A new year is upon us. The year 2007 was a challenging year in the copier industry, and you can expect 2008 to be just as challenging, if not more so. As a business owner, what will you do differently this year to help ensure that your business can continue to grow, increase profits, and have a healthier outlook for the future?
I came up with eight questions to ponder for 2008. These questions will take thought, developing a strategy, hard work to implement them, and the reward can be more sales and profits for your company in 2008.
1) How many customers did you lose last year?
Do you know what happened when you lost their business? What changes are you implementing to prevent that from happening again?
What are you spending on marketing to new customers versus what you spend on retaining your current customers? You may want to check. It is amazing how companies invest thousands of dollars trying to attract new customers, and spend pennies on retaining them. I am not saying that investing money to promote new business is not important, just that it may not be the wisest allocation of your resources if many of your current customers are walking out the door.
2) How profitable are your customers?
Do you know? If you have taken the time and effort to develop a reporting system that can rank on a monthly basis how profitable your customers are from highest to lowest, I commend you. You have no doubt realized how this tool helps make your decision making more productive and profitable with regards to managing your customers.
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This article will be available online on 11/01/2008
