Business Talk

Each day that I continue to interact with business owners and executives convinces me more and more that the majority of them have forgotten why they are in business. These very bright individuals are so focused on yesterday's and today's problems and challenges. This focus has kept them away from the purpose of business.

If you were to respond to this question: What is the purpose of your business or better yet, What is the purpose of business regardless of the type of business? How would you respond?

I agree with Peter Drucker, one of the most accepted business gurus, when he made this statement.

The purpose of business is to attract and maintain customers.

Business owners and executives understand the first part between their marketing and sales activities. Yet, what about customer maintenance or what I prefer is the term Customer Loyalty?

When those in business understand that the true and real purpose of business, then they understand that there are only 2 measurements - profits and relationships. Most business executives can find the first measurement on their Profit &Loss (P&L) statements to other financial records. Yet, where do these same individuals find the measurement for relationships?

Some potential measurements would be:

• Number of referrals received
• Longevity of customers
• Historical longevity of customers
• Average value of customers
• Historical value of customers
• % of total sales coming from referrals

This relationship data is just a critical to the bottom line as net profits. For without relationships, those loyal customers, will your business be in business? So, why are you not tracking this key measurement?

Of course, tracking this date also suggests that you have a strategic business plan or business action plan. What is incredible to me after 10years in this business of helping others build their businesses is the continued belief that the word plan is a dirty four letter word. It must be dirty because so very few people have one, but they know that they need one.

Avoid the other dirty four letter word - DoIt. Take action now to discover the second measurement of business relationships within your business. Be honest as you answer how you are not only attracting new customers, but even more importantly maintaining existing ones.

When your actions are aligned to the purpose of business, you will increase sales and even better work smarter and not harder while your piggy bank is being stuffed with all those crisp, new greenbacks.