Mirror, Mirror on the Wall (Part II)

During challenging times people tend to want to brush by the not so pretty issues, but the only way to make significant improvements is to look at yourself and your business in the mirror and unabashedly evaluate your situation. This is the second of a three part series looking at Focus, Products and Services, and Customer Analysis.

Products and Services

Starbucks created the market for a $4.00 cup of coffee. The brought back the age of the chic coffee shops and went gangbusters around the world with them until they built so many locations as the comedian Lewis Black notes he found the end of the world when he was standing on a street corner and there was a Starbucks directly across the street from a…Starbucks. In 2008 Starbucks had their bubble burst and found themselves in uncharted territory of shrinking sales. How did they handle it?

They invited customers to offer suggestions on new products they wished Starbucks offered! They heard from thousands of customers online offering ideas on how to make them a better organization. Possessing those ideas along with an active R&D, Starbucks began debuting many new offerings from protein drinks to low fat food offerings to their highest selling new product of the year -- oatmeal. Yes, the most basic of foods available in every grocery store is their new big selling idea!
This just proves you don't have to create the newest and greatest wizbang idea under the sun to get customers to beat a path to your door. You just have to offer the products and services your customers want.

Look in the mirror and ask these questions:

What are my best selling products and services and what emerging markets do I need to target for these?

What products and services are my most profitable and how can I repackage them to gain a wider market share?

What are the products and services my customer would love to have that I am not currently offering? (Pssst, ask them!)

What are the products and services I need to eliminate, have a fire sale for, or otherwise quietly discontinue because they waste my employees time, are low sellers, and don't make much profit for me anyhow.

Remember, just like the economy, times are changing for you and they are impacting your customers. What are the products and services that will best suit their changing needs? Just because you have a big expensive high profit top product to sell doesn’t mean your customers want to hear about it. Think Hummer. You can't give those away right now because the manufacturer is out of step with the customer climate.