Business Transformation « Zenworkz Blog

Business Transformation

How to radically alter the potential of your business

Some one moderately famous once told me: “Immersing in a sound structured process of examination and reflection, conducted by a skilled professional has positive spin offs”. I have been reflecting on that and the positive reaction that always happens when clients start working with me.

The structured process of thinking about themselves, their business, looking at their strengths, imagining a new future, triggers such positive actions and feelings that circumstances will change, and clients do become more successful in their business. The action of working on your business radically alter the effectiveness of your mind and the potential of your business. This occurs because:

We are challenging your mind. Neuroscience has now proven the old saying “use it or lose it”. The process we go through uses your mind productively to learn new skills. The benefits of increased mind function is an elevation in feelings of positivity, that more things are achievable or possible.

We begin with the end in mind. To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination or purpose. To know where you are headed, is to better understand where you are right now and what steps will be needed to continue in the direction for positive results. My coaching process fosters a mindset of outcomes focus and optimised marketing, that will help you create solutions, and not keep you stuck in the problems of your business.

Reflection is the key to changing mindset. The process of finding quiet time for reflecting on your current business situation and the negative responses that comes up, provides insight about what you need to change. Through my coaching we work on a positive mindset combined with effective marketing, because it will be 80% of your success in business.

Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. The mind must believe it can do something before it is capable of actually doing it. By being aware of your mental self-talk, your thoughts, and being honest about your current situation; through reflection and answering questions about yourself and your business – it’s amazing what insights you will be provided.

Without awareness and giving yourself an opportunity to examine your business and learn new skills, you’re not likely to be able to do something about your business situation. If you don’t like the results you are getting, if you aren’t achieving your business goals, then knowing yourself, your strengths, and what you’ve been doing in the past to influence that situation is key. My structured process reveals both your personal and marketing barriers to business success. It helps you take control of what you can control.

There is no need for unconscious or disengaged marketing in 2013. Smart businesses make conscious, mindful marketing a part of their daily working lives.

Remember, if we’re unable to learn about ourselves, how we work and maximise our strengths, how are we to help ourselves excel at the business we have chosen?

Love to know what you think? Please leave a comment below.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the boss lady of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing and educates businesses to think, create, engage and optimise their marketing effort. She coaches customers in strategies for traditional and online marketing; and implementation. If you would like free how-to-do-it-yourself marketing resources or to subscribe to free e-news about all things marketing, please visit the website:

http://www.zenworkz.com/

For daily marketing tips and references, connect to our fabulous community on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Business Transformation / Integrated Marketing Strategy / Marketing Masterclass / Marketing Mix Strategies / Marketing Plans / Positioning / Setting Marketing Strategies — No Comments
9
Nov 12

How to define your Marketing Plan Strategies

In the last ZENWORKZ MARKETING MASTERCLASS, we decided the priority marketing objectives for your business. The next step in the planning process is defining your Marketing Strategies or the ways and means of realising your objectives.

There are two levels working together to form your authentic marketing strategies, they are: positioning strategies and marketing mix (remember the 4 P’s +) strategies.

Getting your product or service into the customer’s hands depends on the product or service itself, on its price, the place (policies for channel and customer service levels) and promotion (advertising, sales promotion, public relations, events, etc.).

If an objective is ‘What we want’ then a strategy is ‘How we get it’.

In developing your marketing mix strategy you need to consider the various market forces that act on your marketing decisions. The important forces include:

The customer and their buying behaviour, motivations, habits, environment, market size and buying power.
The industry behaviour of retailers, wholesalers and any members of the distribution chain and their motivations, structure, and attitudes.
Competitor’s position and behaviours as influenced by industry structure and competition.
Government and regulatory controls which relate to marketing activities and competitive practise.

The marketing planning process aims to develop the best match between the internal capabilities of your business and the external market environment. This recognises that the marketing mix elements are largely controllable by you and that the market forces are largely uncontrollable.

