A number of very good Indian businesses have indicated that they are already pulling together material for their Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards (IBA) 2010 entries, the deadline for which is August 31.
In my earlier column (Indian Newslink, June 1, 2010) I had said that Kiwi businesses do not have a written business plan and yet businesses that plan to be successful usually achieve their objective.
The link to IBA2010 is that the questions are designed to draw upon the thinking that is necessary for you to develop your business plan.
In that column, we highlighted the importance of being able to describe your business model succinctly, articulate your fundamental business purpose and your goals and strategies to achieve success.
We had also underlined the need for understanding the importance of quality products and services, and an innovation process, for continuous improvement in quality.
Market Research
The next question in the IBA 2010 form looks to see how well you understand your target market. This is where you can outline research into the demographics of your customer base and what you have found out about proposed markets for growth.
How has this information influenced your product range, and how has it had an impact on new product and service developments?
What feedback have you had from customers about the quality of products and services, and if there have been complaints, how effective have you been in dealing with them and in keeping the customer satisfied?
Do you have positive customer endorsements about your services, which you can display on your website? Of course, the best customer endorsement is actual sales growth, and in particular repeat business.
Businesses often overlook the fact that customer complaints are a great source of unbiased information about their business.
Whilst you obviously do not encourage poor service, the information in a complaint is like gold when it comes to improving your service.
A successful business will go out of its way to resolve all complaints satisfactorily and the Chief Executive would will make it his or her business to ensure all staff realise its importance.
Customer Satisfaction
We often hear some businesses ignoring calls from producers of popular television programmes such as Fair Go and Target. Some of them would be defensive or even aggressive, in their response to a complaint.
How would you feel if a response to your complaint was met with disbelief (which is a question of integrity) or with comments such as, “We are very busy” (which implies that other customers are more important)?
How much better would you feel if your complaint was met with “I am very sorry to hear that, you must have been really upset. How can we put it right and make sure it does not happen again?”
And of course, of critical importance is the promised action is taken.
Another issue which should be dealt with in this question is to demonstrate that you understand the difference between sales and marketing.
Many Kiwi businesses seem to regard these words as interchangeable, and if pressed might suggest that marketing support in the form of brochures and advertising as marketing per se.
The accepted terminology is that marketing refers to research information, which helps you to tightly define your target market, right down to names and addresses if possible.
“Sales” is the process by which you actually interact with your target market and exchange goods and services for money.
Sales might take place by directly, through the Internet or through resellers and distributors.
Marketing support may take the form of advertising, brochures and websites in selling your product or service to the identified target customers.
We will next deal with the people and systems questions from IBA 2010 entry form, which form a key part of your business planning thinking.
Chad Wilkie, Executive Director of Ignition Partner, is Convenor of Judges for the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2010. He is an experienced adviser on shaping businesses for growth, and structuring deals to achieve business growth.
