Clear vision, and a plan

This year, focus will be essential – and that focus must be on our current and potential customers. MARCIA GRIFFIN

By Marcia Griffin

One of the keys to success in business – in fact to any achievement in life – is the need to have a clear vision, a plan to achieve that vision and the discipline to stay focused on that vision and plan.

This applies right across the spectrum to almost anything we do, from sport to business and in our personal lives.

The importance of clarity (clarity is power) is never more so than now when times are more challenging. Challenging economic times are a great period for us to focus clearly on what we and our business can do – and stick to that.

In boom times we can try lots of things, and often get away with a lack of focus – but not now.

As a former CEO, my experience was that our business did best when times were tougher. The reason was simple – frankly, I focused clearly on the positive aspects of our business and products, paid even greater attention to customer needs, and worked on better and better service.

If focus is the key then that focus needs to be clearly on our customers, who in the end are the sole reason for our business’s existence.

• Who are they?
• What do they want?
• What can we do better?
• What will they pay for?
• What will they pay more for?
• What don’t they need?
• What won’t they pay for?
• Who else could want our product?
• How can I reach them?

One of the aspects of business in Australia that I feel shows a lack of courage is the fall back to discount or sale price as the total solution.

The truth is if you have a great product/service, more often than not the customer is prepared to pay – but that same customer also requires reliability, personal service and communication.

Since starting my new business griffin+row in October 2008, I have had hundreds of emails from customers from around the country. And they have been very clear – we want a quality product for an affordable price and we need to be able to access it conveniently.

We live a fast paced and often impersonal world, and for this reason I believe that our customers, whether in a B2B enterprise or B2C business, need to be able to reach us easily and communicate with us personally.

One of the best emails I have received was from an astounded woman in outback Australia who replied to my email asking “is that really you Marcia?” She was stunned that a real live person was actually listening!

This will be a great year for those of us who keep this in mind – that our clear focus needs to be on our customer. So the more we know about their needs, wants, potential needs – despite the challenging environment – the more we will succeed!

To read more Marcia Griffin blogs, click here.

 

Marcia’s latest book, High Heeled Success (pictured right), and is a frank account of building a business from a solitary sales person to a multi-million dollar business with 4700 sales consultants around Australia and New Zealand. Contact Marcia to purchase. Marcia’s latest venture is skin care company griffin+row.