Creative marketing with the four + marketing mix elements dictates constantly questioning existing situations and looking for ways to enhance your marketing mix – deleting existing services or products, selling them at a different price, offering them in different places or distribution, or promoting them differently.

When designing your marketing strategies list and explain what specific actions you will use to meet your authentic marketing objectives for each element of the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place or Distribution, Promotion, Provision of Customer Service, People or Workforce, and Processes.

Once you have a detailed list of what strategies you will take to address the marketing mix elements above, decide when you should start and finish each one. Including:

What to do
When it will happen
How to achieve
Who will do it
How much will it cost
How will you measure success

Ideally you will use your SWOT analysis and a statement of key issues and opportunities to help you choose the market segments in which you will compete, and determine how to position your business relative to your competition. You need to develop strategies to meet those objectives. Provide a statement outlining your approach to the market and how you will create brand awareness.

Consider these questions in developing your plan:

Which elements of your marketing are essential?
Which are preferable but optional?
Do you have a clear understanding of your customer’s needs?
Do you understand your strengths?
How will you differentiate your product from competition?

Next determine your marketing mudget and the time and resources you will allocate to your marketing strategies.

The authentic marketing plan will change as your business changes and grows. Think of your authentic marketing plan as a living document that grows and matures with your business needs.

Recap Process Step: Capture this analysis in a document: save it as My Business Marketing Plan?

Any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment here or on Facebook?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their differential advantage, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. She coaches customers online and by phone – if you would like to request coaching – please contact me.

To participate in MARKETING MASTERCLASS visit and “like” my facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Business Transformation / Marketing Masterclass / Marketing Plans / Setting Marketing Objectives — No Comments
7
Nov 12

Marketing Masterclass – Setting Marketing Objectives

So far we have spend most of our time in the MARKETING MASTERCLASS looking at our business and the environment it operates in.

From all the analysis steps done to this point:

Defining Business Purpose
Clearly defining your products and services
Determining a viable customer market segment
Creating your Value Proposition
Creating a Brand Marketing Message
Conducting a BCG Matrix review of your products and services
Looking at SWOT of your business, industry, and environmental factors
Using the Ansoff Matrix to determine Market Growth Strategies

You should now know where to focus and position your business.

Setting your Authentic Marketing Plan Objectives now requires you to decide your objectives based on:

All the analysis outputs from steps 1 – 7,
Your Ansoff Matrix Market Growth strategic decision,
To set Smart + Objectives

Smart + means:

Specific – it should focus on clear and identifiable goals
Measurable – the objective should be quantified
Achievable – achievable but a stretch for you
Relevant – should be relevant to your purpose and vision for your business
Time bound – should have an achievement date
+ Focused – objectives focused on issues relating to both the customer markets, and products and services, that you need to address

From your Ansoff Matrix analysis you have chosen one of four business growth strategies – either market penetration, where there is scope to grow in your market; or market development, using your existing products and services in a new market; or product development, developing new products for your existing market; or diversification, new products in new markets.

Each choice has typical objectives around stablising or increasing market share, stablising or increasing return on investment (ROI) and increasing sales.

Your typical marketing objectives from your BCG Anaylsis are concerned primarily with investing in “Stars” for growth, managing “Cash Cows” for continued good earnings and making hard decisions about products or services which are “Question Marks” or “Dogs”.

Setting Smart+ objectives is putting a stake in the ground and making a clear statement about where you want to go with your business. Now write down your objective(s), making each quantifiable, measurable, and specific. If you are developing a marketing plan for several services or product lines, write objectives for each.

The next step will be setting marketing strategies, which are how you will achieve your objectives?

Please leave a comment or ask a question if you want to know more?

To participate in MARKETING MASTERCLASS visit and “like” my facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Business Transformation / Integrated Marketing Strategy / Marketing Analysis Tools / Marketing Masterclass — 2 Comments
30
Oct 12

Marketing Masterclass – Business Growth Strategies

Ansoff’s Matrix is a tool that helps you decide your product/service and market growth strategy. It provides a framework in which marketing objectives can be developed under each of the four main categories of the Matrix: Market penetration, market development, product/service development, and diversification. It is used for deciding how to improve the sales of existing products or services, or to develop new products or services and market opportunities.

