How to Unlock the Hidden Power in Your Business

Most businesses possess a greater potential for success than they demonstrate. In most cases, monumental changes are not required to unlock the power potential.

Here are seven keys for positioning a business to maximize its potential.

Keep Raising The Standards

Even though we’re more aware of quality issues than at any time in our history, low standards are still killing some American business.

The president of a fine consulting company was content to send what is often called a “Dear friend” letter to presidents and CFOs of large corporations. “Why bother spending the money to personalize the letters?’ he asked. He could talk all he wanted to about the “high quality” of his company’s services. but his “Dear friend” letter told a different story.

With higher standards, a business stand out from the crowd. this, more than anything else, causes to increase.

Be Prepared To Climb The Next Mountain

Nothing puts a cap on a business faster than the limited vision people have of what they can or can’t do or what the business is capable of achieving.

Most fuel oil dealers see themselves as purveyors of a product. They take pride in making certain their customers get good service.

Yet most don’t accept that their real business is home comfort. “Low ceiling thinking” inhibits a larger view that might well take these same dealers into air conditioning, insulation, replacement doors and windows, air filtration, and so forth.

“What are the implications of home comfort?” This question possesses the power to expand horizons. Even more important, it is the question that leads to what we call “capturing the customer.”

Don’t Follow The Competition

The major curse in any business is not the competition; it’s following the competition. Whenever companies follow in the wake of a rival, they are in deep trouble. These are the same firms that suffer from a corporate inferiority complex. They are unable to trust their own judgment, to more forward on their own. They wait for the competition to act before they can take a step. At some point, these are the companies that disappear into the fog defeat.

Defy the Conventional Wisdom

Although there are exceptions, people in business will do just about anything to follow the conventional wisdom.

In many parts of the country, Domino’s Pizza grabbed substantial market share simply because they dared to guarantee a pizza business. They fought the urge to see themselves as pizza pushers. Instead, they looked through their customers’ eyes and saw themselves in the convenience business.

Stay On Track

The strength and power of a business rests in what it does best.

These words should be carved in stone and never forgotten. Amid all the country’s banking problems, a small bank in a Massachusetts community was rated as one of the ten safest financial institutions in the state. The bank’s marketing agency came up with a series of ads to communicate the message to the public. The headline of one ad read: “We stick to our knitting.” The bank remained strong simply because the management didn’t permit itself to become seduced by seemingly lucrative, but highly inappropriate, ventures.

Check Your Assumptions

Any company can be held back by false assumptions. By questioning assumptions such as these, most businesses can find new opportunities for success:
* We know our customers.
* We’re the leaders in our field.
* We’re the best known in the business.
* Advertising is a waste of money.
* To discover the real picture, we must ask ourselves:

How often are we in touch with our customers?
* Who said so? What leads to this conclusion?
* How can we be so sure?
* How do we know? Who says so?

How can we be so sure?
* How did we come to this conclusion?

Assumptions distort and limit the way we think about fundamental issues. If an assertion is incorrect, everything that follows from it will be as wrong as the original assumption.

Be Open About What You Do.

Paranoia is not good for growth, stability or developing new ideas.

Many firms never want to reveal that they have a particular customer. Furthermore, they act as if their competitors are ignorant of such obvious information. They aren’t.

In the same way, business feel that sharing their ideas with prospective customers will only result in the information being “stolen.” This type of paranoid thinking is inappropriate. Your know-how and expertise turns prospects into customers. Share your knowledge and experience. You don’t own it. Use is as manure on a garden. Use every tool in your kit to get and keep business. But don’t hide what you know best.

Your willingness to be open and honest will allow the prospect to get close enough to help you unlock the power of your business.

Success comes from fully utilizing the resources within a business. When this happens, a company has maximum control over its destiny.