| Okay you already implemented the survival tips from | | | | consultants to make it happen, just yourself and your |
| Part 1: | | | | team to document your SALES and OPERATIONS |
| 1 - You have solidified relationships with you largest | | | | processes for ways to trim the fat. |
| customers. | | | | Sales Process |
| 2 - You have strengthened your team by getting rid of | | | | How Are You Generating Quotes - if you are involving |
| dead weight players, marginal players and maybe | | | | your engineering department in the process, you may |
| adding some "A" players | | | | be able to create a knowledge application to automate |
| 3 - You have strengthened your cash position by | | | | the process |
| getting rid of slow moving inventory, increased | | | | Decrease Cost of Sale by 25% - Product |
| collections for current accounts and are looking at your | | | | Configurators offer a 25% reduction in cost of sales |
| top 20 expenses for ways to cut costs. | | | | by decreasing the number of technical sales support |
| Now what's next? | | | | staff to the number of sales staff required. |
| 1 - Current Customers - whose ability to pay you | | | | Reduction in Rework by 50-70% - Product |
| know and trust - see what additional services you can | | | | Configurators offer a 50-70% reduction in rework |
| provide them. It may be a modified version of your | | | | expenses for organizations with a 25% or greater |
| product/service or another product/service that you | | | | order error rate. 25% is the industry average for |
| can provide. But since they know you, they are more | | | | made-to-order/assemble-to-order manufacturers. |
| likely to do more business with you. One way of selling | | | | Increase Revenues by at least 5.4% - Product |
| more may be payment terms for customers you trust | | | | Configurators will provide sales organizations with a |
| for inventory that you have sitting around. | | | | 2% increase in win rate and order size resulting in a |
| 2 - New Customers - one of the tragedies of this | | | | 5.4% increase in revenues. |
| down turn is that some companies can't service their | | | | (Gartner Research) |
| clients and hence will lose them. This is a perfect time | | | | Whether it is an excel file you use or an application |
| to pick up some additional clients, however, with new | | | | you have developed, review every part of your |
| clients you don't truly know their ability and payment | | | | current sales process for opportunities to reduce costs |
| timing. | | | | and ways to turn around quotes faster to win more |
| 3 - Improve Work Processes | | | | business. |
| Yes the do it YOURSELF review. You don't need | | | | |