Inciteful

Doing business as a SME is tough at times and in hard times it is easy to cut back especially in the areas of Sales and Marketing. Whilst it is prudent to review the current position of your business and to analyse the value and return on your marketing initiatives and the type and cost of sales being secured it is critical to keep a level of investment in these revenue generating activities.

So the challenge is balance and an SME owner balance is always hard to achieve. Here are a few questions  for you to consider when reviewing the commitment to budgeted spends.

1. Have you undertaken a full analysis of the results achieved?
2. Have you identified the key issues confronting your market?
3. Have you spoken with your major customers to understand how their business is performing?
4. Do you have a number of control realistic measures in place to evaluate the performance of your sales resources and marketing investment?
5. Have you talked with your Sales Team?

Theses five questions will help you to take the initial steps into understanding exactly what is going on and therefore what actions to take. As this calendar year comes to a close now is a good time to "work on" the business as opposed to "in" the business. As your first 2011 New Year resolution commit to spend a day looking at the business and what is going on and then plan. Just because results have may not be what you wanted, cut back on sales and marketing activities, not investing in these areas can lead to a negative impact on the business. Rather review where you are at an take deliberate and calculated actions for your business. One good way to start this would be to attend the Incite Value Creation Workshop which is focused on helping to kick start your business in 2011.