The point about optimizing elements and activities within your business is to ask the question - "am I achieving the maximum of what is possible?"
If the answer is no then you need to analyse what is happening, on a step by step basis. You might be generating great demand from your marketing activities, but find your conversion rates are low. There can be many reasons for this, but essentially you are wasting marketing dollars if you are not achieving the right level of sales.
Try rating your performance on a scale of 1-10 for each critical area (and be honest). Where you are scoring 6 or less then these are areas for priority action.
Another classic question to ask is how many customers did you lose yesterday, last week, last month. Do you have an accurate number? More importantly do you know why they left? What value went with them - in other words how much potential revenue have you lost because they left. Did you thank them for their custom and say you were sorry they had gone elsewhere but that they are welcome back anytime?
You can see from this one example how we often gloss over what is really important, but sweat the small details. So to optimize you need to work out what is important.
If you have employees - ask them about how they see what they are doing and whether it is both efficient AND effective. If the answer is there is room for improvement then ask them how they would improve things. You should also go a stage further and keep checking with customers to see how they view your product and service, after all they are the ones exchanging money for them. If they feel something is amiss they will be gone to a competitor in the blink of an eye.
Finally don't fall into the trap of thinking cutting prices will help the optimization process. Focus on the value proposition you are providing. The value should be your differentiator not the price.
If the answer is no then you need to analyse what is happening, on a step by step basis. You might be generating great demand from your marketing activities, but find your conversion rates are low. There can be many reasons for this, but essentially you are wasting marketing dollars if you are not achieving the right level of sales.
Try rating your performance on a scale of 1-10 for each critical area (and be honest). Where you are scoring 6 or less then these are areas for priority action.
Another classic question to ask is how many customers did you lose yesterday, last week, last month. Do you have an accurate number? More importantly do you know why they left? What value went with them - in other words how much potential revenue have you lost because they left. Did you thank them for their custom and say you were sorry they had gone elsewhere but that they are welcome back anytime?
You can see from this one example how we often gloss over what is really important, but sweat the small details. So to optimize you need to work out what is important.
If you have employees - ask them about how they see what they are doing and whether it is both efficient AND effective. If the answer is there is room for improvement then ask them how they would improve things. You should also go a stage further and keep checking with customers to see how they view your product and service, after all they are the ones exchanging money for them. If they feel something is amiss they will be gone to a competitor in the blink of an eye.
Finally don't fall into the trap of thinking cutting prices will help the optimization process. Focus on the value proposition you are providing. The value should be your differentiator not the price.