Market Penetration – Existing products/services for existing markets

This is where you examine how to exploit your current position in the marketplace better. Some of the strategies include, more focused market segmentation, more clearly defined positioning strategy, or better application of the marketing mix elements (remember the 4 or 7 P’s). Typical Marketing Objectives: Stabilise market share through customer retention; stabilise ROI through frequency of use.

Market Development – Existing products/services for new markets

This a strategy where you are seeking new groups of buyers with your current product or service offerings. This is a higher risk strategy because you need to have a good understanding of the needs and wants of very different customers and may require market research before embarking on this strategy. Typical Marketing Objectives: Increase sales; increase market share; maintain ROI; increase awareness to a very different customer market segment.

Product/Service Development – New products/services for existing markets

Customer Research can uncover unmet demand from an existing customer base and this can be an opportunity to develop new products or services or to extend your current product/service with a greater variety of choice. Typical Marketing Objectives: Increase sales; increase ROI; create awareness; maintain or increase market share through the development of new or extended product or service offers to your existing markets.

Diversification – New products in new markets

This is by far the riskiest marketing strategy to embark on because you are not building on your strengths. But it can be a valid tactic if your industry is very mature and subject to limited growth opportunities. Typical Marketing Objectives: Achieve higher ROI; increase awareness; increase sales with new products or services in new markets.

Your analysis and decisions will give you more information about focussing your market intentions and helps you formate your marketing objectives.

Recap Process Step: Capture this analysis in a document: save it as My Business Marketing Plan and let’s continue?

Any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment here or on Facebook?

To participate in MARKETING MASTERCLASS visit and “like” my facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Business Transformation / Cash Management / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Marketing Mix Strategies / Pricing / Process Improvement — No Comments
24
Jul 12

Keep Calm and Keep Marketing Part 3 – Focus on Cash Management and Pricing

Recently I responded to a request to help small businesses that were feeling despondent because of falling sales and general feelings of frustration with marketing a small business in difficult, trading times.

This series of Keep Calm articles has been created to help improve feelings of confidence and personal power; Part 3 will focus on tips to improve Cash Management and Pricing:

Focus on Cash Management

Cut expenses and track cash flow carefully. It is extremely important for you to understand your monthly cash position. Determine where you can cut costs, and make sure on a weekly basis that you understand what money is coming in. As you cut costs use this formula, for every $2 dollars you cut in business expenses, invest $1 into your marketing investment.

Start collections at 7 days past due. You need your money now. Once a customer gets to 7 days past due, get on the phone and track down whoever pays the accounts for an update. Be sure you are ready with payment options to get paid faster.

Focus on Pricing

Time to raise your prices? It’s a new financial year and with the cost pressures of the last year, it’s reasonable to consider your pricing. If you raise your prices by 1% that will give you an approximate 11% increase in income. In comparison, you would need to increase sales volume by 1% to yield a 5% increase in income. One warning though, don’t tell people you are raising your prices because of the Carbon Tax – as you have seen, this is not good PR.

It’s important to add value, when increasing prices! Continuously adding value to your products and services is the best way to get repeat customers and new business through referrals.

The secret of pricing is this knowledge: When the right customer sees your product or service in the right context – price will not be the primary element in their decision to buy!

If you need support from someone who can guide you – a coach or mentor who can look at your business and your progress with an honest and objective eye; guide you away from costly mistakes and head in a direction that may challenge you, but also helps you to survive and thrive – please contact me. The next Keep Calm topic will be “Mindset” – how to stay positive and outcomes focused!

