A Happy New Year to all my readers!

Tycker du att det är lite rörigt med sociala medier?
Här är en liten lathund som kan underlätta...

LATHUND FÖR SOCIALA MEDIEKANALER

Twitter Jag äter en #kanelbulle

Facebook Jag gillar kanelbullar

Foursquare Det är här jag brukar äta kanelbullar

Instagram Här är en cool bild på min kanelbulle

Youtube Här är jag medan jag äter en kanelbulle

LinkedIn Mina erfarenheter innefattar kanelbulle ätande

Pinterest Här är ett recept på kanellbullar

Last Fm Nu lyssnar jag på låten "Kanelbullar"

G+ Jag är en Googleanställd som äter kanelbullar


OBS: För att undvika allt för högt blodsocker eller kanelförgiftning
rekommenderas ej att logga in på samtliga kanaler under samma dag!

8 SAKER ATT TÄNKA PÅ NÄR DU FÖLJER UPP DIN VERKSAMHET

Att utvärdera en verksamhets prestation har aldrig varit lättare om man betänker tillgången på information och affärsprogram som företagen har tillgång till i dagens affärsklimat.

 

Men den stora mängd affärsdata som en ekonomi- eller en marknadsavdelning har tillgång till, i form av nyckeltal/KPI:s/metrics kan också bli en börda då det är svårt att hålla reda på alla nyckeltal man följer och omvandla dessa till insikter som kan stötta och lyfta en verksamhet. Det är lätt hänt att man följer upp och utvärderar nyckeltalen rutinmässigt utan att utnyttja dess potential. Att utnyttja möjligheterna med visualisering av nyckeltalen genom att använda dashboards underlättar en del, men eliminerar inte problematiken. Det finns dock några viktiga frågor som man kan ställa sig innan man tar fram information från ekonomisystemet eller webbanalysverktygen, för att beräkna nyckeltal som utvärderas på kontinuerlig basis. Dessa är följande:

· Vilka nyckeltal/KPI:s ger svar på företagets eller avdelningens måluppfyllelse?
· Är nyckeltalen anpassade efter företagets bransch och situation?
· Är nyckeltalen som tas fram relevanta?
· Är dessa nyckeltal visualiserbara och kommunicerbara?
· Vilka skall ta del av nyckeltalen och är dessa individer införstådda med vad dessa
  nyckeltal innebär?
· Med vilken periodicitet skall dessa nyckeltal följas upp och utvärderas och kommuniceras?
· Är alla nyckeltal man utvärderar verkligen viktiga och nödvändiga för att berörda       personer/ledningen skall kunna fatta beslut, eller räcker det med ett mindre antal?
· Vem har ansvaret för uppföljning, utvärdering och utveckling av nyckeltalen?

Ovanstående frågor är naturligtvis inte helt uttömande, men räcker lång väg för att undvika de farligaste fallgroparna och skapa en kultur där redovisnings- och marknadsnyckeltal tas fram och används kontinuerligt och proaktivt för att få fram insikter och föra företaget framåt.

NISCHBANKER MED LOKAL ANKNYTNING GER KUNDNÖJDHET

 

Den svenska banksektorn genomgår en förändring som heter duga. De mindre och nischade bankerna med lokal anknytning toppar listan över kundnöjdhet enligt SKI:s (Svenskt Kvalitetsindex) undersökning för 2017 som publicerades i veckan. Länge har de större bankerna (SEB, Swedbank, Handelsbanken och Nordea) kunnat leva på sina starka varumärken och lång historik, men bilden har förändrats radikalt de senaste åren. De mindre bankerna (Länsförsäkringar Bank, Sparbankerna samt utländska utmanare) toppar listan över banker med mest nöjda kunder. Undantaget är Handlesbanken bland de stora bankerna.

Vad beror detta på? Om jag får spekulera skulle jag gissa på att konsumenten i dagens digitaliserade värld ställer högre krav än tidigare på sina leverantörer vad gäller socialt ansvar, kundvärde och leveranssäkerhet. Detta gäller i princip de flesta branscher, men i synnerhet den finansiella sektorn där förtroendekapitalet försvinner rakt ut genom fönstret om banken inte lever upp till de löften och förväntningar som man har lovat att tillfredsställa. En annan orsak till de högre kraven är att konsumenten idag har flera banker att välja mellan än tidigare, både inhemska och utländska, vilket är ett välkommet inslag med många positiva fördelar både för konsumenten och branschen som helhet. Kundnöjdhet är återigen ett starkt konkurrensmedel inom banksektorn, vilket är ypperligt tillfälle med massor av möjligheter, både för de drabbade bankerna och för utmanare. 

