FRAM SYSTEMS ^blog

Things still work when they’re slow.

OK, no one can say the world economy is booming. While I won’t discuss the factors that created the situation, I will give you some ideas about how to think about it and more importantly, what you can do about it.

First off, slow is slow, not stopped. You may think your business has stopped. No new orders or canceled orders may be hard to deal with. You may think that the gig is up and that your business is bleeding cash without any income. If you have adopted that mindset it may already be too late.

Take Control

Take control of the situation. Is there still a need for your product or service? If so there is hope. All we have to do is identify who has the need and go after their business. So how do we go about identifying who needs your product or service? I say we start who we already know. Reach out to those who already have done business with your company. They needed you in the past. If you serviced them well and delivered the benefit you promised when they first bought from you, then they are already familiar with the value you company provides. To maximize your existing relationships you need to communicate directly with the decision makers. Continue reading →

Anyone involved with real estate is familiar with the concept of ‘Best and Highest Use.’ This concept simply states that no matter the condition of the buildings on a piece of property may be worth, the value of the property is based on what it would be worth if put to it’s highest and best use. The standard for determining the Highest and Best Use of a property is that the property use must be: legally allowable, physically possible, financially feasible and maximally productive. With that in mind a field that was being farmed last year and produced a net income of $4,000 and is valued at $2,000 an acre may actually be sold for $25,000 an acre if a multifamily dwelling was able to be built on it.

Now when was the last time you evaluated you business assets as to their ‘Highest and Best Use?’ Are your business assets working for you in the best way possible? What could you be doing differently with those same assets to earn a greater return from them? Unfortunately most business owners never ask those questions and are not earning the potential of their investment in their business. Continue reading →

With the economy slowing down you may encounter customers or clients slowing down their payment on credit sales too. This is only natural. As they are pinched and trying to stretch every dollar, they will test all their credit sources to discover which ones they can take advantage of, which will be stringent and which will be willing to work out an equitable solution.

Of course you would like to paid first. Your business is probably feeling the crunch as much as your clients. So what can you do to ensure that you will get paid without alienating your clients? Even better, how can you work with your troubled clients that can make them raving fans and a referrers of new, well paying business?

Before we get to that I want you to read a real letter sent to a the collections department at a large Brazilian department store chain – Casas Bahia for those that care to know. The translation is mine and the original author is a woman. Her approach to debt service is quite unique. I think you will enjoy it. Continue reading →

Pundits everywhere are spewing out sentiments and speculation about the causes of the current economic crisis. As we begin to feel the impact on our own individual conditions and to see the effects on businesses and people around us we are asking why? What fault, what flaw allowed this to happen? Haven’t we learned anything from the past about how to avert such a disaster? Some of us are even introspective enough to ask ourselves, what did I do to contribute to the situation? Continue reading →

In the world of the service, perception is reality

In the world of the service, the client’s perception is reality. What your client perceives will ultimately guide his decision when the time comes to part with money for the result your product provides. Even though the quality of your product or service may be mediocre when measured objectively, if it is perceived to be the best on the market, potential client’s will prefer it over all others and will be willing to pay a premium price for it. Such is the power of perception.
Continue reading →

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that people buy the results of the product and not the product itself. An example I’ve often heard is that a drill is bought because the need was for the hole, not the drill itself. Businesses acquire inventory systems not because they want to buy software but because they need to know what they have to sell, where it is located, how much it costs etc.

Let’s take a look at another aspect of the result: what happens when the desired effect or outcome of the purchase is not what the buyer expected? What happens when it all goes wrong? How you handle that can be more important than just about anything else you do. Even though your company may have invested massively in engineering or design creating a product that is the best of it’s kind or a service without peer in the marketplace doesn’t automatically mean you will be successful.

Remember the old adage about building a better mousetrap. That goes a long way toward teaching us that we need to market and advertise our product or service if we want people to know about and buy it. However, when things go wrong with it, who will be blamed? Who will be perceived as at fault? Without going too deeply into the discussion about why people like to blame instead of solving problems themselves, it will probably you the manufacturer or seller of the product or service that will receive the blame. It’s how you handle it that counts. Continue reading →

In my last post I talked about how our knowledge of those we work with is the basis for giving a good referral. Today I’ll address how the same knowledge of our customers and our potential customers can help us build and grow our businesses.

No business can be all things to all people. It’s neither possible or desirable. What we can do is be an important and valued part of our customer’s or client’s lives, filling needs and desires in such a way that our businesses become a part of their lives. This goes somewhat beyond the lines of traditional customer loyalty and into an area of customer relationships. How to mold your business into one in which your customer’s feel they value the relationship is key. With each passing day the need to forge these kinds of relationships is becoming more important to our success or failure. Continue reading →

Referral Essentials

It’s not only who know or what you know, it’s what you about whom and how you relay it that makes a good referral.

Let’s face it, everyone likes getting referrals, especially those that lead to profitable relationships, but how many know what makes a good referral? Moreover, how many have a system in place that is constantly generating good referrals? Continue reading →

A sale can be simple and easy or arduous and complex. For a gas station or newsstand, the sale is easy, they have what you need when you need it and you make a purchase based on convenience. Business to Business sales can, on the other hand, be very complex, requiring many inter-related fields and disciplines and buy in on many levels like technical, planning, executive and financial. Continue reading →

First, the Diatribe

Green. The color of grass, Kermit the Frog and money. With the rising awareness of the impact of human industrial endeavor on the ecology of our planet, awareness is also rising about the impact on the world economy. Let’s face it, we as a species have been takers for far too long. We take coal and oil from the ground and convert them into energy to power our standard of living and spew millions of tons sulfur, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other metals into the air we must breathe. We decimate forest and farms for wood and agriculture to sustain us and kill entire species of plants and animals. We bury our waste products in the land and dump it in our oceans. We over fish those same waters and wonder why our catches are ever smaller and sicker. We’ve been selfish and we’ve been bad and we’ve been ignorant. But we are waking up to the fact that our behavior has consequences and that we must act decisively and soon to avert the crisis that looms in the near future or suffer the consequences of our actions. Continue reading →