Let me know if find you find these tips helpful? Please leave a comment below:

Author, Teresa Bassham principle Marketing Coach at Zenworkz Marketing, inspires small businesses to foster a positive marketing mindset and develop a empowering marketing plan for business profitability. See full services at http://www.zenworkz.com

Business Transformation / Coaching / Developing Resourceful People / Mentoring / Mindset / Networking — No Comments
4
Jun 12

The Immeasurable Value of a Mentor

A mentor is: “An experienced and trusted advisor – one who expects more of us than we do”.

Mentoring, coaching, developing business people, and improving performance is a complex activity combining skill, knowledge, patience, values, and engagement. It is not one trait but the combination together with commitment and intent, which builds successful mentoring relationships.

I write these words as I complete a role as a mentor to three young entrepreneurs in a regional program. I have learnt, and still do, from many kind and wonderful people who have given their time and knowledge to help me. It was such a pleasure to pass on my knowledge and skills to help my small team.

My first true mentor was my Dad. Born in the UK, served in “Dad’s Army” as a young man because he lost his trigger thumb as an apprentice butcher; learnt other trades on the black market during the war; migrated to Australia in the 60‘s when the rest of this family said he was crazy; and worked for years as a small business owner, finally losing all his hard earned money by purchasing a pub, just before random breath testing was introduced. My values of hard work, being positive despite what life throws at you and always looking forward, is imbued with his values, approach and life observations.

In my early working life I have had many great managers that have challenged, coached, and supported me. They set clear development expectations with me, provided a series of assignments to widen my skills and competency, and ensured continuous feedback. The most valuable part of this experience was the ability to work closely with them, observing their approach; and values in decision making and problem solving.

The benefits from learning with the experience of the mentor include:

Exposure to different ideas and perspectives,
Insight into your own performance,
Support in development,
Avoiding and learning from mistakes,
Intellectual stimulation from interaction with a trusted and knowledgeable person, and often,
Increased visibility and an extension of influence within a community or group.

Where can you find a mentor? Mentors can be found both in the workplace and outside it. But first you must be clear about the reason you want or need a mentor, and then you can better identify who might help.

If you are just starting a business, wanting to do a business plan or marketing plan, you could start by using the mentoring services available through the various state governments.

If you are an established business and want advice on how to get to the next stage and access new networks and channels, join an industry association and network. Search online for an association or go to an industry conference and find out who the main players are. Take the initiative yourself and just ask.

Alternatively, try the informal type of mentoring, and think about your family and friends networks. Networking communities and university alumni’s are other good places to look for mentoring programs.

Mentoring is also good if you are facing difficult times. But maybe in this situation you could look at employing a business coach, management consultant to re-engineer processes, or an marketing coach to help with opportunity identification.

Finally, it’s important to observe the major ingredients in establishing successful Mentor/Mentee relationships, which are clarity of:

Mentor/Mentee development relationship goals, roles, and responsibilities,
Expectations and limits of relationship for all involved,
Mentor key areas of experience, competence, and attitude both professionally and personally that contribute to Mentee development needs,
Amount and length of time for development relationship,
Measurement of development outcomes.

I am deeply grateful for the many men and women who have given me the benefits of their experience and skill, and that I in turn, am able to repay their investment by mentoring others.

Have you had a mentor and gained immeasurable value? I’d love to hear your story?

About the Author: Teresa Bassham runs Zenworkz Marketing, coaches and mentors small business in all aspects of authentic marketing. My website contains many useful and free resources:www.zenworkz.com

If you would like to know more about Teresa’s services, please contact her: mailto:teresabassham@zenworkz.com

Business Transformation / Marketing 101 — No Comments
27
Oct 10

Simple and cheap ways to raise your business profile

Recently I was asked a simple question by a customer: How do we build our business profile?

Ever mindful that I am when dealing with my customers, I didn’t want to say outright that it really was the wrong question; because you already have built an extensive business profile. The questions I asked:

Who is the target for your need to raise awareness of your business?
What outcomes do you expect from raising your profile with this target and;
How do you leverage your existing profile for this purpose?

