A small business should form alliances with different people and groups to ease daily tasks, promote sales and increase workflow.
Build alliances with people who want your business to succeed.
Some business owners try to plow through obstacles rather than avoid them. If you’re trying to run the ball into the end zone, you don’t always have to meet the defense head-on. You can choose to hand off the ball, instead. It’s often easier to run your business if you choose team members you trust and delegate tasks that don’t need your direct involvement. This goes beyond the people who directly work for your company, too. You can scout partners from a variety of different sources. In the same way you need a collective effort to build a winning team, security dealers will profit from forming alliances with software vendors, the local community, your employees and your customers.
Software vendors
Your business’s daily operations consist of core and support activities. Core activities are the ones crucial to your company’s success. For a security dealer, these include installations, sales and service calls. These are the activities your company needs to improve to increase profitability.
Support activities are necessary to keep your office running. If you work hard to improve support activities, however, they won’t have much direct impact on profit. Support activities include billing, payroll and inventory management.
There are software programs that make support activities much more efficient. Technology can manage and automate duties that steal focus from performing your core activities. Work with a software partner who can run with your support activities and give you the freedom to deliver the best customer-driven service possible.
Local community
The Detroit Free Press stated small businesses and communities need each other for success. Small businesses support the local economy and employment. Communities are your sole source of revenue as a business owner. Without them, you’d have no customers.
Being able to partner with your community will help you stand out from competitors. This is a huge advantage small businesses have over larger corporations. By sponsoring a local sports team or supporting a charity, you demonstrate you are invested in the community’s success, which means they will be more likely to invest in you.
You can partner with non-competing businesses in the area. Being a part of the local business community will keep you aware of any upcoming changes in zoning or taxes. If you want to fight a proposed regulation, you could have a team of local merchants who will stand by your side.
Sponsoring a local youth sports team is a great way to promote your company.Employees
Your business’s success is beneficial to your employees. Harvard Business review stated you should make it clear that good business practices will profit every member of your team.
You don’t want employees putting in the bare minimum effort. You want teammates out their pitching sales, installing equipment and interacting with customers to the best of their abilities because they want success as badly as you do.
Transparency creates alliances. If your employees know exactly how their actions affect the company, they will act as a member of the business rather than hired help. Utilize security dealer software that can draw direct correlations between proper security installation, client acquisition, service call completion, customer satisfaction and cash flow. Show your employees how their performance puts points on the scoreboard.
“A satisfied customer will be your best sales agent.”
Customers
Too many small businesses view clients as a constantly angry crowd. They see consumers as a group that must be tricked into working with their business. They see ongoing client needs and concerns as a waste of time and resources. They believe a client’s satisfaction must be divined at a safe distance.
But it’s not always such an antagonistic relationships. You can always ask your customers what they want. A smart business practice is to create numerous communication channels so customers can speak directly to your company. Most consumers would be glad to voice their needs and listen to people who will talk with them as equals. Software programs can turn this kind of data into strategy by tracking trends and anticipating preferences.
A satisfied customer will be your best sales agent. Small Business Trends conducted a survey in May 2014 that found 85 percent of consumers learn about small businesses through word of mouth. If a customer has a great experience with a security dealer, he or she will share the information with friends and family.
Consumers want top-notch security systems installed quickly and effectively. They share your goals. Clients aren’t the fans who are booing or cheering you on from the stands. They are down on the field with you.