Do you worry about staffing, supply chain, or cyber-threat problems?
I ask this question because, at last month’s Centre for Family Business event, many business leaders expressed concerns about these 3 topics:
- Staffing problems: recruiting, training, and retention,
- Supply Chain problems: availability, timeliness, and pricing, and
- Cyber-threat problems: resigned thinking, ‘it’s only a matter of when”.
The blogs below address these concerns by recommending practices that:
- ensure business interests are supported by the best of affordable technologies,
- decisions are optimized by following proven-successful decision-making processes, and
- people, technology, and infrastructure are aligned with business interests.
Throughout the last month Sales and Marketing has been a recurring theme.
Considering the 3 Problems and the discussions about Sales and Marketing –
“9 thoughts and tips”
- When you are experiencing staffing problems
- Automate processes: Make use of marketing automation tools to manage repetitive tasks, such as social media posting, email marketing, and customer relationship management. This will help to reduce the workload and stress levels of your current staff while ensuring your marketing efforts continue.
- Outsource or freelance: Consider outsourcing certain sales and marketing tasks to freelancers or agencies. This can help you maintain or grow your sales and marketing operations without overloading current staff or having to hire additional full-time staff members.
- Focus on high-impact activities: Prioritize the most effective sales and marketing strategies that yield the highest ROI. This may include targeting high-value customers, investing in high-converting marketing channels, or focusing on up-selling and cross-selling to existing clients. Perform an “80/20 Rule” thinking and team exercises.
- When you are experiencing supply chain problems
- Communicate proactively: Keep your customers informed about any supply chain issues and how they might impact product availability, delivery times, or pricing. Open, transparent, and easily accessible communication can help maintain customer trust and loyalty during challenging times.
- Diversify suppliers: Consider ideastorming [advanced brainstorming] to diversify your supplier base to reduce reliance on any single supplier. This can help you mitigate the risk of disruptions and ensure a more stable supply chain.
- Focus on digital products or services: Embrace task automation and, if possible, explore options to pivot your business towards digital products or services that don’t rely on physical supply chains. This can help maintain revenue streams while you work to resolve supply chain issues.
- When you are worried about cyber threats
- Educate your team: Provide training and resources to your sales and marketing staff on cybersecurity best practices, such as password management, recognizing phishing attempts, and safe browsing habits. Enable them to be ambassadors with communications that may reduce clients relaying cyber threats.
- Secure your website and customer data: Ensure that your website and any customer data you collect are protected with up-to-date security measures, such as SSL certificates, secure payment gateways, and strong data encryption. As ambassadors, your sales people can communicate the cybersecurity initiatives your company has undertaken.
- Leverage third-party security services: Consider investing in third-party cybersecurity services, such as security audits, penetration testing, or managed security services. These services can help identify potential vulnerabilities and protect your business, your clients, and your suppliers from cyber threats.
If you would like to share thoughts with us on the above or other topics, please contact us. We would enjoy the opportunity to join you at a 15-60 minute online chat.