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Cash Shortages

Taking Care of Business- How to Overcome Cash Shortages in Your Business

February 3, 2018April 6, 2018 Graeme Stevens Graeme Stevens Leave a comment Business Improvement

So you find your business account running out of cash? First, be kind to yourself – you are in an ocean of company that will help give you hope and laughter as you drown.   Let’s look at four possible causes of your angst, and what you can do about them.   Sales not covering […]

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Top Jobs Analysis
Step 2, 3, 4
Current Product/Service Job(s) product/service is used for Important Underserved Outcomes
(opportunity and risk)
Gross Profit Market Size
         
         


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Acquisition Channel - Cost Per Click (CPC)


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Acquisition Channel - Facebook Ads


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Acquisition Channel - LinkedIn ads


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Job Market Size Analysis
Step 5
Rank Job Execution Frequency Current Customers Potential Customers Will Pay For Solution
1
2


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Redefine Your Market
Step 7
Rank Job Score Job Executors Will Pay Catch-up Capability
2 example b 12/15 76% easy
1 example a 9/15 80% difficult


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Job Outcomes Capabilities
Step 6
Rank each capability out of 5, then add to give the score
Rank Important, Underserved Outcome Staff Skills & Knowledge Processes & Systems Technology Score Catch-up Capability
1 example a 4 3 2 9/15 easy
2 difficult


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Product Features Need Analysis
The Job
Job Executioner
Related Products
Job Step Define Customers determine their goals and commence planning
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities simplify user’s planning process
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         
Job Step Locate Customers gather items and information needed to do the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities Have required resources (information, tools) pre-pre-prepared
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         
Job Step Prepare Customers set up the environment to do the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities
  • Simplify or remove setup steps,
  • Design for one-way correct fit
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         
Job Step Prepare Customers verify they’re ready to do the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities Give the user information that the work environment is ready for them to proceed.
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         
Job Step Execute Customers carry out the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         
Job Step Monitor Customers assess whether the job is being successfully executed
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities Remove obstructions to executing the job
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         
Job Step Modify Customers make Alterations to improve execution
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities
  • automate modifications or updates
  • provide interactive feedback during job execution
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         
Job Step Conclude Customers finish the job, or prepare to repeat it
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities
  • Reduce need for cleanup
  • Automatic renewals
  • Advice for repeat step to take place
Likely Dissatisfaction causes
Important, Underserved Outcomes Cause(s) Matching Product Feature Product Feature Satisfaction New/Upgraded Feature Requirement
         
         


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Acquisition Channel - Email
  • Email marketing is primarily aimed at leads who are qualified (they are aware of you and like your solution to their JTBD required outcome) but not yet ready to buy.
  • Email marketing is a more profitable B2B digital marketing channel than Linkedin, Facebook, SEO or AdWords.
Key Email Components
  • Mailing List
  • CRM software
  • Marketing Campaign software
  • Email Content
Mailing List
  • Your job executors of the job your product/service is supporting
  • At a minimum, the job, an email address and a first name
  • Your mailing list is stored in your CRM software
Building Your Mailing List
  • Sources
    • facebook ads to landing page
    • scraping LinkedIn groups
    • customers
    • referrals by customers
CRM Software
  • Your Customer Relationship Management tool.
  • a store of the details about your job executor, to help advise them
  • a store of the progress of the job executor through the buying and usage cyles
  • a store of details of other products and services used by this job executor
Marketing Campaign Software
  • Automates your email despatch.
  • Personalizes your messages
  • Uses rules to determine who gets what message
  • May or may not contain your CRM app
  • We recommend ActiveCampaign software as a most cost-effective sBiz solution.
Email Content
  • Subject (Header message)
    •  
  • Content
    • Image, infographic or video
    • Emotional pain point being addressed
    • Solution you provide
    • Call to action (CTA)
    • no more than 3-5 paragraphs absolute max
Benefits of Email
  • Time Inputs.
  • While it takes effort (time) to build your mailing list this is no more than time required for SEO while email marketing is really cheaper than Pay Per Click Ads (like Facebook Ads, AdWords or Linkedin Ads).
  • You have greater control on your email list than any other marketing channel that you can think of and this gives you great power to achieve amazing results. You have to learn how to use email well (trust me, it is easier than SEO) and you'll create a long lasting relationship with your customers.
  • Customer acquisition via email has quadrupled over the last 4 years.
  • Email marketing has been a growing trend in e-commerce, with an increasing number of retailers building communities and collecting email addresses, then converting those 'members' into customers.
  • Email campaigns are a successful way to target leads that have shown initial interest in your company. In fact, email campaigns are one of the top lead generation strategies.
  • Emails are fairly easy to craft. They are easy to send. And best of all they can be customized to each recipient using your B2B email data. A customized email really helps potential customers to feel they are important to you!
  • The key to crafting emails is to
    • Gather individual lead information
    • Learn what you can offer your leads
      Send each lead an email that answers a business question for them.
      You become an expert giving them business Action Plan.
  • Common B2B email mistakes include sending too many emails, writing emails over 3-5 paragraphs, attaching useless files, ignoring your email data, and of course writing mass emails.

    Remember, you are building a close relationship with each lead so they look to you as a trusted advisor or business acquaintance. Use emails to make the most of lead scoring.
Software
  • CRM - ActiveCampaign, Zoho
  • Email List Builder
  • Marketing Automation - ActiveCampaign
Considerations
Element Ideal Expect Remarks
Setup Costs LOW LOW
Direct Costs LOW LOW
Overheads LOW LOW
Targeting HIGH HIGH
Control HIGH HIGH
Time Investment - Inputs LOW MEDIUM Time to grow your email list
Results Lead Time LOW LOW
Scaleability HIGH HIGH Using Marketing Automation software like ActiveCampaign
Brian Balfour - http://www.coelevate.com/essays/5-steps-to-choose-your-customer-acquisition-channel
Issues
***********

mike popalardo
7 days ago
I think the challenge is mobile functionality. Users are more willing to open an email outside of a desktop but less willing to get to a landing page to complete the transaction because generally it's a big hassle and time consuming when you're on a phone.

As email marketers we need to drive "simple order & simple pay" capabilities within the email if we want to get recipients to the conversion page.
Reply
http://www.marketingcharts.com/traditional/which-b2b-lead-acquisition-channel-converts-best-57716/



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Slideshare Quick Tips
  • Slideshare is part of the LinkedIn group
  • There are 40 content categories and 18 Million uploads
  • Slideshare has more than 70 million visitors
  • More than 80% of Slideshare's visitors come from organic search.
Check this blog for how to use Slideshare


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Acquisition Channel - Organic SEO
What It Is
  • Organic search continues to grow as a reliable channel, (accounting for nearly 16% of customers acquired)
  • Provide relevant and informative editorial content along with investing in search engine marketing.
Considerations
Element Ideal Expect Remarks
Setup Costs LOW LOW
Direct Costs LOW LOW
Overheads LOW LOW
Targeting HIGH MEDIUM
Control HIGH LOW
Time Investment - Inputs LOW MEDIUM
Results Lead Time LOW HIGH
Scaleability HIGH HIGH
Brian Balfour - http://www.coelevate.com/essays/5-steps-to-choose-your-customer-acquisition-channel
High Value Products and Services

My former company sold services that would often exceed 1 million dollars. Typically, they were in the 50k to 150k range. We revolutionized our business by focusing heavily on valuable content creation and organic search. It got to the point to where nearly 80% of our business was coming from inbound website inquiries.

I believe effective inbound marketing strategies are even more important when dealing with very large purchases. Here are a few reasons why:

Length of Sales Cycle - Typically the more expensive a product or service is, the more time potential buyers spend researching it. Since a significant portion of research is conducted online, you have the opportunity to help shape their learning about the product and the industry. If you have a great presence in the organic search results, you will show up over the many months that might be involved in the procurement process.

Team of Buyers - When companies are spending a significant amount of money on a product or service they will usually have a team of people on the decision making committee. This could include subject matter experts, procurement staff, or general managers. If you have an effective organic search presence in your market you will be there when these other parties search for information on the topic. We often heard from our buyers that we were “everywhere they looked” for information on the topic.

Reputation - Reputation becomes more important on large purchase as well. If you have an effective content strategy then your company should appear when the potential buyer searches for information. This will help you establish trust. If you have a few articles on the subject in 3rd party publications that will help even more.

Competitors - The best thing about using these inbound tactics in high-dollar markets is that in many cases your competitors won’t see the value in implementing them. This might result in a less crowded market for keywords relevant to your buyer. This lack of competition will help with both paid and organic search efforts.

As always, the most important thing with all of these inbound marketing efforts is to provide real value to the potential buyer. I always like to use the following as a benchmark: Make the content valuable to the reader even if they don't choose to use your services.
https://www.quora.com/How-should-you-approach-online-B2B-customer-acquisition-for-high-end-clients

************
Echoing Marcus's opinion to some extent, given that you're expecting clients to spend large amounts with you on products/services, then I think your marketing effort should not scrimp either.

Michael mentions reputation, and this is where inbound marketing really has a strength. It allows you to develop a stronger relationship and offer better service over the (typically much longer) sales cycle - and then maintain it far more effectively once that prospect has become a client

High-value sales may take a while to come through - months, and possibly years - but that doesn't mean the decision is last-minute, so make sure to give the most to every touch point you have, whether inbound or outbound. (And ideally interplay the two!) really has a strength. It allows you to develop a stronger relationship and offer better service over the (typically much longer) sales cycle - and then maintain it far more effectively once that prospect has become a client.

High-value sales may take a while to come through - months, and possibly years - but that doesn't mean the decision is last-minute, so make sure to give the most to every touch point you have, whether inbound or outbound. (And ideally interplay the two!)



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Customer Purchasing Considerations
Why Your Customers Buy Something
  • Customers buy/hire your product/service to help them get their job done.
  • The outcome required from that job may be functional, or it may be emotional/social - or a mixture of these.
  • The nearer you can help them achieve perfect outcomes, the more likely they are to prefer your offer over other less satisfactory products/services.
The Price Factor
  • When a product or service has become a commodity - when it has many competitors offering the same value towards perfect outcomes - then price is likely to be a major consideration
  • When you satisfy outcomes better than your competitors, and therefore meet a need and deliver value, price becomes a secondary consideration
  • At that time you can charge a price that is just less than the perceived value, as seen by the customer.
Learning About Customer JTBD Outcome Considerations
  • Use quick and simple customer surveys to assess what is important to customers in getting their job done.
  • Consider how you can convert these key considerations below into competitive points of difference.
Key Considerations
  • Ease of use. This is the highest consideration for most customers. Do you remove uncertainty in use of your product/service? Through product and packaging design, do you reduce the need for a customer to have to think through a problem (you’ve created) or make choices?
  • Reliability. This is the second highest consideration for most customers. They need to know they can plan around what you bring to their own requirements. Can your customer depend on you in getting their job done?
  • Timeliness. This has two elements:
    • First is your availability to quickly respond to begin meeting their need.
    • Second is how quickly you can deliver the outcomes they require.
  • Communication. Do you give your customers advice on delivery schedules - even more important, on delays and revised schedules so they plan around you? Do you let them know when you have security issues that may affect them?
  • Relationship. Do you have an emotional rapport with your customers? Are you easy to get along with, can you talk effortlessly about issues? Are you and your staff able to quickly respond and fix any problems you cause them? Or do you and your staff give off an odor of indifference.
  • Knowledge. How well do you know your customers’ needs, their pain points and the benefits they are expecting to gain from working with you?
  • Skills. Can you demonstrate how your superior expertise and experience, your business capabilities, can help them get this job done better?
  • Productivity. Do you let your customers know how you have improved your productivity and passed on those gains to reduce prices?
  • Location. Do you offer convenience benefits due to the customer’s location?
    • close to home
    • close to work
    • close to school
    • close to an adjacent product service for this customer job?


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Business Model Examples
Sources:
Dummies: Business Model Examples
Board of Innovation
BPlans
Contents
Free
Direct Sales
Retail Variations
Service Variations
Third Party
Complements
Matchmaking
Free
Type of Model Description Example Companies and Products
Freemium business model Product is offered for free. Typically 8% of users upgrade to become paying customers of virtual goods or to get expanded access. Angry Birds, shareware software, McAfee security
Barter or Swapping
Donation Humble Bundle
Open Source
Direct Sales
Type of Model Description Example Companies and Products
Consumer-to-consumer Connecting buyers and sellers, utilizing new technologies to manage the networking and transaction process. Add-on services such as physical transfers between seller and buyer. Move Loot, a used-furniture marketplace
Direct sales Bypass the traditional sales channels to target end users. Methods include door-to-door sales and company-owned stores. Kirby Vacuums, Girl Scout cookies, outlet mall stores
Subscription model One of the more popular models because of recurring revenue.
Typically involves creating a significant asset and renting a piece of it.
Health clubs, software as a service
Add-ons/In-app purchases The core offering is priced competitively but there are numerous extras that competitors may include in a total price. Many games require in-app purchases to enable better skills or to advance to a higher level.
License fees
Pay-as-you-go model (PAYG) Actual usage is metered and you pay on the basis of what you consume. Prepaid or postpaid phone and data cards
Retail Variations
Type of Model Description Example Companies and Products
Traditional Retailer Profits by selling products and services directly to buyers at a markup from the actual cost. Physical retail store incurs real estate, marketing and labour costs. Chains versus independents
Online Retailer Can utilize long tail product range, open 24 hours, minimal infrastructure,
Direct sales Bypass the traditional sales channels to target end users. Methods include door-to-door sales and company-owned stores. Kirby Vacuums, Girl Scout cookies, outlet mall stores
Cheap chic Marketing of stylish but inexpensive merchandise. Typically allows for high margins because merchandise sells at low price points but has an expensive feel. Target, Trader Joe’s, IKEA
Bricks and clicks Extension of in-store shopping to include online ordering with in-store pickup of items found exclusively online. BestBuy.com, local mystery book store with online shop
Anticipated upsell High percentage of buyers ultimately purchase more than they expected. For instance, most new home buyers end up spending 1.2 times the base price of the home after extras. Builders bet on this upsell. Homebuilders, car dealerships, steel fabricators
Loss leader This model offers velocity items for a very low margin in anticipation of additional sales at a higher margin. Gas stations, $1 menus
Long tail Based on Chris Anderson’s famed 2004 Wired magazine article. Selecting a tiny niche and serving it in ways mass marketers can’t. Hopefully, the tiny niche grows into a much larger one, as it did in the case of Fat Tire beer. YouTube bands, left-handed online store, micro-breweries
Cut out the middleman Removal of intermediaries in a supply chain. AutoZone bypasses traditional three-step distribution by skipping the warehouse distributor. Dell Computer, farmer’s markets
Premium Offer high-end products that appeal to brand-conscious consumers. Tiffany, Rolls-Royce
Users as experts Gives users access to technology and tools typically reserved for company employees. Users then create their own designs or versions of the product. Cook-your-own-steak restaurants, Lego
Value-Added Reseller Original product a business makes is resold by other businesses with modifications which add value for a specific market segment.
Subscription-commerce Subscription-based, delivering products when and where they are needed. utilizing big data to predict needs and personalize products and delivery cycles. Birchbox
Service Variations
Type of Model Description Example Companies and Products
Time-Based Fees Creative customized solutions: Specialist knowledge base applied to a unique business requirement.Usually based around a small firm with high paid implementers.

