Business Survival Guide – Decisions around your customers
To help your business survive and thrive during these uncertain times, here are some examples of decisions around your customers that you could take to help make your cash last longer and your business survive and thrive.
Remember, for most businesses, your existing customers are your second most important asset, behind your staff. Also, it is often way cheaper to keep an existing customer than find a new one. With this in mind here are some thoughts:
- Look at your customer base and identify the top and bottom profit contributors. Typically, a small percentage of customers will contribute the bulk of your profit.
- Every business has those customers who consume bucket loads of support resources which are not covered by what they pay for the services or products they purchase – the bottom profit contributors. If these customers are not making you money, you need to make decision as to whether you want to keep them. Some you will for strategic reasons – that’s ok as long as you understand this. Others there will be no strategic reason to keep them. For these, make a decision to either increase prices, reduce service levels or a combination of both to these customers. If these customers end up leaving, you can divert the saved money to those customers you want to keep.
- For the top profit contributors, have a look at what can you do to increase customer loyalty, maintain and even increase spend and reduce the risk of them leaving. Often there are simple things that don’t cost much you can do to make these customers happier. Maybe it is as simple as signing them up on a longer term contract. Also, you could divert some of that marketing money you planned to grow customers to spend instead on retaining customers.
- For the top profit contributors, make sure you are positioned as providing great value (and that does not mean lowest price).
Another area that correlates with customers is the products and / or services you sell. Do a similar analysis of your top and bottom profit contributors on the products and services you sell. For loss making or very low margin products, make a decision as to why you should continue to sell these, or how you can improve their margins.
Look out for more strategies from my Business Survival Guide to ensure your business can survive and thrive during these uncertain times.
Need help to determine your top and bottom profit contributors? Use the below form to contact me or call me on 0412 227 052.
Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session
To ensure I help your business specifically, the best approach I have found is to have an obligation free session with you. In this session we will review your current business in a factual and objective manner, to better understand the challenges that you face. And this session does not need to be face to face.
At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.
Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.
To get help you successfully navigate your way through your financial challenges so your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times, simply use the contact form on the left to email Wayne or call him on 0412 227 052.
Let Wayne Wanders, a fully qualified and experienced CFO, help you successfully navigate your way through your financial challenges so your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.
Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO
wayne@aRealCFO.com.au