1st quarter is in the books. How did you do?

Scale of 1-10, one being disaster and ten meaning we exceeded expectations. Above a six, what must you keep doing? If below a 6, what must you stop doing? Regardless of your score what do you need to make happen in the 2nd quarter?

This past week I had the opportunity to meet with several executives; although none were completely satisfied. I heard more optimism and hope than I have heard since last fall. An executive in a retail chain said that business was strong and profits were up because they are doing more with less people. An executive with a large construction manufacturing facility was excited about the next 6 months, specifically, the next two months of planned overtime to meet production requests. A C-level executive in technology was encouraged with the 1st quarter, but with April projections, believes production will be ahead of planned revenue goals. In all cases they were great examples of companies adjusting to their customer wants by always being in tune with their motivations to buy and then quickly matching their offerings or adjusting their business strategy.

The key point is simply this: the days are gone when you can lay out a one year business strategy and then simply work the plan. Successful businesses of the future will always need to adjust to their market demands and changing their offerings to match their customer’s motives to compete and win against their competition.

Robert Fritz, in his book The Path of Least Resistance for Managers, talks about 11 key questions to continually build and adjust your business strategy:
1. What is our Offering?
2. Who are our Customers? (internal and external)
3. What do they want?
4. What do we want?
5. Is their a match between their wants and ours?
6. How do they know about us?
7. How do they obtain our offering?
8. What is the current market?
9. What is the future market?
10. How will our offerings change?
11. Where are we going?

In the coming weeks this news letter will dig deep into these questions. Regardless, together let’s revolutionize our businesses to meet and deliver what our internal and external customers are motivated to buy.

I have enjoyed the last 90 days sharing with you some insights through my customer visits and my executive coaching. If you have enjoyed or more importantly value some of these insights please send me a quick note at midweekmentor@dalecarnegie.com.

All right! Let’s go make the 2nd quarter rock!