Så hur kan de banker som har hamnat lågt på indexet uppnå höga värden på kundnöjdhet? Naturligtvis beror svaret på vilken bank vi syftar på, men generellt så skulle en sådan bank börja med att implementera följande för att vända trenden:

·         Ta ovanstående siffror med största allvar och inte se dem som något tillfälligt som går över av sig själv 

·         Börja leva upp till sina löften och leverera det man har lovat

·         Öka transparensen gentemot sina kunder vad gäller dolda avgifter och villkor

·         Stärka engagemanget med sina kunder, via bl. a. sociala medier genom öppen och ärlig kommunikation och feedback på klagomål

·       Ta ett större socialt ansvar, gärna med lokal anknytning, och inte starta alla möjliga projekt bara för att konkurrenterna gör det

 

Ovanstående är en bra början och ingen "quick fix". Det tar tid att bygga upp ett förtroende som man har förlorat och uppnå kundnöjdhet igen. Det är inte lätt, men inte omöjligt!

If you liked Charles Duhigg´s best seller "The Power of Habit" then you will love his latest book "Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real". A great book about productivity, teamwork and motivation with a lot of exciting and interesting stories, concepts and facts. Duhigg is a great storyteller without losing sight of the details and the big Picture.

 

"At the core of Smarter Faster Better are eight key productivity concepts—from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making—that explain why some people and companies get so much done. Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics—as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters. This painstakingly researched book explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don’t merely act differently..." Here is a

link with more info about the book on Amazon:http://amzn.to/2yQlaHu

IS YOUR COMPANY CUSTOMER OR COMPETITOR ORIENTED?

In an interview Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon) said that a company should focus more on its customers than its competitors, since the competitors want give the company any money. I believe he was right when he said that and Amazon is one of the most successful businesses ever, to a great deal because of its customer-orientation.

Focusing on what your competitors are doing take a lot of energy from your organization and more important, your company will become more like the rest of the competitors in your segment, an average company with average results, and If your competitors are doing nothing then you'll also end up doing nothing.

Focusing on the customers and their needs, customer behavior and market trends can make more difference than focusing on competitors. That doesn't mean that you should become uniformed about what your competitors are doing and what is happening in your market, not at all. But you need to stay informed without putting too much effort trying to figure out how to copy you competitors.

If your company is trying to take the lead in your segment and become more innovative, more customers oriented and more profitable, then you need to take a leap and shift from competitor-orientation to customer-orientation, wholeheartedly. Let's make the coming three months “the customer's months” and try to be as creative and innovative as possible and fill the gap between what you're producing and what your customers really need. You'll be amazed how much positive energy this will generate in your organization, making a positive impact on your revenues and bottom line.

CONTENT MARKETING OR SEO - IT IS EASIER TO CHOOSE THAN IT MAY SEEM

If you’re confused where to allocate your marketing dollars between content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO), then you’re not alone. There is a lot of buzz out there that you should choose between content or SEO if you want to succeed in the digital marketing race. In my opinion there is no battle between the two strategies at all, as the matter of fact they complement each other in a very good way. 

The only long term strategy is to deliver great content that engage and create value to your market and customers, and SEO will help in that sense that it will make it easier for your customers to discover and visit your digital channels. You may have implemented the fiercest SEO strategy on earth, but if you do not have any valuable content, then you are doomed to fail. I am not saying that you should not put any effort on SEO if your content is not what it should be, not at all. SEO is important and will always be as long as your audience use search engines. You may have the best content on earth, but if your website doesn't rank high on search engines, then you will not attract potential customers.

If you have to choose between the two strategies/tactics or if you have a tight marketing budget, as many managers and companies, then there is a very simple way to determine where to allocate the bulk of it by finding out wish of the two strategies result in the highest ROI for your digital channels or campaigns. Since higher ROI in most cases mean that you have succeeded to attract the right visitors, and your visitors are more engaged and getting higher value, resulting in actions.

IS YOUR BUSINESS DIGITAL BY CHANCE?

According to several surveys, fifty percent of randomly chosen companies have no clear and defined digital strategy. And only one third has integrated its digital strategy into the general marketing strategy. These figures raise many questions, and perhaps the most important of them are: How does it look like in your organization? Do you have a clear and defined digital strategy? And is it integrated into the overall strategy?

If your answer to these questions is yes, then congratulation! You are one step ahead of the majority of your competitors. However, if your answers is no, then I hope that you and your organization get started immediately and develop a digital strategy that is integrated into the overall strategy. Otherwise there is a risk that your business is drifting around randomly on the Web’s relentless digital ocean, and you will end up in the shadows of the competitors that are working more consciously and integrated with their digital strategies.

IS YOUR ONLINE STRATEGY COHERENT WITH YOUR “OFFLINE” STRATEGY?

