Tag Archive for: #xsynergysolutions

Optimizing Sales Process

Are Your Sales, Marketing, and Operational Processes Optimized?

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There is a misconception that creating a company’s website, social media content, SEO and blogs will solely drive a company’s entire sales strategy and optimize the sales process. While those are critical elements of a company’s brand and marketing strategy, there is a critical need for a solid sales and marketing strategy that is unpinned by optimized sales processes. When one of these business elements is missing here is what can occur.

The lack of a deliberate Sales or Marketing motion results in:

  • An incidental/accidental sales plan
  • Sales drive the entire operational model, without a lack of discipline within the organization, there is no customer-driven sales motion or model
  • Organizational efforts are misaligned behind the Sales pipeline, therefore the operational model will struggle
  • A reactive versus proactive and disciplined sales model
  • Widely different priorities by function and organization, causing confusion activity for the outcome
  • Waste of organization resources and disenfranchisement

With a deliberate Sales, Marketing and Operating motion the following occurs:

  • A sales plan and pipeline measured against the market strategy
  • A customer-driven aligned operational model, meaning how goods and services are delivered will support the Sales and Marketing strategies
  • Organizational discipline in support of sales pipeline
  • Market prioritization in place and aligned through the executive team
  • Market plan matching prioritization disseminated through the organization – executive targets and key performance indicators are defined and executed to
  • Organizational alignment and execution to market strategies

There is a financial impact that is a critical component to the alignment of Sales, Marketing, and an optimized operations model. Investments are driven by aligned market strategies with known drivers for current and future strategies. Financial decisions are based on a multitude of factors that include trade-offs for financial planning. There is stakeholder oversight, reviews, and governance.

Curious and want to learn more on how xSynergy Solutions can optimize your sales and marketing motion, please reach out to xSynergy Solutions and we would welcome the opportunity to provide more insight. xSynergy Solutions is a full-service business transformation firm located in Centennial, CO. We impact every aspect of your business from marketing to operational strategies. Learn more at xsynergysolutions.com.

business overhaul

Does Your Business Need an Overhaul?

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It is extremely easy to get caught up in the daily execution of running your business, we call that “run mode” and losing sight of the small process improvements that could drive incremental change in your business and give it a necessary overhaul.  Incremental changes with voice of the customer, revenue, or employee satisfaction.

One of the many tools of Lean is the Gemba Walk.  The Gemba Walk is an opportunity for staff to stand back from their day-to-day tasks to walk the floor of their workplace to identify wasteful activities or process inefficiencies. The objective of Gemba Walk is to understand the value stream and its problems rather than review results or make superficial comments.

Here is how the Gemba Walk works:

  1. Pick a process to walk, walking can be an actual walk or observing a process in motion
  2. Create a high-level process map
  3. Identify the people who execute the process
  4. Select Interviewees and process walkers (or observers)
  5. Schedule a date to walk and/or observe the process
  6. Summary the findings of the walk and/or observation with the key stakeholders of the process and as necessary, work towards process improvements

When to use the Gemba Walk methodology:

  • When a problem arises such as a customer complaint an error occurs in a process
  • Focusing on the seven deadly sins of waste:
    1. Overproduction
    2. Inventory
    3. Defects (ex: process or products produced)
    4. Motion
    5. Wait (queue times)
    6. Over-processing
    7. Transportation
  • Implement a temporary change
  • Identification of a root cause
  • Standardize a process to avoid recurrences

What are the benefits of the Gemba tool?  It helps to drive a culture that thinks more about change because it is simple and easy to execute therefore teams are more accepting. There will be less resistance to change given that fact that change can occur rapidly and solves a problem that may have caused frustration in the organization.  Gemba promotes quick wins, and who doesn’t love a quick win.  It does not require executive governance to execute the quick wins of change.  While this may sound simplistic, it is an effective and efficient tool to drive incremental process improvements.