Process Solutions: service providers in a required procedure that contains specialist knowledge and core competencies delivered with minimal risk. Contains a mixture of skill and knowledge levels.
Accountants, advertising agencies, public relations experts, executive recruiters, lawyers, business and technology consultants
Carrier/Nickel and dime Price the most cost-sensitive item as low as possible and then charge for every little extra. Airlines
Flat fee The opposite of nickel and dime. Most or all incidental purchases are bundled into one fee. Sandals Resorts, Southwest Airlines
Productization of services Standardizing a predetermined bundle of services typically bought together and selling for a fixed price similar to a product.
Many times it includes an element of flat-fee pricing as well.
A consultant charges $5,000 for a business plan analysis rather than charging $200 per hour.
Prepaid legal plans
Servitization of products Making a product part of a larger service offering. Rolls-Royce sells aircraft engines, not as distinct components but as complete solutions based on aviation miles. All operations and maintenance functions are included in this “Power by the Hour” plan.
One-Off Experience
On-demand Meeting customer demand for convenience and immediacy in return for premium prices. Amazon Prime, Netflix hourly rate hotels
Data as a Service Data is collected and then sold directly to a consumer or business customer. Bloomberg
Automatic Insights from Data
Design to Build Your organization is viewed as a general contractor. Delivery to the customer is based on a set of approved specifications. Construction industry
Software industry
Designed for Use Design with greater focus being provided on assisting users of the solution. Software industry
Designed to Succeed Involves process re-engineering and change management, focused on how the solution helps the customer better support their customers Software industry
Value-Based Pricing
Desegregated Specialty Module Service Providers
Full Solution Consultancy
Co-Aggregated Brand
Third Party
Type of Model Description Example Companies and Products
Advertising
Affiliate/Referral Sale of a product by referral to a retailer in return for commission or other reward. The affiliate rarely takes ownership of the product (or even handles it). see affiliate networks
Franchise Sell the right to use the business model in exchange for a percentage of revenues. McDonald’s, Holiday Inn, NFL
Collective Similar to a franchise. Involves many businesses coming together for purchasing, marketing, or operational purposes but with looser ties than a franchise. Typically, collectives aggregate buying power and don’t pay ongoing royalties like a franchise. Ace Hardware, CarQuest
Servitization of products Making a product part of a larger service offering. Rolls-Royce sells aircraft engines, not as distinct components but as complete solutions based on aviation miles. All operations and maintenance functions are included in this “Power by the Hour” plan.
Network effect Create a product in which the value to each user becomes higher as more people use it. Fax machines, social networks
Multi-level marketing Leverage friends, family, and other personal networks to recommend products and act as a sales force. Works best for products needing recommendation to facilitate purchase. Avon, Mary Kay, Amway
Complements
Type of Model Description Example Companies and Products
Razor and blades or Bait & Hook Consumer purchases a low-margin item like a razor handle or inkjet printer. Sale of necessary consumables such as replacement blades or ink are sold at a very high markup. Gillette, Hewlett-Packard printers, Kuerig coffee makers
Inverted razor and blades Initial purchase has a high margin, but consumables are sold at a low margin to entice initial purchase. Contrast to razor and blade competitor Kodak inkjet printers, Apple iPod & iTunes combination.
Apple makes very low margins on iTunes but high margins on hardware.
Hotel California model Create a must-have product that traps customers into buying unrelated high-profit items - like concessions at a baseball game. Amusement parks, sporting events, movie theaters
Matchmaking
Type of Model Description Example Companies and Products
Crowdsourcing Leveraging users to co-create products and sell to other users. Cafepress.com, Frito Lay new flavors, YouTube, Angie’s List
Online auctions Create a community of buyers and sellers by using an auction-type selling process versus a set sales price. eBay, Arriba


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Build Your Business Model Canvas
Track Your Business Model Canvas Build
Element Your Contribution
Business Model
Value Proposition
Customer Segments
Customer Relationships
Acquisition Channel - Primary
Acquisition Channel - Secondary
Revenue Streams
Key Partners Customer relationships:
Channels:
Supply Chain:
Operations:
Key Activities Customer relationships:
Channels:
Supply Chain:
Operations:
Key Resources Customer relationships:
Channels:
Supply Chain:
Operations:
Cost Structure Customer relationships:
Channels:
Supply Chain:
Operations:
Business Modal Canvas


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Create Useful Content Copy
  • You require useful information for two purposes:
    1. encourage your prospect to do business with you, as a leader in capabilities in the job s/he wants to get done.
    2. assure Google conceptual search SEO ranking that you are offering value on the web.
Information Content - Establish Yourself as an Authority
  • We have spoken before about establishing your market niche, based around how you can help customers get perfect outcomes from the job they want to get done.
  • You can use your content, in whatever form of media, to build your authority in this niche.
Types of Information Content
Information Article
eBook
Newsletter
Case study
Video
Webinar
Slideshare
Industry research reports

An informational ebook—give your leads valuable information relevant to their business needs.
A business newsletter—weekly or monthly newsletters can offer business tips and insider information to your leads.
Blog posts—updated posts offer a great way to answer your lead’s questions in a helpful and interesting way. Blogs also offer a great way to get search engines to recognize your website.
Videos—people enjoy dynamic presentations. Record valuable information in an interesting format and offer that to potential customers.
Webinars—these informative videos let you teach, train, and spotlight experts in your field. Use these to your advantage.

Sales Content - Focus on People Ready to Buy


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Google + Quick Tips
Why Use Google +
  • Google + is what drives semantic search, the latest basis of Google SEO.
  • What you have in Google + influence what appears in search results.
  • If your sources of lead includes Search (SEO) then you need Google +
  • Therefore, you must post in Google +, regardless of how many of your contacts are there.
Read this blog article by Brian Jensen
Read this blog from Kissmetrics - 12 Things to Do Right Now With Your Google + Account.


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Content Images
Why Use Images?
For your reader
  • Images can convey a message must faster than words.
  • Images convey emotions much better than words.
  • Images give the eye a break from lots of text.
For you
  • images are very shareable
  • images are very linkable
Free Sources of Images
Thanks to Ana:
  • all-free-download
  • bing image search
  • canva
  • compfight
  • creative commons
  • flickr commons
  • google image search - select Search Tools, then Usage Rights
  • iclipart
  • morguefile
  • photopin
  • pixabay
Thoroughly Check Against Copyright Infringement
  • Perform a reverse image search for the original source of the image.
  • Use free tool TinEye.com
  • Go to their home page.
  • Enter the URL of the image you are interested in.
  • Search results will show all occurrences of this image online.
  • If their is the slightest hint of copyright, avoid using that image.
Identify Your Image
  • Website crawlers like google don’t recognize the actual image, only how you label it.
  • Enhance your SEO (search engine optimization) with helpful information about your image. it is best if this information is relevant to the content it relates to.
  • image name. This is the name you give your image with its file type - image-name.jpg
  • image title. xx
  • image alt text. This is what shows in place of your image when you image does not load properly.


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Content - Descriptions
Mobile Pre-Header Text
  • This is the 1-2 sentence email preview following the subject line - the perfect place to add a teaser.
  • Don't be one of the many who fail to take advantage of this amazing lead in.
    • Use a call to action.
    • Support your subject line--don't reiterate it.
    • Your character count includes your subject line so the longer this is, the less preheader text your recipients see.
    • Cut to the chase.
    • Test out different preheader summaries.


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Content SEO
What Is SEO?
  • SEO - Search Engine Optimization
  • SEO is a means of helping potential customers discover your offer.
  • People use a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo to seek (search for) either information or to buy/rent a product/service to help them do a particular job.
  • Your job is to optimize the content in online media to best advise them of how you can help them - in your market niche.
Similar Terms
  • Organic search
  • Natural search
  • Conceptual search
Local SEO
  • Less than 40% of businesses claim their local listing. That other 60% are missing out on a great marketing opportunity.
  • Make sure your prospects and customers can easily find you, especially with mobile.
  • Optimize Google My Business
  • Hubspot's Top 50 Local Listing Sites
  • MainstreetHost’s Guide
  • Add your location into your site content.
  • Ensure your NAP (name, address and phone) are consistent across all your directories as well as your website.
Online SEO
Conceptual Search
  • Ideas and Concepts Replace Individual Keywords
  • Search engines have moved away from relying on individual keywords to, instead, search for a keyword concept.
  • The objective is for the search engine to return results that most relate to the idea that the searcher wants.
  • Suppose your business sells plants and flowers. If you type the keyword “nursery” into the google search bar, it will offer back concepts such as:
    • nursery
    • nursery ideas
    • nursery furniture
    • nursery rhymes
  • Interesting, because what I was seeking was the nursery that sells plants.
  • In the days of keywords only, you would have gone out to a totally different audience to the one you were seeking.
  • Now, if you type in “nursery plants”, you will get:
    • nursery plant
    • nursery plants for sale
    • nursery plants near me
  • Suppose your market niche is a nursery that specialises in orchids, and you type nursery orchid:
    • nursery orchids
    • orchid nursery in Sydney
    • orchid nursery in UK
    • orchid nursery in Miami
  • But if you type orchid nursery, you get:
    • orchid nursery near me
    • orchid nursery bay Area
    • orchid nursery Oahu
  • Let’s get a little more specific - orchid nursery in New York
    • orchid growers in New York State
    • orchid growers in New York
    • orchid nursery New York
Keyword Research Tools
  • https://moz.com/blog/keywords-to-concepts
  • See Google Keyword Planner
  • This article from SearchEngineWatch describes 9 tools you can use to discover keywords for your content.
  • See also:
    • Bing Keyword Tool
    • Google AdWords Keyword Planner
    • Google Display Planner
    • Google TrendsKeyword Spy
    • Grepwords
    • MarketMuse
    • SEMrush
    • SEO Book keyword tools
    • Soovle
    • Übersuggest
    • Wordstream
Use Keyword Modifiers
  • Time and Date: "nursery plants 2017"
  • Quality and/or Price: "Free nursery plants", "Fastest growing nursery plants"
  • Intent: "Buy nursery plants", "Find nursery plants”
  • Location: "nursery plants Online", "[location] nursery plants"
  • Size
  • Colour
  • Material
  • Brand
Optimizing Website Page Elements For SEO
See this article by Jill Kocher for:
  • Title
  • Description
  • Headings
  • Content
  • Image tags
  • Links
Concept Categories
  • You want to sell? - Focus on High Commercial Intent - people who want to buy now
$$$ High Commercial Intent PPC somebody who is ready to buy
$$ Branded Keywords someone almost ready to buy
$ Local Keywords someone looking for something local
- Informational Keywords SEO someone wanting to learn


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Content Posting Frequency
  • Keep in mind the work required to not only write your content, but also to respond to feedback.
Media Best Frequency Minimum Schedule capability
Facebook 5 - 10 / week 1 / day yes from facebook page
LinkedIn Personal Profile 20 / month 1 / day
LinkedIn Business Page 1 / day max 1 / week
LinkedIn group 3 / week
Twitter 5 / day 3 / day


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Content Posting Dates and Times
Caution
  • These recommendations for the best times to post on social media are averages only and may not always be effective for your business.
  • You should experiment with posting on social media at different times of the day with different types of content to find out what works best for your business.
Time Zones
  • Many of the times below are quite explicit, so how does this work across different time zones?
  • Most of the times quoted below refer to US EST. These times would most likely work the same in other time zones.
  • Where your market crosses multiple time zones,
Best Days and Times
Media Best Days Best Times Worst Days
Facebook Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
3 - 4pm
1pm - 4pm
9am - 7pm
12 - 1pm
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
LinkedIn Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
7:30 - 8:30 am
working hours
5 - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 11am
10pm - 6am
Twitter Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
12 - 3pm
Instagram Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Anytime except 3-4pm 3pm - 4pm
Pinterest Every day 2am - 4am
every evening
Friday 5pm
Saturday 8pm - 11pm
References
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/
http://www.Quicksprout.com/2015/01/02/what-are-the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
http://www.Elleandcompandesign.com/blog/2015/2/5/-the-best-times-to post-to-social-media/
http://blog.Surepayroll.com/post-pin-tweet-best-time-to-outreach/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/the-best-times-to-post-on_b_6990376.html
https://blog.Bufferapp.com/best-time-to-tweet-research
http://www.Fastcompany.com/3036184/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/the-best-and-worst-times-to-post-on-social-media-infograph
http://coschedule.com/blog/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
http://blog.Kissmetrics.com/science-of-social-timim-1/


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Content Quick Tips - Titles/Subjects/Headlines
Specialist References
  • Mailchimp
  • 10 Ridiculous Hacks to 5x click-Through Rates
  • Parry Malm
  • Subject Lines That Sell
  • https://phrasee.co/how-it-works/
Introducing One Awesome Reason For a Strong Header
  • If your header sucks you won’t get the recipient to open and read your message.
  • If they don't read your message they won’t click through to your offer.
  • if they don’t read your offer they won’t buy your product.
Measure These Important Numbers !!!
Open rate
  • The number of unique people who open your email.
  • It's recorded by a small tracking pixel.
  • It's the statistic most closely correlated with subject line success.
Click rate
  • The number of unique people who clicked on one or more links in your email.
  • It's correlated with subject line success but less so than open rates.
Click to Open Rate - CTO
  • The proportion of openers who also clicked on an email.
  • It strongly correlates with both open and click rates.
The Shocking Difference of a Great Headline
  • MailChimp analyzed more than 40 million emails sent through them to find best and worst opening rates.
  • Open rates:
    • The highest 20 - 60-87 percent.
    • The lowest 20 - 1-14 percent.
  • They reviewed their subject lines.
  • Their conclusion:
    • Your subject line should describe the subject of your email.
    • The best subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines sell what's inside.
The Shocking Difference of a Great Headline
MailChimp Email Open/Click Benchmarks By Industry
Check here
A Warning About the Use of Your Message
Inspiring Facts About Newsletter Subject Lines
  • Keep your subject lines simple, straightforward, and consistent.
  • Traditional email newsletters are for "soft-selling."They build relationships with your customers, and they're great if your products have a long sales cycle.
  • Use them to slowly soften your customers for the sale, or to make them feel really good about your brand.
  • If your recipients signed up for these kinds of emails, don't expect them to be enthusiastic when, out of the blue, you send an email with a subject line like,"10% Discount! Open Now!"
Emotional Promotional Messages
  • Include emotions
  • Subject Lines That Sell
  • Viral Subject Lines
Ad Copy Keywords
  • use emotional triggers in ad copy
Ad Copy Keywords
Emotions
Ad Copy Keywords
Unique Ultra-specific Urgency Useful
Something different, fun, personality Be clear what it is about Are you losing sales? Benefits promise
Promotional Message Segmentation Lists
  • Don’t be lazy and send a promotional message to your entire email list.
  • Tag those prospects who want to (ie have opted in to) receive promotional emails.
  • Segment lists into market segments that are much more focused - obvious ones like men and women, and others in your market - so you can build a laser-sharp campaign with subject messages that works just for them.
Introducing a Brand New Promotional Message Format
10 Ridiculous Hacks to 5x click-Through Rates
Introducing a Brand New Promotional Message Format1
Introducing a Brand New Promotional Message Format2
Introducing a Brand New Promotional Message Format3
Facebook Top Trigrams
Facebook Top Trigrams
Email Subject Line length
  • Retention Science discovered the ideal spot for subject lines is somewhere between 6-10 words; 8 words seems to nab the golden ticket.
  • Keep within the 28-35 character limit to avoid it being cut off - if it’s longer, ensure the key part of your message is at the front.
Email Subject Line length
Parry Malm
Sale now on! Who cares? You're always having a sale, why pay attention this time?
free tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)
help tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)
% off tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)
reminder tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)
Superlatives Examples
Variations to an average score.
Brand new +37%
Latest +24%
Exciting +19%
The perfect gift -28%
good -20%
special +12%
wonderful -2%
How can you sell in subject lines without spamming?
  • Just describe the details of your sale in the most straightforward and concise manner possible, without relying on manipulation.


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Examples of Retail Theft

 

Drug abusers:

  • The single biggest problem for retailers is that of drug abusers who steal to support their addiction. They are persistent and may try to steal repeatedly on the same day.
  • They should always be refused entry to the store or escorted from the shop if found inside.
  • It is safer to do this than to try and detain them once they have stolen goods, as their behavior may become irrational or violent if their freedom is challenged.

 

Opportunists:

  • Many shop thieves are not regular offenders, but may be influenced by the opportunity, which presents itself to them at the time.
  • Retailers should try to ensure that expensive items do not present easy targets.
  • Thieves may steal on a daily or weekly basis, may be regular or long-standing customers and may mix purchases with stolen goods.
  • It is prudent not to take anyone for granted.
  • It will be difficult to prevent thieves stealing smaller and less expensive items, which are on open display – food, clothing, confectionery, cosmetics, etc.

 

Juveniles:

  • Young people are influenced by pressure from school or friends to join in stealing. They may also be bullied or coerced into stealing.
  • Groups of young people can present a particular problem and retailers need to try and manage them, perhaps by limiting numbers allowed into the store, insisting on an adult accompanying them or by excluding them at certain times – lunch breaks and after school.
  • Plastic screens in front of confectionery displays can reduce opportunities to steal.

 

Thieves who use children: Some people use children either to carry out thefts or to disguise adults stealing. Babies (both real and dolls) in prams can be used as decoys and to hide goods. Goods may be given to young children to walk out of the store with or they may place on the under-tray of the pram.

 

Mentally ill or disturbed persons:

  • A very small number of people who steal may suffer from a compulsive condition.
  • Other persons who steal may be suffering from other forms of mental ill health and retailers should always be conscious of the possibility that someone they are dealing with falls into this category.
  • Some elderly people may be confused or forgetful and it may be appropriate to either offer to help them when they enter your store or see if they have friends or relatives who can accompany the person so as to prevent misunderstandings.

 

Distraction Theft:

  • This is a method where a group of people will enter a store and distract staff to steal either bulk items or expensive goods.
  • In many cases, retailers will be unaware that they have been victims until later.
  • Some younger groups of distraction thieves may create a disturbance and become violent if challenged.

 

Professional thieves:

  • The increasing number of thieves who travel locally, regionally or nationally to steal from shops several times a day, every day of the week is a growing and serious risk.
  • They will steal large quantities of goods, mainly of high value, frequently work in groups and may resort to violence if caught.
  • Retailers may not be aware that they have been visited until they discover their losses.
  • Worse than the lack of prevention by employees, there might be the case of staff confusion, whereby retailers and other businesses would fall victim of collusive fraud and theft of goods and cash between staff and customers. Sometimes the staff will willingly work with friends and relatives, or they may be coerced into doing this. Thus, the challenge for retailers is both internally and externally.



