In order for a company to grow and prosper it must consider a complete review from time to time to ensure that the company is on the right path. A disruption strategy by nature has typically been directed toward high technology companies or has been used to define specific market changes from a competitive point of view.
Our company Stratejis is now using this term to look more fully at medium and large sized business enterprises to actually find opportunities designed to grow a business in a changing market place.
Over the past few months many of my coaching assignments have focused in on helping companies set new directions not only with their marketing but with their whole attitude in regards to doing business in the new " mobile" era.
Cyber Monday is the first of many new online marketing opportunities that companies and organizations will develop to capture online purchases and new customers. Inbound marketing is crucial now to the success of many organizations and as such many companies will now need to disrupt their current thinking in regards to customer solicitation and servicing and focus in on capturing information on who is searching them out and then marketing to these prospects.
Gone are the days when you could have qualified prospects visiting your site and you not knowing who they are or where they are coming from.
In order to get a better you picture all you need to do is put yourself in the picture and focus in on your own buying habits. What is the first thing you do when you want to purchase a product? You search online.
How do you search? You use key words, to narrow down what it is you are looking for. Where do you search; world-wide then narrow it down to someone or some option within your own country and then to your own city.
In the consulting business for example we do work with Odyssey Consultants, trusted advisers from throughout the world. Using Skype, Webex, telephone, email and online communicators we can pretty much communicate with anyone anywhere in the world.
This is the main challenge for everyone and their business Who and where is your customer, how can you access them and what is the value proposition that should be considered to add more value to the online experience so that they will even consider you as a "player" in the purchase.
This is the important part. Are you a " player " in their purchasing decision? Remember, they can shop anywhere world-wide to get the same service that you provide so are you not even considered because your web presence is bleak, not up to date, has limited appeal, does not have a solid response mechanism or value proposition or you have created something of value that will allow them to respond, reach out or return back at a later date.
Our view is that that the more searches that take place, the more companies will need to self disrupt and transform themselves in order to be even more responsive more often to capture all the changes in the market place.
For example crowd sourcing opportunities and sponsorships that target specific audiences that allow you to build a relationship with highly targeted audiences will become even more crucial. If you are in retail, then the Groupon mentality will continue to grow and the business case while not attractive defiantly draws customers, but are they the ones you want?
A low margin customer secured in a low margin environment is a recipe for disaster. Lots of low margin business is not exactly a profitable situation for a company with a high retail overhead and limited resources. These are all the factors that you will need to consider as part of your transformation strategy.
Its not as as painful as the the name implies. Disruption is something that is good to do especially if your business is flat lining or having limited growth or declining sales.
Once you have cut your marketing budget or let those unproductive employees go, cut out the free coffee in the office and put the colour printer on ice, you know you are going to have to take some radical and creative steps to grow and transform your business and your business model if you plan on being in business still in 2020. So I hope this week we have given you a little more to think about in regards to the disruption of your current business model and how you can transform your company for more growth and profit.
Need help give us a call. Check back here, we will have some more tips for you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stratejis Disruption and Transformational Strategies for Growth and Profit is an Ottawa based consultancy dedicated to helping organizations of all sizes grow and prosper through the use of creative change techniques, systems and technologies. You can reach me at The Synergy Centre or at kenselt@sympatico.ca. note our new fully active website with customer capture and inbound marketing attributes will be coming soon. But for now, lets talk and see if we can help you.
