Certified Lean Office Specialist Cynthia Marsh-Croll

Many organizations today rely heavily on their technology to get things done.  This is something that will become increasingly important as we move into the future.  Those who have learned to leverage the information they have can effectively market, close sales, produce their products or services quicker and save money on maintaining those customers.  One way to achieve this is through effective reporting.

When I work with clients one area that is a challenge is accurate and effective reports.  They either get reports that are outdated or the information needs to be reworked to be accurate.  When I dig a little deeper the usual culprit is information is not being entered correctly into their system.  Everyone has heard garbage in garbage out.  I like to say correct information in money making tool out.  Here are some key areas of information you can glean in reports that will help you grow your bottom line.

1. Prospecting – There are many systems for tracking this.  If done effectively, you can produce reports that will help you convert your leads quicker and obtain a competitive edge.  While the sales people are collecting information as they communicate with your prospects you are learning about demographics, preferences, buying habits and sometimes why you lost the quote to your competition.  Now what do you do with this information?  You can produce reports to see who in the past has bought your product, why and are they still buying and compare that to your prospecting.  Are you prospecting the right target market?  Is your marketing working? (How did you hear about us?)  What is the competition doing that is causing you to lose business?  Being able to answer these questions will not only save your company money it can assist you on where to spend your advertising dollars, have a shorter sales cycle and product development.  This will translate into more customers while spending less to get them.

2. Customer Profile – Again, studying who has bought from you in the past and why is an important component of making sure you continue to meet your customers needs.  It is much easier and cheaper to maintain, cross sell or up sell an existing customer than to get a new one.  Think about when you call a large company’s customer service department they have your demographic information, previous purchases, etc.  They know how and why you buy.  This drives many areas including marketing, sales and development.  Are you growing a certain customer base?  Are there opportunities to expand in an area with your current base by offering ancillary services or expanded higher end services?  Think about who and where you buy?  Ask yourself why.  You should know the same about your customers.

3. Marketing and Advertising – Where should you spend your money that will give you the best conversion rate of transforming a prospect into customer?  Many small businesses do not have a system to track their marketing results thus wasting an absorbanent amount of money on things that do not work.  How do you know if something is effective?  Track the results.  You need to know who is buying, what are they buying, where are they buying, when are they buying, how are they buying and why are they buying.  The information you collect as you prospect and track customers will help you answer these questions so you can make informed decision about where to spend your money in the future.  Most businesses today do not have the luxury of spending their marketing and advertising budget willy nilly.  Nor would you want to.  You need to get the most leverage out of those dollars so that you are taking to the right people, at the right time and in the right place, they understand your message and are prompted to act.  Without the right information you cannot make an informed decision where to spend this money effectively.

4. Accounting and Finance – Here we have 2 main areas; accounts receivable and accounts payable.  Money coming in and money going out.  In this economic environment customers are waiting as long as possible to pay their bills.  This is affecting the cash flow of all their vendors.  This in turn is having those vendors wait longer to pay their bills.  A vicious cycle.  So you need to track who is paying you on time and who is not.  Why?  Because you want more of the kind of customers who will be paying you on time.  This may mean reviewing your target market.  Many organizations have had to shift who they are focusing on because of available business capital.  Equally important, how can you shorten the collection period on your accounts so you get your money sooner?  Some solutions can be automating the collection process, changing your billing terms or collecting partial or full prepayment.  Your bookkeeper can help you with running the reports on who owes you money.
- The other area is accounts payable.  Here is where you can find money.  Run a report on a year to year comparison on what you paid your vendors and suppliers.  Did the prices go up?  If yes, negotiate with your current vendors to change payment terms, reduce prices, etc.  You would be surprised how many companies will work with you to keep your business.  Also, it gives you the information you need to shop around if your current vendor cannot meet your needs.  Lastly, there are companies that do purchasing audits and can assist you with finding cost effective vendors.

Having accurate information to produce useful reports is one the most powerful tools in helping you make smart business decisions.  Without information all you are doing is guessing.  In today’s environment guessing can put you out of business.  It pays to put in the effort to collect accurate information because Effective Reporting Makes You Money.

Croll Productive Synergy has been successfully helping diverse businesses operate better, faster and cheaper than their competition throughout the Hudson Valley.  By “creating the shortest path to success”,  Ms. Croll has been able to facilitate improved workflow systems, allowing clients to save time, focus on revenue generating tasks, prioritize for maximum cash flow,  effectively delegate and, consequently,  increase profits.  To learn more visit www.crollproductivesynergy.com.