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Payment Options
Credit card You get your money immediately.
Add a "convenience fee" equivalent to your merchant fee
Add PayPal Option See Xero add process from dolmanbateman here
Online payment with PayPal on your invoice can achieve 16 days faster payment according to a Harvest study.
Online Invoicing See Xero service here
See Freshbooks service here
Weekly/monthly payments/installments Use an agreement to specify the terms of the repayments
Bank Transfers - Internet Banking
Check account


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Payment Terms Tips

 

  1. Your business circumstances are often different to others, and so you can apply your own experience to the suggestions below
  2. However, some issues are quite common to all business:
    1. You have delivered a product or service to your customer and you deserve to be paid for it.
    2. The longer it takes you to receive payment, the more at risk your business is from insufficient cash to operate. This is the biggest cause of business failure.
    3. The faster you get your payment the faster you can invest it in more products to sell, or service capabilities. That is a key source of growing your business

  3. Payment Days
  4. The best option is pre-payment, either all or a deposit.
  5. The second best option always is payment on delivery. (But not using the words “Payment on receipt.” according to studies by both Freshbooks and Xero.) With internet connections and delivery of service or goods with invoice there is no reasons why you should have to wait for payment - especially if your invoice includes links for immediate payment methods such as credit cards or PayPal..
  6. Third best option is 7 days. Why do you need to offer more?
  7. On average, clients pay two weeks late, regardless of the terms. So you can counter that by reducing your invoice period. (A Xero study based on 12 million invoices)
  8. A Freshbooks study of their clients invoices showed business were paid faster when:
    1. Their language was polite
    2. They used the word “days” to pay instead of “net”
    3. They advise late payment penalties apply
  9. On your invoices, shows your terms (eg 7 days from date of invoice) plus what that means as an actual date (eg April 27, 2017) - make it as easy as possible for your customer to comply.

  10. Payment Methods
  11. Provide for direct payments where possible - credit card or PayPal
  12. Include your bank details prominently on your invoice.

  13. Charging Late Fees
  14. Charge interest immediately on overdue accounts, a smaller amount for the first 15 days, then a larger amount for anything longer. Interest rates charged need to be at least as high as credit card rates to be taken seriously.
  15. Charge a “convenience fee” for credit card payments

  16. Invoice Faster
  17. Invoice immediately after the delivery of the product or service. A study by FreeAgent showed invoices sent out within a week were ;paid on average in less than 5 days - waiting another week gave an average of 10 days. In other words the difference between sending out an invoice immediately and waiting two weeks can be (24 - 5) 19 days in getting your money sooner.


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Content CTA - Call To Action
Definition
  • In marketing, a call to action (CTA) is an instruction to the audience designed to provoke an immediate response, usually using an imperative verb such as "call now", "find out more" or "visit a store today". (Wikipedia)
General Rules
CTA Buttons
  • Provide significant colour contrast between the CTA button, the page or popup background, and other elements on the page
  • Make your call-to-action state exactly what a user is doing, what their action will accomplish:
    • Apply Now
    • Buy - Not ‘Buy my’ but “Start selling xxx today”
    • Book my demo - instead of webinar
    • Claim Your Free Trial
    • Discover Your xxx
    • Find Out More - answer a question in the copy
    • Follow the Magic
    • Get My Free
    • Get Your Grade - interactive
    • Give xxx a Try - link to pricing page
    • Give Now - donations
    • Give Monthly
    • Go to xxx
    • Reserve My seat - webinar is not a well-liked word
    • Save My Free Spot - instead of webinar
    • Save Now, for a promotion
    • Schedule a demo
    • Start Saving
    • Subscribe to - but don’t use the word subscribe. see options below
    • Try It - interactive
    • Upgrade and Save
    • View xxx
    • Watch it in action - demo
    • What We Do
    • Yes Please! - in response to a content question
    • Yes - I Want To xxx
  • Better options than subscribe.
    • Become - give the benefit from the subscription instead
    • Explore
    • Get - Get My rather than Get Your
    • Get Free Lifetime Access
    • Get Started
    • I’m In!
    • Join
    • Learn More
    • Sign Up Free
Lead Identification
  • Request Minimal additional information
    • email address is essential
    • first name is great, but not initially essential
    • the more identification you ask for, the fewer the leads you get.
Supporting Text to Highlight Benefits
  • Social proof
    • join 299,000 happy campers
    • downloaded by 999,999 smart marketers like you
  • The immediate reward - a white paper, ebook, webinar, list.
  • Free
  • Easy to use
  • Evernote - “Remember Everything”
  • See this list of top words to use in your copy
Background Images
  • Have people either looking straight at you, or facing towards the CTA button
  • Make them relevant to the topic


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Customer Jobs Identification Form

 

Analysing your most profitable products from your most profitable customers
0 Survey ID
1 Customer
2 Your product/service they use
3 What job do they use this product/service for?
4 Who is the job executor
5 Which step in the job is it used for?
During this step... ...Customers... Tick
Define Determine their goals and commence planning
Locate Gather items and information needed to do the job
Prepare Set up the environment to do the job
Confirm Verify they’re ready to do the job
Execute Carry out the job
Monitor Assess whether the job is being successfully executed
Modify Make Alterations to improve execution
Conclude Finish the job, or prepare to repeat it
Strategyn
6a What functional outcomes does the user want from this step? Use the Job Outcomes Discovery Form to record all the desired outcomes this user has from this job.
6b Which functional outcomes does your product/service perform well at?
6c Which functional outcomes does your product/service perform poorly at? - Pains not removed
7a What emotional outcomes does the user want from this step? Use the Job Outcomes Discovery Form to record all the desired outcomes this user has from this job.
7b Which emotional outcomes does your product/service perform well at?
7c Which emotional outcomes does your product/service perform poorly at? - Pains not removed
8a What social outcomes does the user want from this step? Use the Job Outcomes Discovery Form to record all the desired outcomes this user has from this job.
8b Which social outcomes does your product/service perform well at?
8c Which social outcomes does your product/service perform poorly at? - Pains not removed
9 Does your customer have other choices to do this step?
(eg your competition, different products, services)
No
Yes
Examples
10 Why does your customer choose to use your offer over a competitor?
functional outcomes achieved
emotional outcomes achieved
social outcomes achieved
no alternative
11 What other jobs are related to this job?
12 Your analysis summary after the interview


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Job Outcomes Discovery Form
0 Survey ID
1 Customer
2 Product
3 JTBD
Action Unit Object Context Measure
Maximize time OK
Minimize cost under-served
Importance probability over-served
High errors
Medium defects
Low other
Action Unit Object Context Measure
Maximize time OK
Minimize cost under-served
Importance probability over-served
High errors
Medium defects
Low other
Action Unit Object Context Measure
Maximize time OK
Minimize cost under-served
Importance probability over-served
High errors
Medium defects
Low other


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Security Check Template
Date:
Check By:
Validation By:
Action Rating This Month
1 - 10
Rating Last Month
1 - 10
Staff Issues
Attendance
Allocated work
Staff overtime
Staff Education. Conduct staff education on your theft policies and risk reduction procedures.
Observe trial run on theft detection and apprehension procedures.
Cash Management
Bank reconciliation
Cash deposits accuracy and frequency
Cash reconciliation spot checks
Expense claims trend
Meal allowance charges
Travel Allowances
Invoice Books Pre-Numbered and reconciled
Inventory
Run unannounced inventory cyclic count
Spot check load manifests
Spot check trash containers
Check change room policies are enforced
Assets
Make asset register spot check
Spot check staff asset list
Check mirrors are positioned correctly
Check video surveillance performance
Check lockable cabinets, drawers are properly secured
     
Customers
Spot Check 5 orders through to payment received
     
Suppliers
Spot Check 5 purchase orders through to payment made
Issues
Seq Issue Action Taken
     
     


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Stop Letter Template
Stop Letter Template
Letter Component Options Example
Your Identification details [My Business Name]
[Address line]
[State, ZIP Code]
[Letter Date]
Customer Identification [Recipient’s Name]
[Address line]
[State, ZIP Code]
Letter Date Standard date
Heading subject Subject: Credit Stop on Your Overdue Account
Be polite in announcing customer's credit withdrawal We regret to inform you that we must close your charge account with [my business name].
Explain the reason for doing so The payment of $[xxxx] you promised two[xx] weeks ago still has not been received.

As a small company, we are unable to carry balances for more than [xx]days.
Mention the details of the payment amount and due date to the customer Your overdue amount is currently $[xxxx] and has now been overdue for [xx] days.
Suggest an alternative to the customer for using a collection agency Because of your long relationship with us, we prefer to resolve the problem with you directly, rather than refer the account to a collection agency.
Provide contact details Please contact [staff name] at [999.9999] about arranging a new payment schedule for your outstanding amount.
Mention that you still wish to continue business with that customer We want to be able to work together to correct this credit problem and restore the good relationship we have had with you for [so many years.]
Offer facility for customer to pay cash for new business, if this is an option for you In the meantime we hope that we can continue on a cash basis while you resolve your delinquent balance
Show gratitude for the previous business endowment Your business has been very important to us, and we hope to continue our relationship well into the future.
Wish the customer luck for future endeavors We wish you the very best during this difficult time.
Signature block Sincerely,

[Senders Name]
[Senders Title] -Optional-


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Guarantee Work Instructions
You need to prepare work instructions for both customers and your staff
Customer Instructions
Group Data Your Content
Guarantee Define your Guarantee
Eligibility Proof of Purchase Check
Time Limitation Check
Purchase Location Check
Type of Warranty Refund
Repair
Replacement
Item Identification Model
Serial Number
Contact Information Full Name
Email Address
Phone
Preparation for Return Clear personal data
Packaging
Product Identification
Owner Identification
Return Instructions Return Location Address
Return Shipping Costs
Trackable Shipping
Business Instructions
Group Data Your Content
Pre-Approval Proof of Purchase Check
Time Limitation Check
Purchase Location Check
Receipt of item Tracking Number Allocated
Product Identification
Damage Assessment


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Choose Your Guarantee Risk Reduction Options
Customer Job To be Done Guarantee Type Examples
Reduce risk on unknown supplier (you!) Risk Free trial
Try before you buy
Free sample
100% money back
100% money back plus costs
Double money back
Bonus
Minimum result achieved
Ensure reliability of performance
Ensure a specific result.
Service warranty
Money back after x days
Will fix it
Personal mentoring if needed (limited)
100% Satisfaction
Delivery/Turnaround
On time factor on-time
Credibility Of Claim One-Condition
Proof of an attempt at gaiing a result
conditional guarantee
Lowest price available Competitor price matching
Lowest price Guarantee
Pay for competitor’s product/service
price drop guarantee
Reduce risk to my current business buy back (surplus)
Flexibility No contract
Hassle free Unconditional
No questions asked


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Collection Call Script - Forgetful Customer
You Hello Mrs. Peters, Sandra here from THE DRESS SHOP
Mrs. Peters Oh hi Sandra, are there new designs today?
You Yes Mrs. Peters we have. Well, aside from giving you that news, I wanted to follow-up your payment for Invoice No. 123?
Mrs. Peters Haven’t I paid that already? The invoice for the skirts.
You That’s correct, Mrs. Peters but what I’m following up is that of the formal gown, the one you wore for the February Ball?
Mrs. Peters But I remember I paid for the tuxedo of my husband. That’s also for the ball.
You Actually you have settled the tuxedo last March 10, however, remember you’ve requested to pay the gown by month’s end? Unfortunately, by that time, you went on a trip and have promised to drop by the shop?
Mrs. Peters But I failed to go to the shop. Yeah, I remember now. Oh, I’m so sorry for that.
You That’s okay Mrs. Peters. Perhaps when you visit the store for the new arrivals we can also have this invoice closed?
Mrs. Peters Of course, Sandra. I will drop by this Saturday.
You Will it be fine if I call you again on Friday?
Mrs. Peters Yes, that’s fine. I’d appreciate the reminder, Sandra.
You Thank you, too, Mrs. Peters and see you on Saturday. Good bye.

Additional Notes:

  1. If a customer is forgetful, you need to make sure that you have a complete log and records of all his or her purchases and payments. Failing to do this yourself will cause complications later.
  2. It is a good practice to reconcile with the customer once or twice a month depending on how much is his or her average aging invoices.
  3. Aside from the usual collection calls, using other means to remind them of their payables will be helpful such as:
    1. Sending e-mails
    2. Periodic sending of billing statement via posted mail
    3. Reminders via SMS or texting

Take care on sending reminders to customers though. Avoid “over doing” it unless you want your customer to feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable due to the bombardment of reminders no matter how forgetful they may be.



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Collection Call Script - Customer Presently Unable To Pay
You Hello, good morning, may I speak with Mrs. Fields?
MF Good morning, this is Mrs. Fields
You Yes, Mrs. Fields, I am Eleanor from ALL BEVERAGES. I just want to check if you got our billing statement for your January and February invoices?
MF I did, Eleanor, in fact I do plan to call your office to discuss them.
You Is there something we can do for you?
MF Well, the store’s sales went down the past months after a new & bigger grocery opened nearby. Cash flow had been tight. Sales slowly picked-up in March though. However, I’m afraid I cannot afford to pay all my suppliers at once. I wonder if I can gradually settle my arrears.
You Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your new competition, Mrs. Fields, although I am also glad that you’re slowly gaining back your sales.
Your outstanding balance amounts to $1,000.00. Your March billing was already posted for $300.00. Can you settle the March billing and half of the arrears?
MF I believe I can pay the March bill plus $300.00 of the arrears?
You That would be fine. It’s already Thursday. Do you think you can make it Monday, April 10?
MF Monday, April 10, is a good time. The check for $600.00 will be ready by then.
You Good. By the way Mrs. Fields, how about the remaining $700.00?
MF Is it okay for me to settle it by month end?
You It is very much okay,
MF Oh, that’s good for us. I am so glad for your call, Eleanor. I am sorry my payments got delayed.
You And we’re glad you told us about your predicament and that we came to an agreement. We value our continued business with you. Thank you, too, for accommodating my call.
MF You’re welcome and thank you. Good bye.


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Collection Call Script - Dissatisfied Customer
You Hello, good afternoon, is Mr. Robbins there?
MR Mr. Robbins here, what can I do for you?
You Mr. Robbins, I hope this is a good time. This is Mike from CARS UNLIMITED.
MR Yes?
You We were reviewing your records and it appeared you have a good payment track with us except for your February 15th due which remains unsettled? May we know what could be the reason for this?
MR Oh, that? Was it the invoice amounting to $1,500.00?
You Yes, Mr. Robbins, that’s the amount.
MR Were you not informed that I’m disputing the invoice? Someone from your shop already called last February to follow-up. I forgot her name though but I told her about certain items that shouldn’t be charged to me. In fact, I even called her there to ask for the revised billing but I received no further response. It’s quite disappointing considering that I’m a regular customer.
You I am sorry to hear about that Mr. Robbins. It’s quite unfortunate, too, that no mention of the dispute is indicated on our records. Perhaps we can start over by telling me what the disputed items were?
MR Oh well, that last time I took my car there I had it cleaned, waxed, tire blacked and the breaks were checked. But I never requested for realignment. Neither did I buy break fluids and other accessories. You can check it with your mechanic.
You I see now Mr. Robbins can I hold you for a few seconds while I check?
MR Yes, I’ll wait
CHECK WITH THE MECHANIC
You Mr. Robbins, thank you for waiting. I’ve spoken with our mechanic and he confirmed what you said. It seems the wheel alignment and other items were intended for another customer. We’re very sorry for the error on billing.
MR You see. This is why I intended not to settle. I also didn’t like that it took up to this time for it to be checked.
You I understand, Mr. Robbins. It is but right for you to delay payment pending settlement of the dispute. Your concern is important to us. This incident will surely allow us to improve our billing process. I will have the revised invoice sent to your office by tomorrow morning.
MR I’m glad this will finally be resolved. I’ll issue the check immediately upon receipt of the revised statement.
You That will be much appreciated, Mr. Robbins. As a gesture of thanks, your next visit to us for a car wash will be free.
MR Oh, not necessary but thank you, Mike.
You Again, Mr. Robbins, accept our apologies and thank you for the time given to us.
MR You’re welcome, Mike. Nice talking to you. Bye.


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Customer has no Intention of Paying
You Hello, good day, I’m calling for Mrs. Pebbles?
MP Who is this?
You Mrs. Pebbles, hi, I am Ms. Greens from BEST Catering Services.
MP If you’re calling for the full payment of your services for my birthday party, I have no intention of paying.
You Oh, I see. But Mrs. Pebbles, you did request for additional servings for fifty heads that time?
MP Yes, I did. But that’s because I thought other guests will still arrive. It turned out my original count was enough.
You However, Mrs. Pebbles, when you requested for the 50 plates, we did have them served. Did you give instructions to have it cancelled?
MP No. But I assumed you’ve seen that the food is enough already. You should’ve confirmed with me again.
You I am afraid that is not how we do things. When orders are placed, we immediately provide the service particularly in your case where the need was quite urgent for you at that time.
MP Well, I stand by my decision.
You I’m sorry if that is your decision. We do hope you’d reconsider up to the end of this month. As much as possible, we’d like to handle this outside of legal options. We’d still wait for your call by then.
MP Okay.
You Thank you for your time, Mrs. Pebbles. Bye.


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Collection Call Script - sBiz Invoice Management Errors

INTRODUCTION

This call reflects a real event, and was made by one of the Credit and Collections staff, Aiza, to one of our sub-dealers. These aren't the real name of the customer and her other details. I’ll use Mrs. Reyes.

 

This is to follow-up her outstanding balances pending for more than a year now. Aiza is new to this account.