Curious and want to learn more on how to overall your business processes, please reach out to xSynergy Solutions and we would welcome the opportunity to provide more insight to Lean.

xSynergy Solutions is a full-service business transformation firm located in Centennial, CO.  We impact every aspect of your business from marketing to operational strategies.  Learn more at xsynergysolutions.com

your domain name matters

Choosing a Good Domain Name

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The first domain name was registered more than 30 years ago. Since then, over 330 million domains have come into circulation. With that kind of competition, choosing a good domain name for your business is imperative. A memorable domain name makes all the difference when it comes to creating a successful online presence. In simplest terms, a domain name gives people an easy-to-remember name and address for your website and allows for brand consistency.

The Importance Of A Good Domain Name

Domain names establish a unique identity for your website and represent your brand. Does it matter if your domain name is different than your business name? Yes! A targeted domain name that matches your company name is critical for avoiding brand confusion, so the ideal situation is to have your domain name match your business name. If you’re just starting your business and haven’t yet decided on a business name, you may even want to adjust your business name to match available domains. For example, suppose you were planning to name your business Shoe Palace, but the domain name shoepalace.com is taken. If shoeemporium.com is available, you could change your business name to Shoe Emporium.

Choosing a good domain name does more than identify your brand. It serves to strengthen your brand’s credibility and enhance your domain SEO.

Things to Avoid When Choosing a Domain Name

1. Domains that are too long

You want the domain name for your website to be something that’s short and to the point. This is what’s going to make it memorable and encourage people to visit it.

In an effort to make your domain name unique, you might be tempted to go with a name that’s on the longer side. But this could lead to people typing your domain name wrong when attempting to visit your site and cause you to miss out on traffic.

2. Domains that are difficult to read

Make sure your domain name is easy for people to read and, maybe more importantly, easy for them to say when they’re discussing it with others. Your audience should have to wonder if they are pronouncing your domain correctly. Also, avoid using any words that might be hard for the average person to spell.

3. Domains that contain numbers

This is almost always a bad idea since it often leads to confusion when people go to visit websites. Let’s say that you want to sell the fact that you own the best gym in town. You might be tempted to make your domain name something like number1gym.com. To you, this might seem like a perfect domain name. But what’s going to happen when half your customers try to visit your website by typing in numberonecarwash.com? Unless you buy that domain name, too, and have it redirect people to number1carwash.com, you’re going to miss out on a lot of potential traffic. It’s best to leave numbers out of the equation altogether.

4. Domains with hyphens

Adding hyphens to a domain name can be tempting because it opens up so many possibilities by giving you access to a domain name that you wouldn’t be able to get without hyphens in it.

But here’s the problem: You’re going to have to work really hard to get people to remember to put hyphens into your domain name when trying to visit your site. Many of them will end up typing your domain name in without the hyphens and visiting a site other than yours. You’re better off coming up with a different domain name than trying to squeeze hyphens into bad domain names.

5. Domain names different from your business name

When you start a business website from scratch, SEO is very important. SEO, or search engine optimization, can give your site a big boost and help it land higher on search engine results pages.

There are a variety of ways to improve the SEO of your site. You can fill it with high-quality content that contains certain keywords that are important within your industry. But one of the simplest ways to improve SEO is by making your business name and domain name the same. Google has been known to give businesses that take this approach to create domain names a slight bump in the SEO department.

6. Avoid using an extension other than .com

A .com domain name is the most common extension and still generally carries more significant value for companies. That’s because most of your customers are going to assume your website is [your business name].com. The .com extension will also have a direct impact on your search rankings. Google prioritizes this extension because Internet users default to .com domains. People expect sites to use the extension – many associate real businesses with .coms, and Google tends to play on user assumptions.

There are a few exceptions to the rule. For example, the .org extension is well-known and trusted. The .org stands for ‘organization’ and is the primary choice for charity or non-profit websites. Website with the extension .edu are assigned to educational institutions.

Your domain name matters, and with a good domain name, you can set your business up for success. Make sure that you avoid the types of domain names that we mentioned above. The future success of your website and business could very well depend on it.

Looking to learn more about coming up with a great domain name or need help with other marketing aspects? Give xSynergy Marketing a call. xSynergy Marketing is a division of xSynergy Solutions, based in Centennial, CO. As a true, full-service marketing partner, we can manage all aspects of your marketing needs: branding and design, website development, digital marketing, social media management, paid search, content management, photography, and video production. Contact us today for a complimentary marketing analysis of your existing collateral.

