Improving Company Profitability in 5 Steps – Summary

Dec 12, 2018 Improving Company Profitability in 5 Steps – Summary

Summary

Over the last five posts I have reviewed some of the important factors that affect profitability.

Step 1 – Reviewing Your Business Strategy and Marketing Strategy

In the first post I discussed and I hope provided a compelling case to build a business strategy around fulfilling some unmet need in the marketplace.  Secondly, it is critical to pick out an audience and not try to be all things to all people.

Step 2 – Getting More Customers

In this post, I describe how to segment potential customers into definable groups and then to create a marketing plan that specifically lays out what steps you are going to take to get your message out to those groups.

Step 3 – Keeping Customers

In this post, I explain the importance of keeping customers because it is much less expensive than attracting new customers and how to maintain a great customer experience.

Step 4 – Improving Product and Service Delivery

In this post, I explain how to focus on product quality and on time delivery.

Step 5 – Improving Efficiency

Finally, in the last post, I explain that you should aim to deliver your product or service at the lowest possible cost that meets your customers’ need for quality, service and timeliness.

The Challenge of Increasing Profitability

In my experience, the reason many business owners have not been able to improve profitability is that they have multiple issues to solve and many are interconnected.  When they attempt to solve one problem they inadvertently aggravate another problem they have.  This inter-connectedness can lead to inaction because they don’t know where to start.  I also find that solving some problems, while operationally important, may not significantly increase profitability.  The key is to figure out what actions you can take to have the biggest impact on profitability.

 

Bryan B Mason

Apollo Consulting Group, Newport, RI