 

We tag Aiza as “Aiza” and Mrs. Reyes as “MR”.

 

This is how it went:

Aiza Good afternoon, may we know if Mrs. Reyes is there? Can I speak to her, please?
Other Party Yes, she is here. Who is this?
Aiza Tell her this is Aiza from BEST APPLIANCES
Other Party Okay, wait, I’ll call her.
MR Hello, this is Mrs. Reyes, who’s calling?
Aiza Yes, Mrs. Reyes, Aiza from BEST APPLIANCES. I am calling to check with you regarding your outstanding balance with us worth $ 3,097.92.
MR What about? I think I have reconciled that already with Lai.
Aiza I’m sorry Ma’am but Ms. Lai is no longer connected with the Company for quite some time now. And as per our records, your balance is still outstanding. Your last payments entered on our system were received in cash for a total of $5,627.24 last October 26, 2015.
MR Did it not settle my balances?
Aiza The payments were applied to your latest invoices. From what I gathered, there were specific instructions on where it should apply.
MR Well I didn’t know I still have unsettled accounts.
Aiza Would you like me to send you a summary of what remains to be outstanding?
MR Yes, I want to see what those invoices are.
Aiza I will send copies to your office tomorrow. Do you have an e-mail? I can send the scanned invoices plus your Statement of Account.
MR Okay. My e-mail is [email protected] I will wait for it.
Aiza By the way, Mrs. Reyes, once received, can I call you again tomorrow to work out your payments?
MR I’ll review the invoices first. Maybe you can call in the afternoon.
Aiza Is 2:00 p.m. fine?
MR Yes, 2:00 p.m is okay.
Aiza Okay Mrs. Reyes, after this, I’ll send the e-mail. Will call you tomorrow by 2:00 p.m. Thank you very much.
MR Okay, thank you.
END OF CALL
ADDED NOTES:

 

Aiza and Mrs. Reyes reconciled the balances.

 

It turned out most of the unsettled invoices were for adjustments (e.g. returned sales, price changes, etc.) Corresponding updates on the system were done to close all of Mrs. Reyes’ outstanding balances.



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Collection Call Script - sBiz Staff Invoice Outstanding

INTRODUCTION

 

This actual situation happened between a Supervisor, Ms. Geraldine, and a staff member, Ms. Teresa.

 

Management was reviewing each store’s collectibles and one of those looked into is employees with receivables.

 

This conversation concerns Teresa’s aging accounts receivable with the store (which incidentally has also been a subject of inventory variance by the store.)

 

Last October, Teresa bought an old stock of TV. She and two other staff (Brenda and Mylene) requested Von (also an employee) to have their items swiped using his card which Von agreed. By now, Von has already resigned.

 

 

Ms. Geraldine as MG and Ms. Teresa as MT.

MG Hi, Ms. Teresa, can I disturb you for a while?
MT Why?
MG Remember the 24-inch TV you bought last year?
MT Oh, that’s already paid
MG It’s still floating on our records
MT Ah, why? That’s part of the items we’ve swiped using Von’s credit card
MG It seems this item was not included
MT How come? As far as I can remember, I’m even done paying it to Von
MG Can you remember what the other items are?
MT I know there were three of us who requested Von. Brenda and Mylene; that was during October’s sale event.
MG We already checked the records of Von but we cannot find anything about the TV.
MT That’s your fault. What I know is that I am already paid. And why only raise it now. It’s been months...
MG It actually appeared as part of our inventory variance before but since our manual documents showed that the sales order was named to you, we were given consideration pending the adjustment. Unfortunately though we overlooked this until now.
MT That’s your shortcoming. Not mine.
MG But since our manual records show that it was issued to you, we were instructed to properly issue it out on our system. Definitely, the amount will be under receivables. We cannot find any record that it’s been paid.
MT But I told you, it was supposed to be charged to Von’s card before and that I already paid it to him so why would I pay it again?
MG As per confirmation with Von, the TV set was not among the items included on the swipe. It seems you also need to confirm with Von if the amount of the TV was included on the balances you settled to him.
MT Okay, I’ll confirm with Von. But I’m telling you, I am already paid.
MG Please do. On our last telecom he already confirmed this wasn’t charged to his card so chances are he hasn’t included this on your balances with him. But we already transacted this on the system under your name Ms. Teresa for $50.00.
MT That’s your call. But I will not pay it until I’ve confirmed with Von. In fact, since it took you so long to discover this and reconcile with me, I should not be paying you at all.
MG I’ll just follow up again next week. If Von confirmed it’s not paid, we will collect the balance from you already, Ms. Teresa.
MT Whatever?! Let’s just talk next week.
ADDITIONAL NOTES

 

Per internal audit’s own confirmation with Von, the 24-inch TV of Teresa, although documented via a manual Sales Order (SO) was really not entered in the system and was not included on the items charged to Von’s credit card.

 

The amount of the TV was also not among the balances paid by Teresa to Von.

 

At as of this date, Teresa’s balance of $50.00 exists. She will pay this in instalment to our Main Store.

 

The fact that Teresa was able to bring home the television set without proper documentation is a separate issue with the store’s procedure. It is currently under review.



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Collection Call Scripts

Contents

  • Forgetful Customer
  • Customer Presently Unable to Pay
  • Dissatisfied Customer
  • No Intention To Pay
  •  
  • sBiz Invoice Management Errors
  • sBiz Staff Invoice Outstanding


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Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
  • We use CLV as a tool to predict the likely revenue and profit from your future relationship with a customer.
Why Use CLV
  • When we use CLV we immediately shift our focus from considering customers as a one-off transaction to a source of ongoing revenue and profit.
  • The benefits of focus on long term relationships are profound.  Consider the costs you incur in “buying” a new customer, your advertising, promotion and administration costs. Now consider SalesForce experience that shows a dollar spent on customer retention has 2.5 times the effectiveness of a dollar spent on new customer acquisition.
  • Consider also that loyal customers are your best source of word of mouth and referrals; and that most successful businesses count on up to 70 per cent of their business from referrals.
  • You are more likely to focus your marketing efforts on A and B Category customers who will reward you, and away from opportunistic Category C customers.
How to Use CLV
  • The normal method to consider CLV, is to calculate the expected average sales for a three year period, for customers in a specific category - consider a job to be done.
  • For each customer in that segment you are measuring their buying pattern over time to see if it matches or supasses the CLV profile.
  • If not, you can trigger a specific campaign to cross sell or upsell to that customer. And bring them back to their potential.
How to Improve CLV - Customer Retention
  • WindsorCircle claims their clients are seeing a 20% increase in CLV year-over-year, as well as an average retention rate lift of 17%.  
  • They utilise a 9 part program to help with customer retention:
  1. Know your customers
  2. Get connected
  3. Thank your customers
  4. Amaze your best customers
  5. Help your customers buy more
  6. Save your churning customers
  7. Create evangelists
  8. Listen to your customers
  9. Acquire retainable customers

Windsor circle

Our clients are seeing a 20% increase in CLV year-over-year, as well as an average retention rate lift of 17%. Contact a member of our team  to turn your customer data into an actionable lifecycle email marketing strategy and grow customer value for your business.



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A/B Testing

What It Is

  • A/B testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing) is process you can use to improve the results of your offer to customers
  • The method involves comparing two versions (A and B) of the offer against each other to determine which one performs better.

How It Is Used

  • Your offer may be a landing page, a guarantee, or a price.
  • A/B testing can be used both online and offline.
  • Your offer consists of elements, and your A/B tests compare the effect of a change to an element.
  • The change may be, for example, in the text content, the font style, the colours used, the location of the element.
  • While you test the change to an element, you are also testing that change in its context in the total offer.

Process

  • Define Current Conversion Rate. The only true test result to measure (your metric) is the conversion rate. Your current offer is the A part of A/B.
  • Define Conversion Rate Goals. So A/B testing is comparing conversion rates of A (current offer) versus B (new offer.)
  • Define Elements to Test. List the elements in your offer that you wish to test.
  • Create Offer Variations. Create two versions of your offer (A and B) for each element that you wish to test - everything else in the offer is exactly the same except that element.
  • Run the Experiment. Run both variations of your offer.
  • Measure and Analyze. Review the test results.
  • Test Each Element in Turn. You need to test each element in your list against the original A offer.
  • Test Combined Changes. Create a new B offer incorporating all the best results of element testing, and compare that against your original A offer.
  • Test Against best performing Single Element. Test your combined offer against the best performing single element offer.
  • Select the Best Option. From your various tests, choose the best performing offer.

Software

  • For online offers you can use specialised A/B testing applications such as Google Analytics.


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Common Reasons for Non-payment
  • no billing sent to them
  • lost / misplaced invoice
  • have forgotten that it is past due
  • somebody is tasked to pay it (ex. Secretary)
  • business is slow and their customers haven’t paid them
  • bill sent out to a wrong customer
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Late Payment Customer Types
Willing to pay but presently not able These are mostly apologetic but once able, they will pay right away.
Work to have a payment plan in place, so you are receiving some return immediately and a commitment for the balance.
You are looking for a win-win to maintain a good ongoing relationship.
Forgetful Small business owners often have other areas of responsibility: family and business.
A friendly call is all that is needed to remind them of the bill to pay.
Dissatisfied customers Ask them to share their concern. Compromise or settle if necessary.
Work to retain the customer - your want positive word of mouth.
Document this feedback and improve on this.
Chronic late payers This person is deliberately using your money to fund their own lifestyle or business. You need to decide how important their business is to you, considering the negative impact their bad practice has on your cash flow.
Advise them of revised payment terms, including late payment charges
Increase their prices (where possible) to cover your loss - 5-10%
No intention to pay This is the type that is really difficult to deal with. It is frustrating. But the reality is, you are not getting paid.
Stop all credit immediately.
Taking a higher level of collection is needed (refer to collection via legal action or collection agency). Keep your cool and keep in mind this phone call is just the first step in the recovery process.
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Payment Agreement
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Action Plan

Here’s how to get the most out of the content in your Action Plan.

  1. Read the entire Action Plan once - Read through this entire Action Plan set, watch any videos, download any resources. Don’t execute on the steps until you have finished reading the entire Action Plan. This will help you understand the progression of the steps and put them into context.

  2. Complete the steps - This Action Plan is a checklist for the Activity. Each step builds on the next. Complete each step in order.

Lastly, here’s how to use the Action Plan interface.

  1. Progress Bar - The Progress bar shows you the percentage of Action Plan Activity you have completed.

  2. Action Plan Sections - Your Activity Action Plan is a series of How To steps that lead to the completion of activity and a result to improve your business - plus background understanding.

  3. Arrows - Use the Arrow Buttons to open and close the Action Plan Sections.

  4. Check box - Click the check box to indicate completion of this Action Plan Section.

  5. Stars - Rate your experience with the material in this Action Plan Section, from 1 (worst) to 5 (best)

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ABC Categories
ABC Categories Overview

Why Use ABC Categories?

  • ABC Categories are one of the most powerful tools you can apply to your business.
  • They help you focus on what is most important, the Vital Few versus the Trivial Many.
  • 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.
  • You can get much more cash out of your business by making use of ABC Categories.

  • Inventory Example:
  • In many small and medium businesses with inadequate inventory management, it is not unusual for the average immediate availability of all items to be around 65% - in other words there is a 35% likelihood of a lost sale.
  • By applying the ABC Category method in a wholesaling business, we were able to:
  • Reduce cash tied up in inventory by $2 million.
  • Increase Cat A availability to 98% - a 50% increase in immediate sales
  • Increase Cat B to 90%
  • Increase Cat C to 80%

  • Customer Example:
  • Repeat customers are the major source of your business wealth:
  • 80% of your future profits will come from just 20% of your existing customers.
  • Your loyal top 10% spend 3 times more per order than the lower 90%; and your top 1% of customers spend 5 times more than the lower 90%. - referralsaasquatch 
  • “80% of companies’ marketing budgets are spent on acquiring shoppers; however, for every 1% of shoppers who become repeat customers, a company’s revenue will increase by about 10%.” –Adobe
  • “On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10x as much as their first purchase.”
  • —MarketingTechBlog

What Are ABC Categories?

  • ABC Categories is a ranking system for identifying and grouping items in terms of how useful they are for achieving business goals.
  • ABC classification is closely associated with the 80/20 rule, a business metric that proposes 80% of the outcomes are determined by 20% of the inputs.  
    http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/definition/ABC-classification 
  • A simple ABC system requires grouping things into three categories:
  • A - extremely important.
  • B - moderately important.
  • C - relatively unimportant.
  • neXtep easy adds:
  • Category D - no importance
  • Category E - essential items
  • ABC Classification is also similar to the Pareto Principle.

Where to Use ABC Categories

  • We commonly use ABC categories to assess:
  • The items you sell
  • Your customers
  • Your staff
  • Business risks

How It Works

  • Using the items you sell as an example, we can generally say that:
  • Cat A - 5% of your items generate 40-50% of your profits.
  • Cat A + B - 20% of items generate 70-80% of profits.
  • Cat A + B + C - 50% of items generate 95% of profits.
  • Cat D - Conversely, the bottom 50% of your items generate only 5% of your profits!

Pareto Principle

neXtep easy Reports

  • See the Reports page from the hamburger menu to view our ABC Category reports for Customers and Items.
  • These reports are available with Annual and 3 yearly subscriptions.
Items You Sell

Smart Inventory Using the Pareto Principle

  • Not all products are equal, and you can get the most out of your inventory by making use of the 80/20 rule. We can generally say that:
  • 5% of your items generate 40-50% of your profits.
  • 20% of items generate 70-80% of profits.
  • 50% of items generate 95% of profits.
  • Conversely, the bottom 50% of your items generates only 5% of your profits!
  • Using this classification, we can ensure that our investment in inventory matches the importance of the item to our profitability.
  • We can order Cat A Items more frequently
  • We can hold more safety stock of Cat A items to reduce the likelihood of stockouts and lost sales.
  • We can reduce the investment in Cat C items
  • We can eliminate the investment in Cat D items. It’s usually cheaper for you to buy these from your competitors at cost!

A. Analyze Based On Gross Profit

  • In neXtep easy we rank ABC sales items by their Gross Profit Contribution rather than revenue, as our focus is always on profit.
  • Gross Profit Contribution = Item Gross Profit multiplied by annual unit sales
  • Example - we sell Item 123
  • Revenue for each item sold is $100
  • Direct Costs are $45
  • So Gross Profit = $100 - $45 = $55
  • We sold 300 of item 123 in the past 12 months
  • So, Gross Profit Contribution (GPC) = $55 multiplied by 300 = $16,500
  • We create for each item their individual GPC.
  • Ranking: We sort them from the largest to the smallest.
  • Allocate ABC Categories:
  • A Cat - Top 5% of items in the list
  • B Cat - Next 15% of items in the list (cumulative 20% of items)
  • D Cat - All items that have not sold in past 12 months
  • C Cat - The remaining items.

B. Analyse Based on Sales Volume

  • There are some items you have that may not generate high profits but are still a major source of bringing customers into your store  and then also giving you the chance to cross-sell to higher value items.
  • So use ABC analysis again, using the data you have already collected, as follows.
  • Analyse exactly the same as for Gross Profit Contribution, but this time using Revenue.
  • Any Revenue Cat A items that are not also GPC Cat A Items, are classified as GPC Cat A2 items.
  • The percentage of Cat B items is reduced by the items moving to Cat A2; similarly with any Cat C items.

C. Analyse Based on Essentials

  • There are some additional items you must have that may not generate any profits but still are a major source of bringing customers into your store, and then also giving you the chance to cross-sell or upsell to higher value items.
  • Examples are florist window display items, or machinery essential parts.
  • Identify and allocate these as Category E, if not already Category A.  
  • These items must always be in stock, even if only one or two, and therefore require special management.

D. Analyse Based on Seasonality

  • Most retailers sell seasonal items in campaigns, often for a number of different season promotions.
  • Identify seasonal ABC Categories:
  • Identify your seasonal campaigns
  • Identify the seasonal selling months
  • Using the data already collected, rank item GPC for each of those seasonal campaigns
  • Allocate Seasonal ABC Categories for each item, as well as their GPC and Revenue ABC Categories.

neXtep easy Inventory Reports

  • In the Reports page, you can view reports which analyse ABC Categories for your items.
  • You have the tool to create your own ABC Category parameters, and so optimize your inventory levels and customer service levels.

Balancing Sales and Costs

  • Consider decreasing your product range so you only hold the 20% of products generating 80% of your gross profit.
  • You have now reduced your annual gross profit by 20%
  • But you have also reduced 80% of your inventory range, reducing expenses and capital requirement.
  • Now, increase your average selling prices by 10%
  • Let’s assume your current Net Profit Margin is 10%
  • Compared with the situation when you first started:
  • Your Revenue is now 88% of start
  • Your Gross Profit is 95% of start
  • Your Net Profit is 160% of start
  • End Result - Less work, more cash
Your Customers

Applying ABC Categories to Customers

  • Your Cat A customers: 
  • are your best source of future profits and ongoing referrals, and need top quality nurturing and rewards.
  • These customers are more concerned with the reliability you offer, the fact that they can trust you to deliver, than in price.
  • Invest in discovering the jobs these people do, and the outcomes they are looking for, to ensure you continue to provide perfect outcomes for them.
  • These are the customers that you and your staff will go the extra mile for.
  • Your Cat B customers:
  • have potential to become Cat A with the correct nurturing and encouragement with applicable offers for their jobs to be done.
  • These customers are likely to be more price-sensitive than Cat A customers.
  • Invest in discovering the jobs these people do, and the outcomes they are looking for, to see if you can improve the quality of your support.
  • Your Cat C customers:
  • Are likely to have little loyalty to your business, and are those most likely to hunt for discounts and to drive your profits down.
  • There is little or no benefit to your business in campaigns to attract these customers.


