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Change The Product - Surviving The Change In Market

Written by: Charly Leetham

Article Overview: How many business owners often find themselves in a similar position - business isn't doing so well, staff costs are crippling and ‘turning down' the business seems to be the only viable solution. Many years ago, I was in a sales training course and one question we were asked was why the rail services lost market share to the airlines. The answer that was suggested was that the Rail Companies didn't understand the business they were in - they thought they were in rail transport, but really they were in people and cargo transport.... A simple shift in the thinking could make such a big difference.

Change The Product - Surviving The Change In Market

Recently, I watched "Kinky Boots" again - one of my all time favourites - and it hit me that there was a great lesson for all business owners in the movie... really! There was scene, near the start of the movie, where the owner (Charlie Price) of an ailing shoe factory is laying off staff. In his ‘lay off' speech, Charlie keeps saying "What Can I Do?". Enter Lauren, one of the staff about to be laid off, and she challenges Charlies question with a really simple response - "Change The Product!".

And that's exactly what Charlie Price does - he changes the product....Charlie Prices' shoe factory goes from making Mens Brogues to making ‘Kinky Boots'. I won't spoil the movie - but I highly recommend it as good entertainment and an educational movie for business owners.

Downturns

How many business owners often find themselves in a similar position - business isn't doing so well, staff costs are crippling and ‘turning down' the business seems to be the only viable solution.

Many years ago, I was in a sales training course and one question we were asked was why the rail services lost market share to the airlines. The answer that was suggested was that the Rail Companies didn't understand the business they were in - they thought they were in rail transport, but really they were in people and cargo transport.... A simple shift in the thinking could make such a big difference.

The shift in thinking really didn't make much sense to me until I owned several Franchise stores and we saw our market turn.... we went from selling Niche products to selling Commodity products, prices dropped by over 50%, margins were slim. As a franchise, evolving our business was impossible - the agreement just didn't allow for it.....However, we did see the change in our market and the impact that this would have on our business.

Change Your Product

Can you change your product? Of course you can! However, you need to understand the value of what you provide and all the Target Audiences you appeal to.

Charlie Prices' shoe factory produced Mens shoes - ultimately, the definition of his product didn't change, but his Target Audience did.

Review your operations regularly - look at current sales vs historical sales, look at what your clients are asking for, what's moving and what's not... track the history and start predicting the future. It's not really prediction, but making an educated guess about your future business based on what you already know.

We can all learn a valuable lesson from the Kinky Boots story - and it's a good movie to boot....

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Article Tags: change the product, refine your target market, target audience
Referred by: http://www.outrageouslyhealthy.com



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Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - Hi GT It is only fairly recently that people in South Africa have been able to get full use of Paypal as we were only able at one time to make payments but not receive them. Fortunately this has now changed. I have received money through Global X Change for one of the affiliate programs that I promote and have found them pretty good as the money is normally transferred directly into my bank account within 2-3 days and I have not had any problems with them. MichelleJ
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris
Are you an Opportunity Addict? - 1) if you find yourself saying yes without thinking about how it will affect your other priorities 2) you have over 10 projects/inventions going on at the same time and this seems normal to you 3) you have spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on manufacturing, prototypes, etc. not to mention thousands of hours of your time....but you havent followed through on any of it 4) most of your projects are falling behind or have completely fallen off your radar....which is fueling your frustration The first step in recovery is to recognize this as a pattern of self sabotage. If you are clear in what your overall goals and objectives are, you should be able to create a lens through which you measure opportunities. You create your life, and your to do list. Change, Add, Remove, Adjust time-lines - whatever you like. But remember that every piece of unfinished business - stays that way J
You are too young - I don't really believe (I've been into web designing for 7 years now... I started in 2000) there is any web design laws. Besides the fact that you can't use copyrighted images on web design without permission from the original author. Also, any web designs you do you may want to have it copyrighted so other's can't steal your idea's or whatever... of course, you can offer a "Copyright Change" option for a bit more money that will allow you to be able to transfer the copyrights and give exclusive rights to the purchaser. All in all, don't worry about the laws... you should be fine, just remember that if your in the U.S. that if your making over $400 (or maybe its $600) in revenue, you'll have to pay taxes to the government... and please get a LLC, although its not a big thing with web designs, you could get into legal trouble somewhere in the business. Lastly, use contracts for when your selling or use agreements to clear the air so that you can have a safe business and you'll have some backing up if you ever are taken to court.


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