients and the ones who are buying on price alone (but you don’t really need them anyway!)
Decrease direct costs by 3%
– squeeze suppliers who haven’t been challenged for a while, “Is this the best price you can do?”
Increase number of leads by 3%
– more phoning, networking, talking, engaging…
Increase quality of sales conversations by 3%
– check the quality of how your business and your people communicate… is a sales course or a dealing with difficult people course required?
Increase quality of proposals by 3%
– when did you last update and modernise your proposal template and does it give the client what the client really wants?
Increase quality of ‘asking for the business’ by 3%
– get better at asking for the business and closing: that is about having the right skills and having the right processes in place.
Believe me, this works if you take the time to put the actions in place, the arithmetic is quite outstanding, a series of small changes one on top of the other can create a massive final impact. I know it is all a little tactical and short-term but it should give you the head of steam often required.
So, although I am a much bigger fan of evolution (putting in place long-term, sustainable changes), sometime a bit of revolutionary (high-energy) thinking can give you the quick cash-flow impact required!
Profit Improvement Hacks – Part Two to follow…