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Privacy Policy

1. Privacy Policy

neXtep Business Builder Community Pte Ltd 201424522Z (We, Our, Us and other similar terms) takes all reasonable steps to implement processes and procedures for the management of Personal Information.

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information collected by Us in the course of providing services to Our customers (Users, You, Your and other similar terms) regardless of the source of that Personal and Business Information. This Privacy Policy is available on our Website located at the URL https://nextepeasy.com (Website).

Terms that are capitalised in this Privacy Policy, take their meaning from Subscription Agreement unless otherwise defined herein.

2. What We collect and how and why We collect it
2.1

Kinds of Personal and Business Information that We collect and hold
We collect a variety of information about Users and their businesses, including names, addresses, financial performance details, customer lists, supplier lists, employee and contractor details and any other data that Users may enter into their business’ accounting software (Personal and Business Information).


2.2

How We collect and hold Personal and Business Information
We may collect Personal and Business Information about Users and potential members via Our Website. We endeavour to collect Personal and Business Information about an individual only from that individual or an authorised representative. Information We obtain from third parties or publicly available sources is limited to circumstances where the person has consented.


2.3

Purpose of collection and use
We collect, hold, use and discloses Personal and Business Information to deliver and improve the services We provide to Our Users. Generally, Users are only obliged to provide Us with information necessary for Us to provide services to them. However, if Users do not provide Us with certain types of Personal and Business Information they may be unable to enjoy the full benefits of the Service or use of some aspects of Our Website.

3. Transfer and storage of Personal and Business Information
3.1

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Personal and Business Information We collect may be accessed by employees and contractors of service providers who We engaged to provide services to Us. Personal and Business Information contained in a record may be transferred and held in countries other than including, but not limited to Singapore, Australia and the USA. We take reasonable steps to ensure that parties that provide Us with necessary services for website hosting and database administration services act in accordance with standard country based privacy principles and have signed undertakings for their staff relating to confidentiality. We also use only recognised service providers who use enterprise level software with up to date SSL Encryption.


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Removal of Personal and Business Information
Unless otherwise required by Law, we only retain your Personal and Business Information for as long as You are a party to Our Subscription Agreement. Upon cancellation of Your Subscription We will store Your Personal and Business Information for a period of thirty (30) days’ and upon expiration of this period, it is erased.


3.3

Performance Metrics
Notwithstanding the above, We will store and utilise Your business performance metrics (BPM), as calculated by Us as we see fit. BPMs are anonymous and cannot be traced back to You or Your Personal and Business Information.

4. Access, correction and complaints
4.1

Accessing Personal and Business Information about You
If You are a User and would like to access or correct Personal and Business Information that We hold about You, please contact:

The Privacy Officer

   neXtep Business Builder Community Pte Ltd 201424522Z
   180 Kitchener Road #09-09/10, Singapore 208539
   Email: [email protected]

You will need to identify Yourself to Our reasonable satisfaction before We will provide You with Personal and Business Information about an individual which We may or may not have in Our possession.

5. Use of Cookies

This Website uses cookies to collect information about You. Cookies enable us to tailor Our service offering (including the Website) and to provide You with a better service. If You use the Website, then You agree that We may use cookies as set out below.


We use the following cookies:
  • Strictly necessary cookies.These are required for the operation of the Website. They include, for example, cookies that enable You to log into secure areas of the Website. They do not gather information about You that could be used for marketing purposes or remembering where You have been on the Internet.
  • Analytical/performance cookies.These allow Us to collect information about how You use the Website, such as, how You move around the Website and whether you experience any errors. These cookies do not collect any information that could identify You; all of the information collected is anonymous and is used only to help Us improve the way the Website works, understand what interests Our users, and measure how effective Our advertising is.
  • Functionality cookies.These are used to recognise You when You return to the Website. They enable Us to personalise Our Content for You, greet You by name, remember Your preferences, and improve Your visit.
6. US Customers
6.1

Personally Identifiable Information
We collect the following information about Users (Personally Identifiable Information or PII): Name and one or more email addresses.


6.2

Use of Personally Identifiable Information
We use PII as is stated in Clauses 2 and 3, above, with respect to the use of Personal and Business Information.
We do not make PII available to third parties.


6.3

Browser “Do Not Track” Signals
We do not honor or react to “Do Not Track” requests. This is because:
a.  We do not share Your PII with third parties.
b.  The PII we do collect is only used to communicate with You, or to improve Your experience in using the Website.

7. Australian Customers
7.1

We endeavour to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s) as contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) (Law).


7.2

Complaints procedure
We provide a service orientated business. Therefore, if You have a complaint about Our collection or use of Personal and Business Information pertaining to You, then We would ask You to contact Our Privacy Officer at first instance. If after investigating Your complaint and reporting to You about an alleged breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and reporting the results of Our investigations to You, You are not satisfied then We would ask that You consult:


The Australian Information Privacy Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Telephone: 1300 363 992
Email: [email protected]
A complaint form can be found at:
https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/privacy-complaint-/



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Data breach policy

neXtep Business Builder Community Pte Ltd 201424522Z (We, Our, Us and other similar terms) is committed to protecting the personal information We collect from Our users (User, You, Your and other similar terms).

This data breach policy (Data Breach Policy) applies to all personal information held by Us and must be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy. This Data Breach Policy sets out how We will generally respond in the event of a data breach.

For the purpose of this Data Breach Policy, a data breach (Data Breach) occurs where personal information held by Us is lost or subjected to unauthorised access, modification, disclosure, or other misuse or interference.

1. Containment, limitation and preliminary assessment of a Data Breach

Containment and limitation
If We become aware of a Data Breach, or potential Data Breach, We will take reasonable steps to:

  • contain it; and
  • limit any harm that has or may occur as a result of it (Containment).


Preliminary assessment
Following Containment, We will undertake a preliminary assessment, intended to identify:

  • what personal information was subject to the Data Breach;
  • what was the cause of the Data Breach;
  • what are the potential consequences of the Data Breach; and
  • who needs to be informed of the Data Breach, including but not limited to:
    • internal staff;
    • external agencies, such as law enforcement bodies; and
    • potentially affected individuals.

2. Risk evaluation

Risk evaluation
Following Containment and a preliminary assessment, We will undertake a risk evaluation in order to determine what other steps are immediately necessary (Risk Evaluation).


Considerations for Risk Evaluation
In completing a Risk Evaluation, we will consider:

  • the type of personal information subject to the Data Breach;
  • the context of the personal information subject to the Data Breach;
  • the cause and extent of the Data Breach;
  • the risk of harm to affected individuals; and
  • the risk of harm to Us.

3. Notification

Application of clause
This clause 3 applies where:

  • following the Risk Evaluation, We determine in our discretion, but acting reasonably, that:
    • there has been a Data Breach; and
    • that Data Breach is likely to result in serious harm to any of the individuals to whom the information the subject of it relates (Eligible Data Breach); or
  • where we are required under any agreements with third parties, to notify them of any Data Breach.


Eligible Data Breach
In assessing whether a Data Breach is an Eligible Data Breach, We will consider the following matters:

  • the kind of information;
  • the sensitivity of the information;
  • whether the information is protected by security measures;
  • the likelihood of any security measures being overcome;
  • the person or persons who have obtained, or could obtain, the information;
  • if a security technology or methodology designed to make the information unintelligible or meaningless to persons without authority to access it:
    • was used in relation to the information; and
    • the likelihood of any such technology or methodology could be circumvented;
  • the nature of the harm that may result; and
  • any other relevant matters.


Statement and notification
As soon as practicable, We will prepare a statement setting out:

  • how any potentially affected individuals may contact Us;
  • a description of the Eligible Data Breach;
  • the kinds of information subject to the Eligible Data Breach; and
  • any actions we recommend affected individuals should take in response (Eligible Data Breach Statement).
We will provide a copy of the Statement to the Information Commissioner if required.
If it is reasonably practicable to do so, we will provide a copy of the Statement to any potentially affected individuals, using their most recent contact details We have on record. We may, in our discretion, publish a copy of the Statement on our Website.

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My Goals

neXtep easy without Goals is just another focus on money - double or triple your profits, and so what?

The reason for setting goals is to have a purpose. You’re not just in the business of making money, you started this venture with a vision. To turn that vision into reality you need to accomplish certain tasks along the way. Tasks mean work, and work is usually a pain. So we use psychological aids to help us. One of those is a measure of how far we have come, both with the individual tasks, and with your ultimate goal.

We see only two possible ultimate goals in business.

  • One of those is to sell it for a profit, a reward for the time and energy you put into it.
  • The second is that the business itself is the reward, the way you are able to help others get their jobs done better, with great outcomes.

But with either option we can’t see you wanting to be putting a lot of time in the mechanics of a business. The administration, the finance, the marketing and selling are specialist skills, and most sBiz people have their interest on focus on the technical capabilities of the business.

So for us it makes sense that the first things you raise money for are to get you out of the mechanics.

  • Lighten the Load. Hire specialists who can make a better difference in their areas than you can
  • Leverage Technology. Invest in productivity resources, to multiply your time and money inputs
  • Prepare Your Succession.Get a manager of the mechanics so you can simply drive to where you want to go, hassle free.

There are other interim goals you can set yourself as well.

  • Rewards for certain milestones you have set yourself - even an initial holiday to reward yourself for all you have done up till now, to give you a chance to recharge yourself for the grand journey ahead.
  • A secret desire you have that needs funding. Part of your own bucket list.
  • Things that are important to you, like your kid’s education, or things we can’t even begin to imagine.

The first step is to set your Goals, and with that purpose, set to work. Pause occasionally, watch and enjoy seeing the changes helped along by neXtep easy come to grow the financial means of turning your Goals into reality.

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Refund Policy

What Is The neXtep easy Refund Policy?

You can get a full refund up to 30 days after purchase date. No questions asked, no hassles. This will cancel your subscription and membership.

Can I Get a Full Refund?

Only within the first 30 days after initial subscription.

Can I Get a Partial Refund?

We don’t give refunds on all or part of current annual subscription - but you’ll have access to all the great resources and community until the end of your current subscription period.

What Happens When I Cancel My Subscription?

You can cancel in the Settings menu under “Cancel Subscription”
We first ensure that your PayPal recurring expense is cancelled, so that you are not billed for any further payments.
You can check that this has occurred - there should be a line entry in the Payments History tab that gives the date of your cancellation.

Can I Get My Data Back from neXtep easy.

Data from your own accounting package always belongs to you, and you can download this at any time. If your subscription is Annual or you have subscribed monthly for 4 or more months, then you are entitled to download neXtep easy performance data for your business.
We retain your data and metrics for 30 days from cancellation so that your data is not lost should you change your mind.

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Income Disclaimer

Thank you for visiting neXtep Business Builder Community Website made available at the URL https://nextepeasy.com (Website). This Income Disclaimer is shown at various parts of our Website. Terms that are capitalised in this document take their meaning from Our Subscription Agreement.


The Application made available for use to Subscribers via the Website is not to be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of income for your business.


The level of success achieved from using the recommendations that the Application makes depends on various factors, including but not limited to, the amount of time you devote to implementing the recommendations made by the Application, ideas and techniques you use to implementing the recommendations made, the amount of financial resources deployed in pursuing the recommendations and various other factors which are beyond our control. In addition and importantly, the recommendations made require accurate and up to date Data to be incorporated into your accounting software. These factors differ among between businesses and therefore we cannot guarantee the success or income achieved by implementing any of the recommendations made by the Application.


Forward looking statements
Any and all forward-looking statements on any of our Websites or associated with the use of the Application are intended to express our opinion of the Income potential that some business may achieve. They do not create a contractual promise and you should not rely on these statements.


Many factors will be important in determining actual results, and we make no guarantee that you will achieve results similar to ours or anyone else’s. We make no guarantee that you will achieve any results from the ideas and techniques contained on our Website or by using the Application.


To the extent that we included any case studies or testimonials on any of our Websites, you can assume that none of these stories in any way represent the "average" or "typical" customer experience.


In fact, as with any goods or services, we know that some people will purchase access to the Application but never use them at all, and therefore will get no results whatsoever. You should therefore not rely on any representation that use of the Application will increase your income by any particular amount or percentage.


Even though we make no guarantees that use of the Application will produce any particular result for your business, you can still take advantage of our return policy if you are not completely satisfied. In such instances, you can return the product for a refund according to the terms indicated in our refund policy described in the Subscription Agreement.


YOU AGREE AND UNDERSTAND THAT neXtep Business Builder Community IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SUCCESS OR FAILURE AS A RESULT OF IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE APPLICATION AND WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR PROVIDE ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER THAT OUR SERVICES WILL PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR RESULT FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

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About Us

In our work with many small businesses, we found time and again that people love their business idea, but hate finances and numbers.

Sure, you have to keep financial records for tax reasons and so on, but many have no idea how to use their financial reports for growing their business.

That’s why the small business failure rate is so high - half disappear within 4 years and many of the remainder are stuck earning less than 10% profit.

That is why so many people have feelings of loss of control and dis-empowerment.

 

We said "There HAS to be a better way", when MILLIONS and MILLIONS of small business are like this.

 

So we thought:

  • WHAT IF you could bypass all those financial reports?
  • WHAT IF you could have a simple, inexpensive way for someone else to analyse those numbers for you?
  • WHAT IF you were simply advised of THE ONE BEST THING TO DO, RIGHT NOW, TO IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS?

Then you can enjoy your focus on the parts of your business you love.

Feel empowered and in control again.

That's what neXtep Business Builder Community does for you.



Graeme

Graeme Stevens

Co-Founder and CEO
Gwyn

Gwyn Thomas

Co-Founder and CMO
Gabriel

Gabriel Pavel

Platform Manager
Bhawan

Bhawan Baweja

Developer

Michelle

Michelle Lewis

Graphic Design

Anne

Anne Vroegop

UX / Gamification



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Search Result For {Dashboard}





































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Vital Signs Groups

These 3 Vital $igns help you understand the financial health of your business. neXtep easy compares your business performance to best practice for your industry.


Focus first on re-inforcing Cash Flow. This is the lifeblood of your business.


Profitability is the next most important Sign, it's the purpose of running a business. It's your business muscle.


Growth needs a strong framework of both cash flow and profitability, to ensure your business can sustain the stresses involved.



























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Reports
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Growth Comparison

Check if your growth is healthy - your profit growth should preferably at least match your sales growth, otherwise your business is working harder rather than smarter.

1. Sales are not nearly as important to measure and improve as is profit.

2. Gross Profit is a factor of your prices, the discounts you give away, and your supplier-related costs.

3. Pricing strategies that grow your bottom line without having to increase sales volumes are enormously attractive. If your current net profit is 20%, for example, a direct increase in net profit of 5% can have the same impact as a sales increase of 25%.























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My Feedback

From me to neXtep easy


Page - My Business

From Cras sit amet Day, date, time

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.

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Page - My Business

From Cras sit amet Day, date, time

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.

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Page - My Business

From Cras sit amet Day, date, time

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.


Page - My Business

From Cras sit amet Day, date, time

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.


Page - My Business

From Cras sit amet Day, date, time

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.


Page - My Business

From Cras sit amet Day, date, time

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.

Cras sit amet nibh libero, in gravida nulla. Nulla vel metus scelerisque ante sollicitudin commodo. Cras purus odio, vestibulum in vulputate at, tempus viverra turpis. Fusce condimentum nunc ac nisi vulputate fringilla. Donec lacinia congue felis in faucibus.

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Our Cookie Policy

This website uses Cookies to collect information about you. If you use this website, then you accept that we can use the Cookies set out below.

1. What are Cookies?

Cookies are small data files which are placed on your computer by this website and which collect certain personal information about you.


2. Why do we use Cookies?

Cookies enable us to tailor our service offering (including the website) and to provide you with a better service.


3. What Cookies do we use?

We use the following Cookies:
  • Strictly necessary Cookies. These are Cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, Cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website. They do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing purposes or remembering where you've been on the Internet.
  • Analytical/performance Cookies. They allow us to collect information about how you use our website, such as, how you move around our website and if you experience any errors. These Cookies do not collect any information that could identify you; all of the information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve the way our website works, understand what interests our users and measure how effective our advertising is.
  • Functionality Cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences and improve your visit.

4. How to reject Cookies

If you want to reject any of the Cookies that we use, then you will need to change your website browser settings.


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Action

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Welcome aboard neXtep easy!
What is Onboarding?
  • Before you are able to use neXtep easy, we need to tailor our app to your specific needs.
  • We need to hook up to your accounting software and pull in some data, then learn more about what you do and how you do it, so our future advice to you is as specific as possible, and so we don’t waste your time.
  • In the process, we will also help you become aware of some of the key features of neXtep easy.
  • And we will also give you an indication of the immediate potential income improvement you can make.
Fast Track Setup
  • This track is for people who want to get started real fast.
    • Supporting explanations are minimised, and you will whizz through.
Learn More Setup
  • This track is for people who would like a more leisurely approach, and would like to understand more about what neXtep easy is and does.
  • You will use these Help page sliders more, and gain a deeper understanding of the onboarding process.
Buttons

come back later. Clicking this button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.



