Did you hear Monday's exciting news?
That the US GDP is forecast to grow 4.3% this quarter.
Unfortunately, most businesses won’t realize this fast growth in Q2.
Why?
Because for too many companies their daily realities are just a series of squeezes:
Pricing squeezes driven by aggressive competition and ever-higher customer demands
Margin squeezes driven by shrinking gaps between employee profitability potential and their pay expectations
and perhaps most vexing, ideas and innovation squeezes between the changes that executives know are needed at their companies....
...and their creative and execution capacity to get them done.
Is your business experiencing one or several of these squeezes?
And if so, do they feel even more frustrating because of all of the growth you see in businesses all around you?
My friend and famed marketing consultant Paul Lemberg talks about four things working together that can transform those tight feelings of being squeezed into elated ones of business progress and success.
They are:
1). One above-average idea that inspires your market and leverages your assets.
I love Paul's use of the phrase "above average" - i.e. that we don't have to wait for that one Einsteinian / Steve Job's-esque world changing idea to transform our business.
No, just pretty good ones will usually suffice.
Like repackaging an existing product or service into a more modern and customer friendly form, such as selling services on a subscription versus a fixed project fee basis...
...Or “extending the day” via serving an adjacent market - like school caregivers (therapists, nurses, etc.) working in home healthcare in the afternoons and evenings...
...Or even something as organizationally simple as starting work 30 minutes earlier and leaving 30 minutes later every day.
These are good, but not world-changing ideas.
But when properly executed can make meaningful and sustainable differences to the top and bottom lines.
2). Communications so clear prospective customers easily grasp the value.
The guide post word here is simplification.
Say in few words versus many.
Or with a picture better still.
Our modern business world is filled with many amazing role models in this regard.
All of Hollywood.
Yes, simplifying at the level of design elegance and creative excitement as these big boys do is hard.
But my experience is that the branding and marketing of most smaller companies is so bad that even a quick refresh can make a big difference.
3) Pricing so both you and your customers are happy and you earn excess profits.
Hermann Simon, author of Confessions of the Pricing Man How Price: Affects Everything, built a $300 million+, 860 employee consulting firm focused exclusively on advising many of the biggest companies in the world on pricing strategies that maximize profitability and the customer purchase and consumption experience.
He talks about the “Win-Win” duality - that we can charge a profitable price for our products and services and have it be one that our clients and customers feel good about it.
How do we arrive at these right prices?
That word again, innovation.
Odds are high that the prices we charge now are sub-optimal, so it is just a matter of analysis to determine what that optimal pricing should be and then courage to make and stick to these new (usually higher!) prices.
4) Consistent marketing that creates new business at an acceptable cost.
In spite of the constant churn of modern markets, we must have faith that as we increase the value we offer to our customers, and then sell that value at the right price and focused on the right benefits...
...that these changes we make will last and work for a long time.
And 4.3% economic growth makes everything easier.
So what are you waiting for?
Need Feeling Squeezed and want help getting your business moving Click here to schedule a complimentary consultation with one of our Innovation and Growth Experts.