When you think in terms of your business processes actually “being your business,” it becomes pretty important stuff. Business processes are the systems that run your business. Efficient business processes hire the right people, train employees for productivity, find new customers, deliver product efficiently, and ensure customer satisfaction, defining every working facet of the business. What good is your product or service if you do not have efficient systems for finding new customers, a way to efficiently deliver the product or service, or a means by which to ensure quality control?
Your business processes are what separate you from the competition. Superior or unique business processes that satisfy customer wants and eliminate customer frustrations better than the competition is the catalyst for business success.
Every time a customer touches your company they are touching your processes. The important question is, are your processes giving the customer a better experience than the competition?
Consider companies have been beating their competition with superior processes for decades, if not centuries. The Fuller Brush company, founded in 1906, developed an innovative direct door to door sales and delivery process to beat the competition. The genius marketing process saved the consumer time by making it more convenient to purchase personal care items.
Sears and Roebuck Company developed a new sales and delivery process to capture rural America in 1927. The company’s revolutionary sales and delivery process was direct mail order catalogs – a new sales and delivery process that alleviated the purchasing frustrations of rural America.
The take-away is simple: The most successful way to success is to develop inventive, competition-beating processes. Consider seven ways resourceful processes can move your company to a leadership position in the marketplace:
1) When your processes are better at finding new customers
2) When your processes are better at closing more sales
3) When your processes are better at delivering the product or service
4) When your processes are better at quality control
5) When your processes create a better value
6) When your processes create more loyal customers
7) When your processes create superior financial efficiencies
To proceed to develop successful, efficient processes that beat the competition, you must start with knowing exactly what your customer wants at every touch point as well as what your competition is and is not doing well.
Michael E. Gerber says in his insightful book The E-Myth: Why most businesses don’t work and what to do about it, you must work on your business, not in it. In other words, rather than investing your valuable time being involved in day to day operational business activities, it would be more beneficial to invest your time improving your business processes. The efficiency of your business processes are your business. The quality and strength of your processes determine how your customers perceive you relative to the competition. Start improving your company’s processes today!
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