When is the last time you took a moment to look at your business and KISS it? K.I.S.S. is not the rock band from the 70’s (and yes, I was a member of the KISS Army), but the acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid. Sometimes I think we lose focus and make things in business, and our lives for that matter, way too complicated. It’s time we all KISS’ed more. I would like to therefore kiss and tell about a few areas of business specifically. Let’s start with employees because after all, they are the heart and soul of any business. Keeping things simple is as easy as asking yourself the following question. Do your current employees do what you expect them to do or what you hired them to do? This is all about expectations. Did the company set proper expectations, are they attainable, did the employees understand them and did they meet them are all questions to ask. The goal here is to take a look and see where you stand today based on where you expected to be today. The next area that I want you to examine is your finances. Is your company in the financial condition or position that you planned to be at this point in time? This area hurts when it’s not as expected. That stated, it’s still easy to KISS. Ask yourself, do you have a financial forecast and if so, how often do you monitor it? If it’s not on track, what do you do to correct it? What are the problems causing you to fail at your forecast? Now we get to discuss sales, my favorite topic to discuss. To KISS sales is no harder than other area of your business, no matter how many elements are involved in the process. Take a look at how you require people to sell. This is not about the people themselves because that KISS is covered above under employees. This is all about the sales process which includes product performance, pricing, competition, value proposition, etc. Stay focused on the process rather than the people and their performance. Performance is only addressable if it is because of unrealistic expectations or demands. Lastly, I would like to discuss KISSing your actual product or service. Too often we forget it’s the WHAT we sell rather than WHO is selling it that is an issue. When is the last time you compared your product or service to competition, to technology, or even to future trends? Does your product or service present a value proposition to your customer? Does it perform as designed and this includes a service oriented business model? To close, I suggest anyone in a position of authority or decision making take some time to KISS their business. Be honest and look at things from a supposed to be rather than a because they are perspective. Don’t accept failure, rather expect success.
Have You KISS’ed Your Business Lately?
