Don't Be Afraid of Process

I see a lot of smart, successful business people turn into scared-y cats when it comes to the topic of process. No need to be intimidated! A successful business process is actually quite logical, and the consequences of not having a process can be pretty tough.

How do you know if your company has effective processes? Ask yourself these questions:

• Do our activities and tasks follow a predictable sequence?
• Do we capture metrics that help us understand the efficiency and effectiveness of our process?
• Can I describe the steps we take when we analyze a customer, our market, choose a target segment, look for customer understanding, and go to market?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, some process correction is in order!

Process brings familiarity, comfort, efficiency, and a smarter way to talk with your executive team about how buttoned up your product development, sales, marketing and support operations are. In terms of listening to and acquiring and retaining customers, I think of a process as consisting of five basic phases:

• Customer and Market Insights
• Segmentation and Targeting
• Positioning and Value Proposition
• Listening and Conversation Plan
• Track and Monitor

That’s it. Now, that wasn’t that painful, was it?