I hope so! Coherence in strategy between your overall “offline” business strategy and your online strategy has always been important, but in my view have become even more important today, since stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, investors) are more sensitive to incoherence in corporate mission, strategy, brand value and product benefits. Coherence in strategy, within or outside your organization (the market), is one of the most important issues you can deal with to move you company a step forward and to attract and keep customers and employees. An online strategy that is not coherent with your overall strategy could prevent your company from achieving a powerful synergy between the online and offline strategy.

ARE YOU AFRAID TO RAISE YOUR PRICES?

Well, you’re not alone. Many sales managers and CEOs experience worries when deciding to raise prices, even though they are forced to raise prices to gain profits. Often they are afraid that they will lose customers or have difficulties attracting new ones. Should you be afraid? I don’t think you should. Many companies that fail do so because of a fear of raising prices to a profitable level. Raising prices is a natural business activity and should be treated in the same way as you treat any other activity, as long as you have a good reason to do so. There are some issues/ideas I would like to share with you regarding raising prices:

It is every company´s right to raise prices, as long as the company can motivate the action and is prepared to handle the consequences. If you are afraid to raise your prices, you can try to bundle products and services to increase your average sales price and average profit.

If your company’s products or services add more value to the customers than the competitors, then it is your obligation to raise prices. Adding more value in your marketplace should in most cases lead to higher profits for your company.

Raising your prices will help you get rid of unprofitable customers, which in turn will result in positive effects on your cash flow and income statement.

Give the customer alternative offers with different prices for different products or services, which will make logical sense of your pricing. Try to provide a higher and lower offer on each side of every offer. 

Higher prices are very often associated with higher perceived quality.

 

Well, I hope you have got some perspective on pricing after reading this post, and if you´re still afraid of raising your company’s prices, then maybe you should examine the possibility to add more value to your customers so you can raise prices without any worries.

To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.

 

- Thomas J. Watson

The first weeks in January are a great time to reflect about the coming months and plan for the future of your business. There are three important questions I would recommend you to ask yourself, whether you are a business owner or CEO.

·         How clear is our vision and strategy for the coming twelve months

·         Do our managers understand our vision and strategy

·         Do our managers take ownership of their roles in realizing our vision and strategy

Think about what you can do differently this year to reach your targets, whether they are financial, sales or marketing. Try to make the targets and the accomplishments a group effort. Good Luck!

ARE YOU THE NEXT BERGMAN OR SCORSESE?

Well, you don´t have to be, it´s enough that you are being you, but we can all learn a lot from these great directors about leadership and commitment. In my view they have accomplished fantastic results in spite of tight financial budgets, short time frames and dealing and managing demanding actors with different backgrounds (in some cases divas). These directors have overcome paramount obstacles to finish their projects, while they simultaneously have expressed themselves artistically and at the same time tried to attract audience.

Now if that isn´t great leadership then I don´t know what is. In my opinion Leadership is a way of conducting your craft, productions or business in a successful way by planning, organizing and executing your activities effectively and delivering results, whether you are active within business, politics, sports or you´re a film director.

If you like to get inspired and become like the late Bergman, Scorsese or Tarantino when it comes to leadership, slip into the nearest bookstore or website and get yourself an autobiography about these inspiring individuals and tap into their insights and experiences of how to be committed and accomplish great results. And by the way, don´t forget to also enjoy their fantastic productions, their films.

Making money is art, working is art and 

good business is the best art.

-Andy Warhol

DEAL OR NO DEAL AND THE END OF CASH FLOW MISERY! 

Do you offer discounted deals just to acquire customers? If so, please stop doing that immediately. The reason for that is that low priced contracts or offerings many times results in low profits and in the end negative operational cash flows, even if you succeed in acquiring the customer.
 

I would like to call this act of conduct for “the cash flow misery paradox”. Your purpose is to get profitable customers, so to become interesting as a partner you lower you prices or offer attractive terms to get them instead of the competitors, wich in turn results in a stream of low margin deals and negative cash flow. Results that you didn´t have in mind in the first place.

Once you have attracted customers by low prices or attractive terms that are bad for your business in the long run, it is very hard to get them to buy from you again under regular terms and prices. You´ll probably want be able to renegotiate the contracts to satisfactory and profitable levels. That will seldom happen since the customer chose your company as a partner because of the lower prices in the first place. The customer will sooner or later switch to a cheaper supplier.

The low pricing strategy is successful only when your product/services have few or no competitive advantages, or where economies of scale are achievable with higher production volumes and your company intends to dominate that segment. Otherwise it is financially a very unprofitable strategy and can put your positive cash flow and the company on jeopardy, something you can avoid and be without.