Business Sabotage can arrive in many forms from numerous sources. A disgruntled employee might hack data from your server. Or a competitor hires your best staff to leave you with lesser contributors. But more commonly its self sabotage, have a look at the picture above.
This was taken on a recent trip to a seaside resort on a hot and sunny weekend. Just imagine walking along the prom on a hot day and seeing the ice cream parlor, of course you’re interested in an ice cream but wouldn’t you also want a bottle of soda or water to carry on your walk with. Well don’t bother coming to this ice cream parlor, not only will they not sell you a drink but they’ll probably scowl at you for asking for a drink. I think I’ll walk on to the next ice cream parlor, which by the way was only a few yards away and sold both hot and cold drinks.
This is a classic case of self-sabotage, it’s not if drinks are not a complementary product to ice cream, of course, they are. It’s not as if there isn’t a market for drinks, of course, there is, they’re being asked constantly for them, that’s why they’ve put the sign up. It’s not as if it would take a massive investment, they’ve already got fridges and freezers for the ice cream, one more for cool drinks and maybe a kettle for hot drinks wouldn’t cost a fortune. This is a business that’s simply missing out on a significant revenue stream and helping their competition through their own sabotage.
Believe it or not, there are many, many other ways to sabotage your business. And, the chances are, your staff are busy doing some of these right now, without you even knowing it. And worse yet, you’ve probably even heard some of this yourself. That’s the bad news. Here’s five of the ways I’ve seen businesses sabotage themselves (I could have gone on and added another ten easily) :-
- Failing to answer the phone. Let’s be honest simply not picking up the phone when a customer or potential customer is calling is very common. How many times have you experienced this yourself. You call to order something and nobody picks up your call, what do you do next, call the next supplier on your list, that’s what. So correcting this one is really easy, answer the phone. If you’re out of the office and have no one to answer the phone then use an answering service.
- Failing to follow up on sales leads. You spend all that money and time having a stand at a business expo, collect lots of business cards, have some great conversations, then what? The number of businesses that fail to follow up is staggering. And it’s not just from business expos, your sales people don’t follow up often enough either. Not got enough sales. Then follow up better.
- It’s Not Our Policy. When the customer hears “it’s not our policy,” they immediately respond (usually silently) with, “WHO CARES?” What a business needs to understand is, no one but the management and staff cares about your policies. Do you really think the customer says to himself or herself as they enter or call your place of business, “Gee, I wonder what their policy is on this issue?” All this being said, there are businesses who do have policies that make it more difficult to work with them than with others. So here’s a suggestion: Decide on your policy, then work as a team with your staff to find a positive way to explain it to the customer. Otherwise, it’ll be the customer’s policy not to do business with you!
- It’s not my department. Well, then whose is it? If someone mistakenly gets to your extension and asks for something that you don’t handle, the following is far more effective: “Hi, I work in the paint department. Let me get you to someone in the area you need.” This is far more effective than telling someone it’s not your department. (Let’s not say, “YOU have the wrong department.” Take full responsibility with the “I” statement).
- My computer’s been down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve all heard that one. And Ouch! That one hurts because there are still many customers who remember the days BEFORE the computer. My goodness, how did we ever survive? Sure it’s easier to have the computer but, believe it or not, millions of businesses were launched and operated on 3 x 5 cards or some other type of manual database. When your computer crashes, this sounds so much better: “I’ll be delighted to help you…it may take a little longer as I’ll need to do things by hand…our computers are currently down.” This way you’ve still explained what happened and they’ll have a little more compassion as you’ve offered assistance – and didn’t simply blame the computer for your inability to help.
There are millions of businesses out there busy sabotaging themselves don’t be one of them. One of the best ways of avoiding business sabotage is having somebody from the outside / independent looking at your business. If you want to find out more about how I can help you and your business then pop along to my website www.johnolivant.com, or call me on 01482 408585. I will answer your call, or return your call if I’m not available.
Twelve intensive half-day meetings.
