The topic for our newsletter and blogs this month is “Taking advantage of opportunities.” It’s up to company leadership to keep careful watch of potential opportunities for the company and its products and services.
If these opportunities are going to be of benefit, however, the company team—or a portion of it—must be prepared to take advantage of them.
What does this mean, and how is it done?
The Steady…
As taken up in our previous article, the company must maintain the strength of its successful offerings. Those are the products and services that made the business profitable in the first place. When a new opportunity is discovered by management, it must be dovetailed into the company so that it can be delivered without affecting the existing successful pattern.
For example, let’s say a business has found steady success in selling auto parts. Customers in the area know they can come to this retailer to find parts for their cars. Customers have come to rely on the business’ well-trained staff and their needs being satisfied.
…and the Ready
Company leadership has looked around, though, and has discovered that there is no competent tire dealership in the area. If the retailer could add tire sales into its business model, the same customers who have been coming to the store for years could now purchase tires. Of course, it would only make sense for the store to install tires, as most people cannot do this themselves.
This would mean training counter staff not only to be knowledgeable about auto parts but also to be equally conversant about tires. The business would need to ensure that, as these staff receive additional training, they don’t neglect the auto parts business that has brought the company success.
Additional staff would need to be hired for installation, as there are currently no employees capable of tire installation. This business addition would also require expanding current facilities to install vehicle tires.
In addition to service staff, it is just as crucial that company management be trained to take on this new line of business. Managers over the front counter would have to be knowledgeable in the tire business as well as the auto parts business. They would need to fully understand that the successful auto parts line must not suffer any decline as this new line of business is added on.
New management would have to come in over the installation portion of the business, as it didn’t exist before now.
The New Model
Keeping both elements on track—the “steady” and the “ready”—would mean that the existing successful auto parts business would keep right on going, and the new tire business could move in alongside it and come to an equal measure of success.
Finding new opportunities and folding them into the existing business also substantially impacts the company’s sales and marketing—which we’ll take up in our next article.
When adding a new opportunity, get the staff up and running and ready to take it on.
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