Firstly, the simplest and cheapest way to raise the profile of your business above those of your competitors is by promoting your products, services and activities, in a well crafted Media Release.

All businesses should have a continuous program of using Media Releases as an integral part of a marketing and sales strategy; aimed at enhancing the image, profile and credibility of your business and its products and services; and increasing cash flow. One of the great benefits of Media Releases is that they allow you to choose to expose this information to the masses, or to a highly targeted market, which goes to the question of who is the target you want to reach.

For the smaller business with limited marketing funds, as long as you have the time and persistence; you can match big businesses in your industry, by developing your Media Release to focus on creating and maintaining a compelling brand profile. This means consistently communicating who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how your brand will make a difference; and conveying this message strongly and often to existing customers, potential customers, consumers, suppliers and the media.

A Media Release is a succinct public relations announcement which tells a compelling story and should be written in an easy reading style. It is only useful if it gets you media coverage – so it has to provide newsworthy information or a newsworthy story. Public Relations is not rocket science; you just need a strong media release; some relevant media contacts and most importantly, the time to dedicate to your PR program.

Tips for writing well crafted Media Releases

Most journalists and editors will only read the heading and the first paragraph or two of a release, before deciding whether to use the information. This means that the heading needs to be catchy and interesting to grab attention, but still needs to convey what the release is about. You then need to order the information presented within the release, with the most important information first.

The first sentence needs to grab the journalist’s attention, and engage him or her in the detail of the release. The first sentence or paragraph should include:

Who is the story about?
What is the story about?
Where is the project/event being held (if relevant)?
When is it happening?
Why is it interesting or why is it happening?
How does it work?
What is the benefit to the customers, community or reader?

Quotes from the key spokesperson or celebrity supporter in the case of cause marketing; should be included where possible, as this increases the newsworthiness of the release. The very end of the media release should contain contact details for more information, and should also note whether there are any interview or photo opportunities.

Additional tips worth considering when drafting a good media release:

Localise the information. Write for the intended target audience.
Keep it brief and snappy – use clear, positive language and keep words and sentences short. It should be no more than one to one and a half pages, the shorter the better.
Make sure it’s relevant – don’t include unimportant information. Stick to the essentials and don’t explain everything – just enough to make the uninformed reader understand.
Make sure it’s jargon free – do not use clichés and abbreviations.
Date your release – this ensures the journalist knows the release is current.
Include at least one contact name and number (preferably a mobile phone number) whom the journalist can contact for more information. Make sure that person is contactable and is fully briefed. If a journalist calls to find out more information and has trouble getting through, they are likely to lose interest in the story.

Finally, follow up with one or two emails or maybe a call, but make sure you ask if the journalist has time to talk briefly before you talk about why you’re calling. Sometimes you can get good results if you call, but don’t call more than once. Journalists are always busy meeting deadlines and appreciate it if you don’t push too hard.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is a Director of Zenworkz and helps businesses effectively source the right information that improves their decision making and bottom line.

All or parts of this blog are able to be published with permission from the author – provided that the author is acknowledged and a link is given to the original source blog.

This blog is original content influenced by years of experience within the Australian business culture and may not be applicable to other countries business cultures.

Business Transformation / Marketing 101 / Online Survey — No Comments
17
Jun 10

Market Intelligence or Marketing Research or both….

Answering this question requires an understanding of the difference between Market Intelligence and Marketing Research; and breaking down the FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) about these subjects; explaining why and when your business needs both. What follows addresses those fears, uncertainties and doubts that sees some business owners unnecessarily shy away from the benefits that good intelligence and research could bring to their business.

Market Intelligence is an activity that all businesses, whatever their size, should engage in to answer the questions of ”who”, “what”, “how much”, “where”, and “when” your customer buys your products and services.

At a fundamental level gathering Market Intelligence is as simple as talking to your customers and suppliers; storing and using that information, to identify trends, inform business development decisions and marketing campaigns; and prepare your business for whatever the future brings.