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Help & Feedback
Page Help Tab
  • By clicking on this yellow tab you open the Page help slider for the page involved.
  • Page help is there to give you more specific support and instructions.
Feedback Tab
  • Most pages in the onboarding process have the feedback tab.
  • By clicking on this tab you open the feedback form.
  • Page feedback
  • Any comments or suggestions you have for improving this process, we can use to help make onboarding even better for others that follow you.
  • So please feel free to use this at any time.
  • Click on the emoji that best suits your experience.
  • Rank from 1 to 10 on your desire to recommend us to your friends
  • Choose a feedback subject:
  • Page feedback
  • In your feedback, we’d love to hear particularly of the reasons that led to your ratings choices.
Buttons

  • back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
  • next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
  • come back later. Clicking this button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.


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Refer Us

We love that you love neXtep easy and want your friends, family and business networks to know how great it is as well. Simply click here, and send us their email address and name and we will take care of the rest.





















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Customize

It’s important to complete this section as accurately and completely as possible in order for us to give you the most accurate Action Plan for your business. You can refer back to the Customize section anytime you need to update your details.


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My Business

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Help Tips
  • Help tips are available on most key pages to help you understand the purpose of information on that page
Access Help Tips
  • You turn Help Tips on and off with the button above the Page Help tab. Page Help Buttons
  • All Help Tips on the page are then visible. Here’s an example from the take Action page before and after you click on the help Tips button:
  • Before: Take Action
  • After: Take Action Help Tips
  • Click on any finger to open and read the Tip.
  • Click on the blue ‘x’ to close the Tip.
  • Click on ‘Next Tip’ to move to the next Tip in sequence. Take Action Tip
Buttons
  • back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
  • next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
  • come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.


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Dashboard

Your neXtep easy dashboard takes you past standard business metrics, to summarize and highlight both performance and potential of your great small business.

My Business Health

All financial metrics are summarized into three key areas:

  • Cash Flow
  • Profitability
  • Growth

Click on each of these labels for a detailed description

What is Working Capital?

Working Capital includes:

  • Accounts Receivable - money due from Customers
  • Accounts Payable - money due to Suppliers
  • Inventory - cost value of all forms of inventory neXtep Financials compares the amount of working capital you have with best practice for your industry. The amount shown is what you can potentially release for other opportunities if you meet best practice days.

What Is Profit from Growth?

Profit from Growth includes additional profit available to your business, after meeting best practice for normal profit improvement: neXtep Financials compares your current growth with best practice for your industry. The focus is on profit, not sales. The amount shown is what you can potentially gain if you meet industry best practice for growth of profit.

Profit Increase - Why Is It So Important?

Profit Includes:

  • Gross Profit, the difference between your Net Sales and Cost of Sales Net Profit, the difference between your Gross Profit and Expenses.
  • neXtep Financials compares the amount of Gross Profit and Net Profit you currently generate with best practice for your industry. The amount shown is what you can potentially gain if you meet industry best practice for profit generation.

What Do I Use The Dashboard For?

These are all of the critical metrics used in neXtep Financials. They are listed in decreasing importance of how they are currently affecting your business performance. Red highlights metrics at less than 50% of Best Practice, Yellow highlights less than 75%. You can set targets for these to improve your performance. Then choose the actions that will help you achieve your targets

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Start With Smart Tweaks

We classify Tweaks as Smart, Classic and Investor.


Smart Tweaks are the best tweaks to start with.


Smart Tweaks:

  • Usually increase profit without adding extra work expense
  • Require little or no resources (time or cash) and
  • They are fast and easy to implement,


Smart Tweak Examples in neXtep easy

  • Increase prices
  • Simplify customer choice
  • Optimize staff capabilities
  • Rationalize inventory.


There are 15 Smart Tweaks in neXtep easy.


Move On To Classic Tweaks

Classic Tweaks use some financial resources, and typically generate additional on-going expenses.

Classic Tweaks typically increase the size of your business – more sales, more Cost of Sales, more expenses and finally more net income.


So Classic Tweaks require more work - more supervision, often more complex systems. We call them Same Old, Same Old - but they can certainly help you grow your business. Just not your first choice.


Classic Tweak Examples in neXtep easy:

  • Increase number of customers
  • Increase items per customer

There are more than 30 Classic Tweaks in neXtep easy

Finish With Investor Tweaks

Investor Tweaks usually require significant resources to generate an increase in cash.


In other words, you need to invest a lot of time and cash to get that cash return. So they are not the best Tweaks to start with when you want to grow your business.


Examples of Investor Tweaks:

  • New sales outlets
  • New distribution channels
  • New product development

There are 6 Investor Tweaks in neXtep easy.

Product and Services

Increase your profit from the components you offer as your product or service.


Your choices mainly involve:

  • Increasing your prices
  • Reducing your cost of sales
  • Varying the product mix


Smart Tweaks
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Priority

In small business, there is a definite need to manage your time well. So your first requirement is to focus on what matters, and rank your activities accordingly..

Important-Urgent

These are the first tasks to do, to ensure your business survival. Our ranking of tasks puts these tasks to the top of your priority list.

Important-Non-Urgent

These tasks are more strategic. They are critical to your business, but generally best left to the stage when you have more free time, or you have specialist support to carry them out.

Not Important-Urgent

These may be not important to you but to someone else - like the tax department. So they must be done.

Not Important-Non-Urgent

Keep these activities for your leisure time.

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Site Map

Take Action

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Dashboard

  • Vital Signs
  • Business Opportunities
  • Managing Growth
  • My Action Overview

Customize

  • About Me
  • My Photo and Logo
  • My Business - core
  • My Business - activities
  • My Business - filters
  • Data Connect
  • Change Password

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  • Summary
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Reports

  • Gross Profit and Sales
  • Customers
  • Inventory

Help

  • Quick Tour
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  • FAQs
  • neXtep Tutorial
  • Help Index

Information

  • About Us
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  • Subscriber Agreement
  • Cookie Policy
  • Data Breach Policy
  • Income Disclaimer
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Cash Flow

Cash is the lifeblood of your business and is the first area to manage. Adequate cash flow ensures survival and viability as a business. A good surplus of cash gives you the freedom and options you need to have for a long term plan.


Your first cash flow need is to ensure your sales generate enough Gross Profit to cover your expenses.


The second is to ensure that you are managing the flow of cash into (Receivables) and out of (Payables) your business, as well as what is transferred into a potential asset (Inventories.)

Cashflow
Product and Services

Increase your profit from the components you offer as your product or service.


Your choices mainly involve:

  • Increasing your prices
  • Reducing your cost of sales
  • Varying the product mix

The recommended quick and dirty solution is to increase your prices.


Longer term, the key to successful selling is to align your offer with a job to be done by your customer. When you align this way, and (just as importantly) help your customer produce perfect outcomes from that job, you are no longer selling a commodity. Now your pricing can increase to match demand.


Similarly, you product or service components should only include the elements that help get the job done well. Any more elements don’t add value for the customer and are wasted cash for you.

We include non-cost items such as warranties that impact on the emotional job to be done, of reassurance.


Most Product Area actions are Smart Tweaks, because they convert improvements directly to the bottom line, as increased cash.

Product and Services
Inventory

Increase your sales and profits by up to 50% the Smart way.

The two key objectives with inventory are to:

  • increase the availability of top-selling items, while
  • reducing your cash investment in non-selling products.

The first step in this process is to categorize your inventory.


In most business cases:


Cat Items GPShare Cum.Items Cum. Profit
A Cat Top 5% 45% 5% 45%
B Cat Next 15% 35% 20% 80%
C Cat Middle 30% 15% 50% 95%
D Cat Last 50% 5% 100% 100%


  • It is very common for a business without good inventory management to have an average immediate availability rate of only 65%.
  • Conversely, that means 35% of your range is not available to your customers at any one time.
  • With some basic changes you can adjust that so your top sellers are achieving around 98% availability.
  • This is a 50% improvement in your sales capability.

It’s not only inventory in your possession, it’s also about inventory to hand for the customer. Just by improving your in-store replenishment you can generate a typical 17% increase is sales and profit.


More inventory available to the customer also provides a valuable Impulse items sales increase.

Inventory
Customer Order Size

Increase profit per customer


Convert awareness of your product or service to a sale.


Optimize that sale.


Focus on helping your customer get their job done and in the process (using a plant nursery analogy), sell the hole and its associated items, not just the plant. The fertiliser, the stake, the gardening gloves, the watering can, the kneeling mat, the sun hat, and the consultancy for garden layout.


That is optimum cross-selling, where your sales efforts are directed to helping your customer get perfect outcomes.


Customer order size
Number of Customer Orders

Increase the number of customer orders generated, from your existing customers and from new customers.


Expand your customer base. Promote, use new sales distribution channels, expand your outlets.


The more customer orders you have, the higher the revenue. Your key concern here is to ensure that your growth in revenue is not more than your growth rate of Gross profit and overheads.


How well can your business scale? A business selling online software can scale easily with little or no additional costs. On the other hand, a service provider selling his/her time has very clear scaling limits.


These Actions include some of the most investment-heavy options, and are generally better left until last when your other actions have generated sufficient cash to carry the costs without risks from loans or mortgages.


Number of customer orders
Expenses

Every dollar you save in expenses goes immediately to profit. Your first job is to plug any obvious leaks, and look first in the areas of highest variable costs. The 80/20 rule applies here, too. Staff productivity is usually first area of concern.


Actions focus:

  • Eliminate or at least reduce any overheads that aren’t involved in adding value to your customer.
  • Delegate approvals and decision-making as close to the action as possible.
  • Apply technology to standardize and simplify processes.
  • Audit regularly to reduce waste and minimize theft.
Expenses


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Some Quick Tips
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  • Just click “come back later” on the orange button below. You work will be saved.

  • Note: You will need to complete the onboarding process before you are able to use neXtep easy.

  • If you feel stuck or need more information, simply click on the yellow “Help” button to the right.

  • Don’t forget to leave us feedback!


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WOW !!
Additional Cash
  • Here, we’ve calculated your potential for earning additional money from just one of our Action Plan activities for you.
  • This is an annual increase over your current earnings, before tax.
  • This increase can be immediate and requires minimal or no outlay from you.

Return on Investment
  • Here, we show you the comparison between the annual subscription for neXtep easy and the potential increase for you from this one activity.

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WOW !! Background Data - Step 1
  • In the next few slides we will be showing you what impact a small price increase can have on your business results.
  • In this first slide we show your current situation.

Data
  • This data shows your revenue and profit performance over the previous 12 months.
  • The data is taken from your accounting app.
  • If you have operating for less than 12 months, then the data is annualised.

Chart
  • The chart shows the same table data in in a more easily reviewed column format.

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WOW !! Background Data - Step 2
  • In the next few slides we will be showing you what impact a small price increase can have on your business results.
  • In this page we highlight the impact of a percentage increase.
  • This type of increase is something you can apply quickly for immediate positive results.

Data
What You made last 12 months Here, you are shown first your current annualised revenue
Your price increase goal In the grey area, you can see we have applied a default Price Increase of 10% across your full range.
You can vary that amount, play with different percentages to check the impact.
What you could have (Net Profit) The result of that % increase in your revised net profit.
Additional cash Here you can see the actual increase amount you will get, before tax.

  • The total amount of your price increase flows straight to your bottom line of take home money.
  • There are no expenses to deduct.

Chart
  • The data in this chart shows the relative increase in percentage terms.

Buttons
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WOW !! Background Data - Step 3
  • In this step you can trial different levels of customer loss, to see the results for yourself.

Data
What you sold last 12 months Here, you are shown first your current annualised revenue
Lost sales allowance In the grey area, you can see we have applied default lost sales of 5% across your full range.
You can vary that amount, play with different percentages to check the impact.
In reality, most people lose no customers or only 2 or 3% - especially if you follow our Action Plan on how to apply this increase to your optimum advantage.
Revised sales base after loss The result of that % reduction in your current sales.
This is your new starting position for applying your price increase, for your remaining customers.
Revised net profit after loss This is your new starting position of net profit before applying the price increase.

Chart
  • The chart shows the before (blue) and after (green) possible impact of lost sales from a price increase.

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WOW !! Background Data - Step 4
Data
  • Here is the summary of the net profit position after both a price increase and a loss of some customers.
  • To keep the data simple we are showing only the net position and the final amount of additional cash you have gained.

Chart
  • The chart shows the net profit figures in an easy format so you can take in the result at a glance.

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How Much Would You Lose?
  • Worried that you will lose your customers if you increase your prices?
  • Don’t fear a price increase!
  • For example, with a 10% price increase and current 10% net profit, you would have to lose 50% of your current customers before you are worse off!

Chart
Chart
  • The red line on the chart plots the % price increase effects on different levels of current net profit.
  • The blue dot on the line represents your own current net profit amount
  • When you change the price increase % in the box below the chart, this line will move up or down the chart. The blue dot will also move along the line to reflect the change.
img
  • From your blue dot, and reading across to the vertical axis on the left, you can see what percentage of customer revenue you would need to lose before our net profit was right back where you started.
  • For example, with a 10% price increase and current 10% net profit, you would have to lose 50% of your current customers before you are worse off!
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Action Plan
  • This is an outline only of the Action Plan page you will use to implement a price increase.
  • The Action Plan not only shows you what but also HOW to go about the activity to get best results.

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Help Tips
  • Help tips are available on most key pages to help you understand the purpose of information on that page
Access Help Tips
  • You turn Help Tips on and off with the button above the Page Help tab. Page Help Buttons
  • All Help Tips on the page are then visible. Here’s an example from the take Action page before and after you click on the help Tips button:
  • Before: Take Action
  • After: Take Action Help Tips
  • Click on any finger to open and read the Tip.
  • Click on the blue ‘x’ to close the Tip.
  • Click on ‘Next Tip’ to move to the next Tip in sequence. Take Action Tip
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Page Help Tab

Page Help Tab
  • By clicking on this yellow tab you open the Page help slider for the page involved.
  • Page Help is there to give you more specific support and instructions, to help you get done the job on that page.
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What are Jobs to be Done

Think for a moment about why people buy, and what motivates them to choose your business over all your competitors.

Why People Buy
  • Customers don’t buy from you because they are concerned about your welfare.
  • Customers buy because they are looking to satisfy a need.
  • In some cases that need is a bargain that is driven by greed,
  • But people with this greed need are rarely your ideal customers - unless you are a bargain supplier.
  • For most of us, the last thing your business needs is a majority of customers that only buy on price.
  • In fact, most people buy because they have a job they want to do. And they are willing to pay a price premium for a great outcome from that job.
Job Outcomes
  • People judge how well their job is done by the outcomes they achieve.
  • Only the person doing the job can define those outcomes, and the level of success defined.
  • Your job is to discover those required outcomes and then to find:
    • Unmet outcomes for product improvement and a better price point.
    • Over-met outcomes for product simplification and a cheaper price point.
  • Outcomes can be emotional and social as well as functional.
Focus on Specialisation
  • Your business needs to move from the mindset of being all things to all people.
  • The need you are best focused on is a specific job your customer needs to have done.
  • And customers will keep coming back to you when you provide solutions to get that job done better than anyone else can.
  • We call that providing perfect outcomes.
  • You become a specialist in your small business niche.
  • When you focus on providing perfect outcomes and are successful in this, you will find that you can command premium prices for what you offer.
Products and Jobs
  • People - your customers - “hire” products and services to help get a job done.
  • A product can typically be used on 3-4 jobs.
  • Each of those jobs is typically a different customer segment.
  • Consider your product or service as a Job aid for a customer segment,
  • Define your customer segments based on motivations, context and triggers.
  • For the Job, focus on the triggering event or situation, the motivation and goal, and the intended outcome:
    • Triggering/situation event: When __________, ...
    • Motivations/goal: ...I want to ____________ ...
    • Intended outcome: ...so that I can _____________
    • Job Story: When _____ , I want to _____ , so I can _____
  • Leave behind segments based on demographics or personas.
  • Think it terms of the why, rather than the who and what to uncover true customer context and motivations. WHY people do things is the most important discovery you can make.
How to Grow
  • Your business will be much more likely to thrive and grow where:
    • You focus on a jobs to be done (JTBD) niche.
    • That JTBD niche has a suitably large market of job performers you can reach.
    • You market to the job performers rather than to superficial market segments based on gender, age, location or other non-relevant factors.
    • Your business focuses on providing support for perfect outcomes for those JTBD.
    • You and your staff develop core skills directed towards that support.
    • Your business processes are directed to optimize that support.
    • Your other business resources are also directed to those key JTBD.
  • Immediately you can see that you can’t be all things to all people.
  • You can learn to say no to requests that fall outside what you do best.
  • But you can also see opportunities in cross-selling products and services that support those perfect outcomes.
Case Study
  • Take a nursery.
  • Nurseries sell plants.
  • At least that is the old view..
  • The second oldest view is that they sell a hole in the ground,
    • The plant
    • The fertiliser
    • A holding stick
    • A watering can
    • A hose
    • Hose fittings
    • Gardening gloves
    • A kneeling mat
    • And so on - lots of cross-selling opportunities
  • Neither of those views focuses on the Lifetime Value (LTV) of your customer.
  • But the new view is - you sell a perfect outcome for a job to be done
    • Why did the customer buy that plant?
    • Can you offer advice on the best use of that plant?
    • Can you offer a drone view of their property?
    • Can you impose on that view, a suggested planting plan for the whole property?
    • Different stages of tree and shrubs growth?
    • Can you show the full growth view of the plants you suggest?
    • Can you show where to best display annuals, and types
    • Can you provide a seasonal planting schedule for them?
    • Can you offer on-site planting services versus DIY?
    • Can you give them an attractive offer for an ongoing contract?
  • You can think of many other industry-based JTBD opportunities:
    • Fashion - wardrobe optimization - this goes with that
    • Wines - bottle sales based on tasting program over 6 months
    • Specialty Foods - menu accessory options
    • Restaurants - special dietary nights ( eg purple foods menu)
    • Events - think social and emotional outcomes as well as functional.
Can You Help Others?
  • What is your industry niche opportunity?
  • Let us know via the feedback link on this page.



