Critical Success Factors
Critical Success Factors
So think through your plans; view them from a high level; reread your Three Year Picture; review your One Year Goals.
Ask yourself the question: if any part of my plans is not achieved what will happen to my business. What will it do to the achievement of my Three Year Picture? Will it put my overall success at risk?
Some Examples
Your sales and marketing process is working really well. From the process you know if you can get in front of 20 people to tell your story then you will have 5 people try your free value (sample your product/service) out of which two people will become customers. You have identified that a Critical Success Factor is to increase the number of clients by 10 in the next 90 days so that you can keep everyone busy and you can increase your revenue. So your 90 Day Focus is to get in front of 100 people by giving presentations to groups that contain you client type.
When looking at your overall plan it has become clear to you that if you do not free up some of your time to spend more time on the marketing and delivery of your services then you cannot possibly achieve your growth targets. While some of the things you do could be eliminated the reality is that most can’t. You need another pair of hands. So the Critical Success Factor is finding and hiring the right person to take on those tasks you shouldn’t be doing so that you can focus your attention on business development and service delivery.
Included in your plans is the strategy to upgrade your IT technologies to the latest and greatest. So you ask yourself the question: What will happen if I do not upgrade this year? If the answers are:
• I will not be able to increase the customer base
• Delivery capacity will hit a ceiling and quality will start suffering
• I could lose my entire data base and be out of business
Then you have a Critical Success Factor.
However, if the only answer you can come up with is “I will not be able to surf the net faster” then you probably do not have a Critical Success Factor.
Quiz
This year you have planned to move your home office into an outside office. Your reasons are one or more of:
a. You will be hiring people and you don’t want them in your home
b. Your spouse is ready to divorce you if you don’t move the office out
c. You or your partner is pregnant and you need the room for the new baby
d. Your kids are using the office computers to access questionable web sites
e. You need to bring customers to your office and Starbucks no longer works
f. You feel a traditional office is important for the growth of the business
Which of these are Critical Success Factors?
Your products are being extremely well received by your customers. They love the quality, are willing to pay for that quality and rave about your delivery times. And they love you for bringing them so much pleasure. However, while working with Your Planning Partners you identify that your profits are not what they should be. So you are faced with a Critical Success Factor; you must increase your profits or you cannot stay in business. You have several ideas:
a. Move production to China
b. Increase prices
c. Cut expenses by canceling the lease on your spouse’s Lexus (who doesn’t work for your company anyway)
d. Put your products online and offer them to the world
e. Shave a few corners off the quality control processes
f. Increase the number of customers so that higher volume will result in higher bottom line
If you were developing the 60/90 Day Focus for this Critical Success Factor, which, if any, options would you select.
You are tired, cranky, overworked and underpaid. On some days you wonder why you are doing this. On other days you are elated by the enthusiasm of your customers. Some days you want to throttle your spouse for nagging you about the money you earn and/or the long hours you work. But you are always thankful for having the opportunity to build something meaningful; to create something from your ideas that people love. And so as you develop your plans you start considering the idea of bringing in a partner to share both the trials and tribulations and the excitements and rewards. Is finding the right partner a Critical Success Factor? Or are there other options that you might want to implement first? Or is there a different Critical Success Factor?
Critical Success Factors - To learn more about this author, visit Nick Hughes's Website.
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The Critical Success Factors are those components of your strategic plan that must succeed if the overall plan is to succeed. It is from the Critical Success Factors that you identify your 30/60/90 Day Focus.
So think through your plans; view them from a high level; reread your Three Year Picture; review your One Year Goals.
Ask yourself the question: if any part of my plans is not achieved what will happen to my business. What will it do to the achievement of my Three Year Picture? Will it put my overall success at risk?
Some Examples
Your sales and marketing process is working really well. From the process you know if you can get in front of 20 people to tell your story then you will have 5 people try your free value (sample your product/service) out of which two people will become customers. You have identified that a Critical Success Factor is to increase the number of clients by 10 in the next 90 days so that you can keep everyone busy and you can increase your revenue. So your 90 Day Focus is to get in front of 100 people by giving presentations to groups that contain you client type.
When looking at your overall plan it has become clear to you that if you do not free up some of your time to spend more time on the marketing and delivery of your services then you cannot possibly achieve your growth targets. While some of the things you do could be eliminated the reality is that most can’t. You need another pair of hands. So the Critical Success Factor is finding and hiring the right person to take on those tasks you shouldn’t be doing so that you can focus your attention on business development and service delivery.
Included in your plans is the strategy to upgrade your IT technologies to the latest and greatest. So you ask yourself the question: What will happen if I do not upgrade this year? If the answers are:
• I will not be able to increase the customer base
• Delivery capacity will hit a ceiling and quality will start suffering
• I could lose my entire data base and be out of business
Then you have a Critical Success Factor.
However, if the only answer you can come up with is “I will not be able to surf the net faster” then you probably do not have a Critical Success Factor.
Quiz
This year you have planned to move your home office into an outside office. Your reasons are one or more of:
a. You will be hiring people and you don’t want them in your home
b. Your spouse is ready to divorce you if you don’t move the office out
c. You or your partner is pregnant and you need the room for the new baby
d. Your kids are using the office computers to access questionable web sites
e. You need to bring customers to your office and Starbucks no longer works
f. You feel a traditional office is important for the growth of the business
Which of these are Critical Success Factors?
Your products are being extremely well received by your customers. They love the quality, are willing to pay for that quality and rave about your delivery times. And they love you for bringing them so much pleasure. However, while working with Your Planning Partners you identify that your profits are not what they should be. So you are faced with a Critical Success Factor; you must increase your profits or you cannot stay in business. You have several ideas:
a. Move production to China
b. Increase prices
c. Cut expenses by canceling the lease on your spouse’s Lexus (who doesn’t work for your company anyway)
d. Put your products online and offer them to the world
e. Shave a few corners off the quality control processes
f. Increase the number of customers so that higher volume will result in higher bottom line
If you were developing the 60/90 Day Focus for this Critical Success Factor, which, if any, options would you select.
You are tired, cranky, overworked and underpaid. On some days you wonder why you are doing this. On other days you are elated by the enthusiasm of your customers. Some days you want to throttle your spouse for nagging you about the money you earn and/or the long hours you work. But you are always thankful for having the opportunity to build something meaningful; to create something from your ideas that people love. And so as you develop your plans you start considering the idea of bringing in a partner to share both the trials and tribulations and the excitements and rewards. Is finding the right partner a Critical Success Factor? Or are there other options that you might want to implement first? Or is there a different Critical Success Factor?
Critical Success Factors - To learn more about this author, visit Nick Hughes's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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