There are many customer relationship management (CRM) packages, the best ones linked to accounting software systems, that provide easy storage of customer and supplier information to answer the questions of who, what, how much, where and when your customer buys.

Market Intelligence is also the process of regularly gathering information about the status of market in which you trade, including competitors, regulatory issues, and economic conditions. What market intelligence cannot tell you is what your customers are really thinking or “why” your customer buys from you.

This is where you need Marketing Research to answer specific questions, like:

Is there a market for my new product idea?
What will the market pay?
What is the scope of the demand and can I make a profit?
Identify specific market segments to target?
What did they think about my last promotion?
How satisfied are my customers?
How satisfied are my channel partners?
Evaluate the effectiveness of distribution, website, advertising etc?

Specifically, there are two myths that need to be debunked about Marketing Research:

It’s expensive and
It takes a long time.

Expense and time are often a reflection of the methodology and scope that’s employed to answer very specific marketing research questions. The most costly and lengthy methods being face to face interviews; with many individuals collating and loading often hand written notes into a database.

Internet technology today has significantly reduced these costs and shortened timeframes by using online surveys. Survey respondents automatically load their answers, thereby reducing transcription time and human error.

Any business can use internet survey companies that will send your survey out for free (100 people). A major criticism of internet surveys is that that they don’t represent an accurate sample of the population.
Meaning: who you ask your marketing research question to, is as important as what you ask. This is where a skilled marketing research person really adds value that is worth paying for.

There are two tests for accuracy and soundness of the marketing research results:

Validity – did the research give you the answers to the questions that you needed to know?
Reliability – if you conducted the research again, would you get the same results?

Using online surveys certainly does keep the costs down; but a skilled marketing research person ensures “validity” and “reliability” by accurately defining the problem to be solved; the correct questions to ask; and whether there are other cost-effective ways to get the result.
Once information has been gather from the correct primary sample; a skilled marketing research person adds value by being able to spot differences, draw conclusions and make recommendations that you are able to implement.

Implementing strategies and processes based on skilled market research gives significant business value which lasts long after the survey cost is forgotten.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is a Director of Zenworkz and helps businesses effectively source the right information that improves their decision making and bottom line.

All or parts of this blog are able to be published with permission from the author – provided that the author is acknowledged and a link is given to the original source blog.

Zenworkz – informed business transformation and evaluation

Business Transformation / Developing Resourceful People / Process Improvement — No Comments
20
May 10

Three Simple Steps to More Productive Meetings.

Meetings are a fact of life.

We recently went to a community committee meeting which fitted the classic definition: “A committee is a body which keeps minutes and wastes hours”.

The convenor of this meeting was quite simply a shocker – well intentioned and technically knowledgeable, but lacking process, people, presentation and time management skills. The meeting degenerated into uproar and upset despite the efforts of many present. A second meeting became necessary to sort out the mess.

It’s less stressful, more productive, and more rewarding to participate in a meeting that is well planned and conducted; and where there are agreed expectations, participation, outcomes, and a transparent process.

We use a 3 step process: Purpose, Outcomes, Process [POP] as a tool to plan all our meetings, make sure only those who need to attend do so, and make the best use of our time.

Specifically:

Purpose – What is the purpose of the meeting:
What and Why do we need to meet, and Who needs to attend?

Outcomes – What are the outcomes we are seeking:
What will we be clear about or Do as a result of the meeting?

Process – What is the process we will use:
How do we run this meeting for maximum effectiveness?

Invitees receive an email invitation with the meeting date, time, and duration; plus the planned Purpose, Outcomes, and Process detailed. Our experience is, these simple steps are both appreciated and add to the clarity and resourceful participation of invitees.

With these 3 steps you will be successful in planning a productive meeting.

Author: Brian Bassham, is a director of Zenworkz and helps businesses build resourceful people and processes.

All or parts of this blog are able to be published with permission from the author – provided that the author is acknowledged and a link is given to the original source blog.

Zenworkz – informed business transformation and evaluation

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