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CAC - Cost to Acquire a Customer
What Is CAC?
  • CAC is the cost of convincing a potential customer to buy a product or service.
  • The cost of acquiring a customer is best considered as an investment in the future profitability of your business.
  • However, at the same time, your CAC can destroy your business if it is allowed to reduce your CLV:CAC of around 3:1, or if it takes much more than a year to repay that cost.
  • So keeping your CACin check and forever working to minimize it, is a critical component of your business role.
Did You Know?
  • It costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.
  • Zaius
  • On average, only 20% of first-time buyers will make a second purchase - but if you’re able to get a customer to make that repeat purchase,
    • 45% of repeat buyers make a third purchase, and
    • 60% of those buyers make a fourth.
  • Overall revenue increases by approximately 10% for each 1% of shoppers who return for a subsequent purchase.
  • This means that if online retailers retained 10% more of their existing customers, they would double their revenue.
  • The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% on average, while the probability of selling to a new shopper is only 5-20%.
  • On average, returning customers spend 67% more than first-time customers.
  • Zaius
What Costs Are Included?
Types of Costs
  • Costs in your business could be segregated as follows:
    • Cost to buy a new customer - CAC - customer acquisition costs
    • Costs to keep a customer - Customer retention costs
    • Business support operations (not included above)
    • Regulatory Compliance costs
    • Other
  • For CAC, we are interested in new customer acquisition costs.
New Customer Acquisition Costs
  • Measure these costs across your business.
    • Direct marketing costs
    • Direct selling costs
    • marketing and sales salaries
    • sales support salaries
    • agency costs
    • website presence
    • social media costs
    • installation costs
    • price incentives
How To Improve CAC
Minimize Selling Costs
  • Obtain recurring revenue (eg subscriptions)
  • Optimize upsells and cross-sells
  • Product line expansion
Improve Marketing Channel Costs
  • Wherever possible, use free channels such as PR, and influencers.
  • Work for viral growth from social network referrals of your posts.
  • Seek optimized keywords and phrases to reduce cost per click outlays.
  • Make use of Google + to help lift your page rankings.
  • Inbound marketing - your distributed content with optimized SEO.
  • Use email marketing.
  • Become a thought leader in your market niche.
  • Leverage your best customers as evangelists.
Improve Your Conversion Rates
  • The higher your conversion rate, the lower your CAC.
  • Use A/B testing to optimize your conversion.
  • Some landing page areas to focus on:
    • your offer
    • page structure
    • CTA layout and design
    • testimonials
    • Security trust marks
    • guarantees
  • Utilize emails, retargeting
Minimize Human Touch
  • Wherever possible, provide the answers your prospects need on your website.
  • Use self-service Q & A, chatbots, better web interface.
Productivity Improvements
  • Marketing automation - software tools to automate wherever possible your Sales and Marketing work processes.


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CLV to CAC Ratio
Why Use CLV:CAC Ratio?
  • This is one of the most critical values used in knowing the longer term profitability of your business.
  • Most people will focus on gaining new customers but not on the numbers behind that acquisition - how much can you AFFORD to spend to ‘buy’ a new customer?
  • This ratio will tell you.
Terms Used

CAC - Cost to Acquire a Customer.

CLV - Customer Lifetime Value. Also referred to as LTV.

The Ratio
  • CLV : CAC
  • Divide CLV by CAC
CLV Calculation
  • CLV expressed as revenue over time.
  • Most users use a customer lifetime as 3 years.
  • Calculate how long your average customer stays with you before they cancel their subscription, or move on to your competitor. The longer the stay, the greater the value s/he is to your business.
  • (Average Value of a Sale) X (Number of Repeat Transactions) X (Average Retention Time in Months or Years for a Typical Customer)
CAC Calculation
  • A broad rule is Sales and Marketing Costs / New Customers Won
  • However, your S & M costs should be separated into three categories, with each to be used in their appropriate area:
    • amounts spent on acquiring new customers
    • amount spent on retaining existing customers (customer success)
    • amount spent on gaining referral customers
Your Ratio Target
  • The ideal ratio is around 3:1 - in other words the average value of a customer needs to be around three times the cost to acquire that customer.
  • If the lifetime of a customer is 3 years, then you would be looking to recover the cost to acquire within the first year.
  • A ratio of around 1:1 is costing you too much, with little chance of long-term profitability.
  • A ratio closer to 5:1 means you are likely missing opportunities to grow your business.


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Customer Mix
Why Use Customer Mix
  • Not all customers are created equal, and not all customer segments are created equal.
  • You can optimize your profits better when you understanding the characteristics and profitability of different customer segments you WISH to attract.
  • The trick is to isolate the really critical elements for segmentation, and then apply those to select your most profitable customers to focus on.
Where Customer Mix Fits Into Your Business Success Model
Business Success Model
The Importance of Customer Loyalty
Customer Loyalty Customer Loyalty Graph
Selecting your Customers
  • In his book “Value-based Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Corporate Growth and Shareholder Value”, Peter Doyle has recommended the following criteria for optimizing customer selection.
    • Strategic Importance
    • Customer Significance
    • Customer Profitability
    • Customer Loyalty
  • We use these criteria for ranking customers in neXtep easy.
New Sales vs Customer Success
New Sales vs Customer Success
  • New customers are expensive, but existing customers come by way of new customers—you can’t have the former without the latter.
  • And to turn expensive revenue into lean revenue, customers need to be successful immediately.
  • That means from day one sales reps need to assess the renewal and expansion possibilities for any of their prospects. In the graphic below, it means finding more of the 8% of customers generating exceptional revenue.
  • New Sales vs Customer Success Graph
  • If this isn’t a priority for a sales team then they can be acquiring the most costly of revenue: non-profitable revenue. These are customers that are badly qualified and that aren’t going to have success with your product. They’ll churn at the first possible moment, possibly never even escaping the payback period and remaining an outright cost.
  • This is one of the first points where your sales and customer success teams can work together.
  • Using their knowledge of current successful customers, customer success managers can spot bad deals before they happen and notify the sales team that a prospect fits this specific profile.
http://www.insightsquared.com/2016/05/the-economics-of-the-upsell/
Define your Customer Segments
  • We suggest you define your key customer segments based on following criteria.
  • The combination of these segments create your customer mix.

Criteria Description
Market Segment
  • A market niche based on Jobs to be Done JTBD, that you specialize.
  • You defined your market segments in the Action Plan “Position Your Business - Market.”
Job Executioner or Customer
  • We are defining your ideal customer in this Action Plan.
  • The required capabilities of the person who performs the JTBD - your customer.
  • You defined your job executioners in the Action Plan “Position Your Business - Market.”
Product
  • The product or service you provide to help get the job done.
  • You defined your related products/services in the Action Plan “Position Your Business - Product”
  • See your Product Profitability Report.”
ABC Cat
  • The likelihood of this customer buying multiple times and/or multiple products.
  • Review ABC Categories and your current Customer ABC Cat Report.
  • See also our report on Cat A Customers with Cat A products.
Retention Rates
  • Your ABC Customer categories help you define your retained customers, who are much more profitable. Obviously, your Cat A and cat B customers are your repeat order customers, those you wish to cultivate and retain.
Loyalty Coefficient
  • Recognizing that some groups of customers are inherently more loyal to your business than others. Discovering these groups can be a goldmine for your business - it helps you focus on who truly adds value, and can help you zero in on the most effective acquisition channels.
  • People who score your business performance 5/5 on a satisfaction survey are likely to be 6 times more likely to repurchase than those who score you at ⅘.
Channel
  • A channel or multi-channel path for the job executioner/customer to acquire your product, including their choice(s) for fulfillment.
  • Your channel selection should first accord with which one/s best help/s you service your most loyal customers.
  • You defined your acquisition channels in the Action Plan “Position Your Business - Channels.”
  • This customer mix pie chart considers distribution channels only.
  • Customer Mix
Time critical
  • Consider any time constraints on the customer's acquisition or use of your product. Do they regularly purchase from you on the same day of the week or month? If so, should you direct your marketing campaign to them around those periods?
Customer Lifetime
  • Every customer you have has a lifecycle with your product.
  • The length of time a customer stays with you varies - primarily according to their Jobs to be Done, and the competitive benefit you offer in helping them get their jobs done with perfect outcomes. For example, Starbucks have a customer lifetime of 20 years. Many businesses plan on 3 years.
  • Customer Lifetime
  • The point of this is that, throughout the life of your business, people will leave you and you will need to replace them.
  • The clever bit is being proactive about who you choose to replace them.
Customer Segments

There is a lot of information that explains how to segment customers so I will not go into the details. I will, however, highlight three key points for CS teams to consider when looking at segmenting their customer base as part of their customer expansion strategy:


  • Maturity model:
    • Assess how business maturity plays into the adoption of your product.
    • If your product is self-explanatory and easy to use, this will not factor significantly into your segmentation model.
    • If, however, you have a complex product that requires CS teams to provide a lot of training or Action Plan, you will likely want to use business maturity as a segmentation criteria.
  • Revenue potential:
    • If you want to expand an account, there has to be the potential to do so.
    • Look at whether your customers will buy more of your product.
    • If they have bought everything they can, the potential to spend is zero, even if they are a large customer.
    • You will want to retain these customers but you won’t spend much time selling them more.
    • Conversely, new customers offer opportunities to sell them more licenses or move into new functional areas of the organization.
    • Given the high sales potential, you should look at how to incorporate opportunities for customer service teams to build a roadmap for expansion that ties into the customer’s business objectives.
  • ARR & Company Revenue/Size:
    • Don’t fall into the trap of believing there is a lot of expansion potential with a customer due to the company’s revenues or size, or because they are currently large spenders with you.
    • You may have mid-sized companies with more expansion potential than larger companies due to corporate initiatives.
    • As I mentioned before, it is important to know why your customer purchased your product and what they want to to achieve within their organization.
    • You need to understand their long-term goals and determine how your product grows with them.

Bottom line

  • Customer segmentation plays a key part in determining how and with which customers you expand.
  • Understanding key attributes specific to your product and the industries you serve will help to form the basis for segmentation.
  • Customer success teams can use this knowledge to determine the best way to move customers forward on their journey while continually maturing their use of your product.
  • Don’t let revenue dry up like a fish out of water. Build a segmentation model that lets you swimmingly service all customers to their full potential while driving your revenue to its full potential!

How to Improve Gross Margin Production Without Changing Your Prices or Lowering Your Costs

  • To improve profit performance, most people naturally assume that you have to raise your prices or lower your costs---preferably doing both at the same time.
  • But your prices and your costs are not the only variables in the equation.
  • In this video guide, you'll learn:
    • How and why your customer mix may have even more influence on profits than your pricing.
    • Why certain customers are inherently more profitable than others and how to identify them.
    • How one company managed their customer mix to improve revenues, profits, and retention.
    • A straightforward approach you can use to begin proactively managing your mix with less risk.


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Inventory Max Min Values
Our Objectives
  1. Increase availability of items ready for sale
  2. Reduce cash tied up in inventory
  3. Keep the system simple to operate on the 80/20 rule - 80% of the results from 20% of the effort.
The Tools We Use
  1. Max Min System
  2. ABC Categories
  3. IT Calculations and Reports
1. What Are Max Min
  • Max and Min are really very simple concepts in inventory management:
    • Max is the maximum inventory quantity you will order up to.
    • Min is the inventory quantity level where you want to reorder again, so you don’t run out of stock. Min is like a trigger.
    • Your purchase order quantity is whatever you need to get your inventory level back up to Max again.
How Much Inventory Will I Have?
  • Your actual inventory on Hand is rarely the same as Max. That is because there is a time lag between when you order and when you receive the items from your supplier.
  • On average, your actual inventory will be Safety Stock plus half the sum of Review Time plus Lead Time, or SS + {(RT + LT)/2}
What Are ABC Categories?
  • view the ABC Categories slider
Inventory Is All About Time
  • If you, my supplier, are next door to my shop with a hole in the wall between us, I have no need for inventory. When a customer comes in and asks for an item, I call out to you and you pass me the item. Almost instantaneous.
  • But the further away you, my supplier, move, the more need I have for stock to sell to my customer. There’s more time involved in getting that stock from you.
  • Also the way you send stock to me affects the amount of time involved. A jet plane or a slow boat from China?
  • So time affects stock levels –
    • increase time, increase stock
    • reduce time and you reduce stock.
The Three Elements of Time
  • The Time factor has three elements that affect how much inventory you will hold.

Review Period Lead Time Safety Stock

  • Review Period.
    • This is the period between placing orders.
    • How often do you order?
    • If you order every day you need to order less than ordering every month. T
    • The actual period will be a balance between the costs to place the order in your own business and with your supplier versus the cost of freight and savings in inventory.
    • Weekly and monthly review periods are most common in sBiz.
    • Our default values in neXtep easy Inventory Model are:
      • Cat A - 7 Days - keep a tight overview on these items
      • Cat B - 14 Days - keep a close, burt not tight overview of these items
      • Cat C - 30 days - the additional days here virtually act as safety stock.
      • Cat D - 0

  • Lead Time.
    • This is the most critical time factor, the amount of time it takes to place an order and get inventory from your supplier.
    • Our default value for Lead Time is 30 days, but you can adjust that to suit your business.
    • There are three Lead Time elements involved:
      • the time it takes your business to realize a need, approve and place the order
      • the time it takes for the supplier to receive and process your order, prepare the items for you, and deliver.
      • the time it takes you to check the delivery, place the item in inventory and add it to your stock record so people know it’s available for sale.

  • Safety Stock.
    • Safety stock is used to cover variations in demand during your lead time.
    • The bigger the variation around your average demand, the more safety stock you need during Lead Time.
    • For quick and simple safety stock, we suggest:
      • Cat A - one month
      • Cat B - two weeks
      • Cat C - no safety stock
      • Cat D - no safety stock
      Total Inventory Default Days

  • Total Inventory Default Days Table
Reducing Your Inventory Time
  • Review Period and Safety Stock are totally under your control and most easily reduced.
  • Lead Time has two of the three elements under your control also. Work with your supplier to cooperatively reduce their lead times.
Three Interactive Transaction Flows Affecting Time
  • Time also is impacted by the three inter-related transaction flows during lead time.
  • These flows are generally tied in time to the flow of the slowest element. These are:
    • Flow of information - use electronic transfers wherever possible, integrated with your supplier, including agreed business rules for approvals.
    • Flow of money - electronic funds transfer wherever possible
    • Flow of items - balanced between flow speed and cost of freight, Consider also warehousing costs - the slower the flow, the more inventory has to be held to cover the extended lead time, and holding inventory costs money.

  • This is how you set your inventory and reorder point levels.
    • Your Min (minimum level) is the time combination of (Lead Time + Safety Stock) X Demand. When your inventory drops to this level, it is time to order so you don’t run out of stock.
    • Your Max (maximum level) is your Min + (Review Period x Demand).
  • When you reorder, your reorder quantity takes you back up to the Max. Very simple, but very effective


Average Demand
Converting Annual Sales to Average Daily Demand
  • To create average demand we use annual sales and divide by 12.

What Are We likely to Sell Tomorrow?
  • Nobody really knows exactly what quantity you will sell today or tomorrow.
  • So people make estimates, which are called a forecast.
  • Forecasts are generally a combination of what you have sold before adjusted by what you think will happen tomorrow.
  • You don’t have to be precise to start. Just buying the same quantity you sold last week or month is better than no system at all.
  • neXtep easy doesn’t yet provide a means for you to add a forecast adjustment to your sales history of demand.
  • Instead, use your Safety Stock - add a percentage factor for known growth (or reduction as a negative)

Calculating Max and Min Values
  • This is how you set your inventory and reorder point levels.
Max
  • Your Max (maximum level) is your Min + (Review Period x Demand).
Min
  • Your Min (minimum level) is the time combination of (Lead Time + Safety Stock) X Demand. When your inventory drops to this level, it is time to order so you don’t run out of stock.

  • When you reorder, your reorder quantity takes you back up to the Max. Very simple, but very effective.

