Paul Wants To Improve Bottom Line1

Paul is the president of the company He wants to improve the bottom line

Paul asked one simple question:

What should we do

to improve the bottom line?

The Finances people answered:

Cut in personnel and Supply chain costs

Lower purchasing prices and inventory levels

Cut in publicity and R&D expenses

Lower receivables by involving the sales force in the collection process

In fact, there are many more areas we could improve by cutting or lowering

After all, there is a recession out there!

HR could receive more complaints and notice more sick days

Suppliers could have more back orders and defects, creating manufacturing delays.

Sales people would have less time to sell because of collection and problem solving

The total sales income would go down

Rumours could start getting around

A general ‘’I don’t care attitude’’ could start to emerge

Yes the expenses would go down, but

The Marketing people answered:

Increase the Advertisement budget

Increase the R&D budget

Invest in Benchmarking, more focus groups and surveys

Invest in new internal communication tools

The Sales people answered:

Increase the sales force by employing new representatives

Create a new inside sales department

Invest in a new software for better reporting

Improve the commission and bonus program

Invest in a training and motivational program

The same question was asked:

If Paul would have listened to everybody This is what could have happened!

Of course this a simplistic dramatisation

B u t n o t s o o f f t h e w a l l , b e l i e v e m e!

Paul had a better idea! Paul wanted to turn things around, in a fully coordinated management system.

Paul thought of a new approach

The improvement and quality approaches like Kyzen, Six Sigma, could also be applied to Marketing and Sales

Reducing costs is essential, but it is also very profitable to focus on revenue growth!

A well-structured revision and improvement of working methods in Marketing and Sales can only increase revenues and profits.

Paul wants to:

Look into the Marketing and Sales departments to get a snapshot of the present situation, by mapping out the Processes and Systems

Look for duplications, inefficiencies and wastes.

Start by applying improvements into the most important areas, where it will generate the greatest returns.

(Pareto’s 20/80 approach)

B U S I N E S S I N T E L L I G E N C E

Paul knows that: WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE ! AND WHAT CAN BE MEASURED CAN BE IMPROVED !

‘’ Good common horse sense’’ Paul did not want to rely only on:

Paul knows that this is not Rocket Science! But when all of these actions are put in place, it will bring back the returns.

Paul also wants to get Everybody involved To transmit the knowledge of the approach so that everybody takes the ownership to guaranty the implantation’s success.

Everybody smiled and looked at Paul

Good Idea Boss! But everybody has too many things to do… We don’t have the time!

Or Worse Everybody would say:

Ok boss! You can count on me! But since everybody has too much to do Nothing would get done! ANYWAY

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Writen by: Normand Béïque Vp partner at Quotient Marketing [email_address] GROWTH CREATING