Calculate Planned Inventory Level Values
  • You calculate your planned inventory values by multiplying
    Max and Min Units by your Purchase Cost.
  • Then calculate Average Value for each item as
    [Min Value] + ( [Max Value] - [Min Value] / 2
  • Create subtotals for each ABC Category and for the total inventory.

Utilising ABC Categories for Inventory Management
Setting ABC Categories for Inventory

. Define Inventory Values
Action
  • Calculate Current Inventory Levels By ABC Category
    • Take your report of Products by ABC Category
    • Add current inventory value
    • Calculate cumulative value
    • Calculate totals for each ABC Cat and total for inventory
  • Calculate Planned Inventory Levels
    • You calculate your planned inventory values by multiplying Max and Min Units by your Purchase Cost.
    • Then calculate Average Value for each item as [Max Value] + [Min Value] / 2
    • Create subtotals for each ABC Category and for the total inventory.
  • Compare Current Inventory to Plan
    • Compare current values to plan for:
      • each item
      • each ABC category
      • total inventory
    • If Current Value is greater than Max Value, show the difference in column “Excess Over Max”.
    • If Current Value is less than Min Value, show the difference between Max Value and Current Value in column “Need Reorder”.


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Did You Know?

General links compendium

https://www.nchannel.com/blog/retail-data-ecommerce-statistics/

Goal Setting
Goals
  • A study performed by the Harvard MBA program, those who made and recorded clear goals went on to earn on average 10 times the amount of those who didn’t.
  • - Salesforce

Customer Acquisition
Email Marketing Triggered Emails Yield 56% Higher Click-Through Rates
Email Marketing 22% of retailers say they don’t send any type of triggered emails.
Email Marketing In 2016, email had a median ROI of 122% — a 4x higher return than other marketing channels. - Direct Marketing Association
Shopping Carts Most retailers that use triggered emails report abandoned cart emails to be the most effective.
Shopping Carts The average online retailer experiences 65% shopping cart abandonment. Of this 65 percent, only 2% of the abandoned carts are recovered - windsorcircle.com
  On average, just 2% of e-commerce website visitors are expected to make a purchase3 , but 5% will register their email address with your brand4 . The potential is huge: if you attract 100,000 visits to your website per month, that’s 5,000 new shoppers providing you with their information, asking to be engaged. Most marketing experts agree that it takes an average of 7 contacts with a prospect before they’ll buy - when we consider this, we understand thats it’s critical to leverage new email addresses to drive those 7 contacts quickly and effectively. After all, 69% of a customer’s first-year spend comes during their first 30 days as a customer
Zaius
  three in every four abandoned carts are recoverable with proper campaign execution7
Zaius
Personalization Experian reported that birthday campaigns result in
  • 481% higher transaction rates,
  • 382% more revenue, and
  • 179% higher unique click through rates

than standard promotional email campaigns8

Zaius
Personalization Remember, the keys to success are simple - stop treating all of your customers the same, and start using customer behavior to inform your communications with them.
This means understanding that email alone is not enough because not all customers respond to email. It means engaging with your customers in real-time, when they’re engaging with you.
It means meeting your customers’ expectations of a consistent, personalized experience with your brand across all channels and devices.
Zaius

Customer Retention
  referralsaasquatch
  “A 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%.”
–Bain & Company
Customer Lifetime Marketing “80% of companies’ marketing budgets are spent on acquiring shoppers; however, for every 1% of shoppers who become repeat customers, a company’s revenue will increase by about 10%.”
–Adobe
Customer Lifetime Marketing “The key to success in CLM is behind optimising for Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and not conversion rate (CR) or revenue per visit (RPV).
This is not to say conversion rate doesn’t have its place – it’s a very important metric in the right scenario.
However the hierarchy is what is important.
CLV trumps all others as a metric for long term profitability.”
–Edward Gotham,Ometria
customer experience
Customer experience
customer experience “A 5% reduction in customer defection rate yields a 25% – 125% increase in profitability.”
—Kapow
customer experience “Companies that prioritize the customer experience generate 60% higher profits than their competitors.”
–Kapow
customer experience “A commitment to customer experience results in up to 25% more customer retention and revenue than sales or marketing initiatives.”
–Bizsum
  On average,
  • only 20% of first-time buyers will make a second purchase - but if you’re able to get a customer to make that repeat purchase,
  • 45% of repeat buyers make a third purchase, and
  • 60% of those buyers make a fourth.
• Overall revenue increases by approximately 10% for each 1% of shoppers who return for a subsequent purchase.
This means that if online retailers retained 10% more of their existing customers, they would double their revenue.
• The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% on average, while the probability of selling to a new shopper is only 5-20%.
• On average, returning customers spend 67% more than first-time customers.
Zaius
Loyalty a “totally satisfied customer” spends 2.6x as much as a “somewhat satisfied customer,”
Zaius
  If online retailers retained 10% more of their existing customers, they would double their revenue
Zaius
  Reducing your customer defection rate by 5% can increase your profitability by 25% to 125%10
Zaius
  The probability of selling to a new customer is between 5 and 20%. The probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60 and 70%. [18]

It costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. [18]

Loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase. [19]

18 - Useful Customer Experience Statistics For Your 2015 Strategy, Neosperience
19 - Powerful Customer Experience Stats for 2015, Christine James of HissingKitty
  Take a look at the figure above. You’ll see that repeat visitors account for just 8% of total traffic on U.S. e-commerce sites. However, they account for over 40% of the revenue generated. Imagine the possibilities if only businesses spent a little more TLC on these repeat buyers, who come back to you right now of their own accord?

In its Annual Ecommerce Benchmark Study, MarketingSherpa set out to discover how much it costs to acquire a new customer. Over half of all respondents reported that their new customer acquisition costs had stayed steady across 2013, while a third of them felt acquisition costs were on the rise.

The median cost of acquiring new customers according to the survey ranged between $12 and $25. This is five times more than the cost of retaining an existing customer.
  It gets better.

The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% as against the measly 5-20% chance of selling to a new one. Repeat customers are not just easier to sell to. They also spend more per transaction than a brand new customer.

According to research by Manta and BIA/Kelsey, repeat customers outspend new customers by 67%.
   
Revenue
Cross-Sell / Upsell
  Research puts the chance for cross-selling success to existing customers at 60-70%. The probability of cross-selling to a new customer, on the other hand, is a much lower 5-20%.
????

Win-Back Campaigns
  • win-back email campaigns had a 12% read (or open) rate - a reasonable rate given the lack of any recent activity.
  • 45% of recipients who received a win-back campaign read a subsequent message;
  • of that group, just 24% had read the first winback message.
  • Seventy-five percent of re-engaged subscribers had read a subsequent message within 89 days, and
  • the other 25% were still opening messages up to 300 days after receiving the first win-back campaign.
Zaius
   
   
   

Referrals
According to a Wharton Business School study, 83% of satisfied customers are happy to refer a friend, but only 29% do so.
Another study from 2012 shows that a referred customer has a 16% higher LTV.
   
   
   

Retail
  5 Steps toward real time personalization
  94% of consumers do research online before visiting a store
  81% of consumers said they have looked up inventory on a retailer’s website before visiting the store and
  80% are less inclined to visit a store if a website does not provide current product availability
  92% of consumers reported interactive content influences them to make a purchase.
  In the past six months,
93% of consumers have reviewed product ratings before purchasing an item
57% of consumers reported that most of the time loyalty drove their purchasing
Consumer Trends Report 2017
Data Personalisation  

Top 3 Challenges for retailers

Challenges for retailers
Customer data
 
Customer data
Data Personalisation http://marketingland.com/consumers-want-personalization-but-retailers-just-cant-seem-to-deliver-144021
Data Personalisation
   
Turning triggers into actionable Strategies

KL001_Klaviyo_WP_CustomerSegmentation_Mar_2017_Final.pdf

  1. Is this the shopper’s first time on the site?
  2. If not, how long has it been since her last visit?
  3. How long does she stay on the site?
  4. Does she use the search function, and if so, what search terms does she use?
  5. What pages does she visit?
  6. Does she respond to sign-up offers?
  7. What items does she put in her shopping cart?
  8. Does she complete the transaction or abandon the cart?

there’s a big gap between retailers’ intentions and consumer perceptions:

  • While 93% of retailers say personalization is a strategic initiative,
  • only 26% of consumers say retailers provide a consistent experience across all channels.
  • 20% of consumers say these efforts “need great improvement.”

marketers are reporting significant benefits from site and in-app personalization:

  • 65%: Increased conversion rates;
  • 46%: Increased lead generation/ customer acquisition;
  • 30%: Increased e-Commerce revenue; and
  • 22%: Reduced churn/ increased retention.
Leading Email Marketing Tactics

Use Device, Location And Other Contextual Data To Make Personalization More Dynamic



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Discounts Personalised Letter Template
  • Here is a letter template for advising customers that you are ceasing standard discounts previously offered to them.
  • You can adjust this template for your own use.

  • The strategy involved here is to recognise that pretty much everyone first considers price only when you haven’t successfully demonstrated the value your customer receives.
  • So move the conversation away from price.
  • Instead, you need to demonstrate the value you provide.
  • Customers are primarily interested in getting the outcomes they require from the jobs they are doing.
  • In your business, you know what jobs people use your products and services for, and what outcomes they are looking for, so you need to highlight the value you provide in meeting those needs. That trumps price for the customers you want to retain, any day.

*************************************************************************************************************


Your Letterhead

(including at least your business name, address and phone contact.)


[Today’s Date]


[Customer Firstname and lastname]

[Customer Business name]


Dear [Firstname],

Sales Discounts - Policy Revision

We have just completed reviewing our discounts policy and realized our sales discounts are actually not helping you, but causing you a disservice!


Sounds crazy, but it’s like this:

We already work to keep our standard prices as razor sharp competitive as we possibly can.

Providing discounts significantly reduces our profitability to a level where we become dangerously less viable.

If we are less viable, then we are more susceptible to market shocks, which could cause us to go out of business.

If we go out of business, then we are no longer able to provide the support you have relied on in meeting your own needs.


We enjoy helping people like you get the results you need, and we don’t want to stop doing that just because we got our discounts policy wrong.


Our customers like you have come back to us time and again because you all know we provide excellent value over our competition. For example:

  • Easy to work with. [example]
  • Reliability. [example]
  • Quality. [example]
  • Quick response. [example]
  • Supporting advice. [example]

[Give examples where you are providing better value on these - or remove them]


Only recently, another valued customer said:

[add a recent testimonial that backs up value]


You will see this change applying to you purchases from [date].


Your custom is important to us, and we look forward to serving you well into the future.


Sincerely,


[Your Name]

[Your Position]


cc. [Accounts Receivable Person]




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My Business End Goal

You’re 10 times more likely to be successful with Goals

  • In a study performed by the Harvard MBA program, those who made and recorded clear goals went on to earn on average 10 times the amount of those who didn’t.
  • The earlier you identify the reason you are in business, the more likely you will be better than your competition, and more likely to achieve success.
  • While you can skip setting goals if you’re not ready yet, we strongly recommend you take time to be clear to yourself, why you’re in business.
  • Goals give you a purpose, a sense of direction, they help put a spring in your step and a reason to overcome day-to-day obstacles in your stride.
  • Setting goals will affect your priorities in your marketing, your staff selection, and how you spend your money.
Option - Build to Sell.
  • “The best businesses are sellable, and smart business people believe that you should build a company to be sold even if you have no intention of cashing out or stepping back anytime soon.” - Bo Burlingham.
  • “You should always run a company as if it will last forever, and yet you should also strive constantly to maximize its value, building in the qualities that allow it to be sold at any moment for the highest price buyers are paying for businesses like yours.” - Jack Stack.
  • You will be looking to build and scale an attraactive business that
    • can operate without you,
    • creates regular, predictable wealth,
    • has a sales engine with predictable pipeline outcomes,
    • has a list of high quality customers with great lifetime value,
    • a strong management team with incentives to stay on,
    • competent staff that can deliver your product with superb reliability.
Option - Build to Own.
  • According to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, the average small business owner works 52 hours a week, with more than 20 percent working seven days a week.
  • The U.S. Census Bureau says 88.6 percent of all U.S.-based companies still require the owner to be there as the primary person responsible for core functions like producing their product or service, managing the day-to-day operations, or managing the financial aspects of the business.
  • If you want to get out of this type of rat race, but still love being in a business, then you need a plan to work ON your business rather than IN your business.
  • In fact, you will need to do everything required of someone looking to sell their business, plus hiring a top-class CEO to run the business for you.
Option - Build to Enjoy.
  • With this option, you will aim to be fully involved in the business every day, but will be able to delegate the operational functions and processes to competent staff.
  • For your business to be sustainable over time, you too will need to achieve all the requirements of someone wanting to sell their business.
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Our Sales Channels
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Our Charging Methods
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My business name is... This name will be shown on any reports.
My business is located in... This is your business operating location. We use this location to show relevant currency symbols for your report and forms. If you are an online business, then use the country where you produce your business regulatory reports.
People employed (including you) This information helps us with Action Plan related to you.
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Dashboard Chart
  • This page shows actual information from your own accounting app data.
  • We have done a few things here, shown in one simple chart.
  • Each of these 3 vital signs represents a related group of your financial metrics.
    • Cash Flow. We also call this your Survival metric.
    • Profitability
    • Growth
  • These metrics of yours are compared with best practice in your industry for your revenue group.
  • So the percentages shown here (and the black bar on each chart) indicate your business performance against your peers.
How We Use this Information
  • The vital signs are ranked in importance and so are your business financial metrics within each vital sign.
  • We use this information to choose the best action for you to take, right now. So all you have to focus on is the most important ranked action chosen for you.
  • The related Action Plan (green button on this page) helps you through the steps of the activities and tasks for that action.
Additional Information
  • Each blue, underlined text set is a link to further information and help on the topic involved.
  • Simply click on the link and a popup will open to show you more.
Buttons
  • back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
  • next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process
  • come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.


Popup Information
Additional Information
  • Each blue, underlined text set is a link to further information and help on the topic involved.
  • Simply click on the link and a popup will open to show you more.
  • TRY IT in this example.
  • Click the ‘x’ top right corner, to close the popup.
Buttons
  • back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
  • next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process
  • come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.


X
Total Data Table
Data
  • This table shows the complete data from Step 1 and Step 2.
  • Here also, you can play with the % increase to see the impact.
Chart
  • You can view the data in chart format by clicking on the link at top of the white section of the page. Select chart/data
Buttons
  • back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
  • next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process
  • come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.


Total Data Chart
Chart
  • This table shows the complete data from Step 1 and Step 2.
  • Here also, you can play with the % increase to see the impact.
Table
  • You can view the data in table format by clicking on the link at top of the white section of the page. Select chart/data
  • You need to go back to the table before you can move on to the next onboarding page.


X
Data Gathering
  • This screen will show while we are gathering the first lot of data from your accounting app. Data Connect Progress
  • This should be the only time we need to involve you in the data gathering or data monthly updating process.
  • The process normally takes about 30 - 60 seconds, depending on your volume of data.
  • If you’re interested, you can ‘Click here’ to see a more detailed popover of the data gathering and data processing steps.


Data Gathering and Data Processing Steps
  • This popover tracks you through the various steps we need to take to gather and process your initial set of data from your accounting app. Data Connect Progress
  • Click on any of the blue buttons for more information about each step in the process.
    • Authorization accepted. Your authorization of the connection to your accounting app has been noted.
    • First month data collected. We collect the required accounting data from your previous month. This month then becomes our ‘Base’ month against which all future work with you iws compared.
    • Historical data collected - 13 months. We then collect all the data for the remaining 13 months of your operations, or as many months as there have been up to 13 months - this data gives us a full year to compare.
    • Your metrics calculated. From the data available from your accounting app, we calculate up to 16 different financial ratios or metrics.
    • Industry metrics compared. We then compare your own financial metrics against those for your industry and revenue group. These will be used to determine what is most urgent for you to work on immediately to improve your business.
  • Go Back Button - Clicking this link will take you back to the overview popover.


Data Gathering - Step 2
  • This screen will show while we are gathering the second lot of data from your accounting app.
  • In this step, we are going back for (up to) five years, so we can calculate trends in your business. Data Connect Progress
  • The process normally takes about 30 - 60 seconds, depending on your volume of data.
  • If you’re interested, you can ‘Click here’ to see a more detailed popover of the data gathering and data processing steps.


Data Gathering and Data Processing Steps
  • This popover tracks you through the various steps we need to take to gather and process your initial set of data from your accounting app. Data Connect Progress
  • Click on any of the blue buttons for more information about each step in the process.
    • Authorization accepted. Your authorization of the connection to your accounting app has been noted.
    • First month data collected. We collect the required accounting data from your previous month. This month then becomes our ‘Base’ month against which all future work with you iws compared.
    • Historical data collected - 13 months. We then collect all the data for the remaining 13 months of your operations, or as many months as there have been up to 13 months - this data gives us a full year to compare.
    • Your metrics calculated. From the data available from your accounting app, we calculate up to 16 different financial ratios or metrics.
    • Industry metrics compared. We then compare your own financial metrics against those for your industry and revenue group. These will be used to determine what is most urgent for you to work on immediately to improve your business.
  • Go Back Button - Clicking this link will take you back to the overview popover.


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