The Organizational Transformation Journey

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Organizational transformation, in reflecting on the word transformation. We hear the word almost daily and in so many capacities. Transformation resonates in almost every aspect of our lives, it manifests in our personal lives, our careers, health, business, and company cultures.

As we embark with clients on their organizational transformation journey there was a very defined methodology that is used, which is the Galbraith Star Model, designed by Jay R. Galbraith (2018 Galbraith Management Consultants). The model system focuses on Strategy, Structure, Business Process, Reward Systems and Human Resource Management. What we love (yes, love) is that this system and process creates a clear path for change (where are we going), scripts the moves (how are we going to get to there), and keeps teams motivated (deliver small incremental decisions and actions along the path).

The organizational transformation focuses on the following key areas

  1. Strategy: Vision, Governance, Comparative Advantage
  2. Structure: Power & Authority, Information Flow, and Organizational Roles
  3. Processes: Networks, Processes Terms, Integration Roles and Matrix Structures
  4. Rewards: Cooperation and Rewards
  5. People: Hiring, Performance Feedback, and Professional Development

It is critically important to follow steps as outlined in the Galbraith Star Model.  Each phase of the model is a building block for the next phase.   The strategy phase focuses on vision, mission and it establishes the direction for the organization and drives the business i.e., markets where the products or services are sold.  Strategy is the foundation.  Think of this in the lens of building a house, there must be a blueprint for the house and then the foundation is built to support the house.  Strategy informs structure.  Structure determines the type of structure required, including:

  • How are we organized?
  • What are the key roles?
  • How is the work managed?
  • Where should the power and authority reside?
  • Where is the span of control?
  • Aligned with the value chains?

Once the structure is designed and agreed upon, then we pivot towards processes.  Processes determine the flow of information, standards of work, and decision accountability.  Highly automated processes should be inherent to a low-cost business model and rigorous quality control processes might be required.

Rewards should align with the goals of the employees and encourage and motivate them to create a synergy to execute the strategy.  And lastly people, in this phase it is critical to ensure the team has the skills required to not only execute the strategy but also create bench strength for the organization and fit into the company culture.  The phase also includes human resource policies.

Culture is also a critical part of the organizational transformation journey (somewhat of an obvious statement).  Involving the teams throughout the process while defining functional accountabilities enables that feeling of control and the ability to influence the moves of change.

Curious and want to learn more about organizational transformation please reach out to xSynergy Solutions.  xSynergy Solutions is a full-service business transformation firm located in Centennial, CO.  We impact every aspect of your business from marketing to operational strategies.  Learn more at xsynergysolutions.com

 

The 5 Whys of Lean

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When you think about the power behind the five (5) whys process for lean, it’s best to reflect on a conversation with a young child.  The inquisitiveness at that young age when they repeatedly ask “why” in an exhaustive fashion. While believing the first couple of responses should have quelled their constant but “why” and yet it does not, there is delight in the end with successfully helping them find the true answer to their original why.  What is fascinating with this process is that it will drive an understanding of the core why (root cause).

There is a tendency when examining a failure in a business process to stop when the first or second why is answered so we can move onto the next business issue.  The shortcut: stopping at the first or second why does not allow an organization to get to the real why (root cause) and thus does not allow for the creation of a solution that prevents the error from occurring again.

What is the five (5) whys analysis process:

  1. State the specific problem that needs to be addressed
  2. Identify and categorize the possible causes for that problem (the first “why”) and attach any supporting documents
  3. Rate each cause based on the likelihood that it led to the problem
  4. Move forward with the top-rated cause and identify the possible causes for that problem (the second “why”)
  5. Repeat steps 1–4 until the root cause of the problem is identified
  6. Develop an action plan to resolve and mitigate the identified root cause

Why use the five (5) whys process?

  1. Identifies the root cause, not just the symptoms
  2. Allows users to perform an evidence-based analysis
  3. Ultimately eliminates issues in the system for good
  4. Seeks to drive improvements and welcomes change
  5. Builds a culture that embraces progress

The power of the five (5) whys is to poke yoke (error proof) the process where the root cause occurred, and the benefits come in many forms.  The benefits include improved customer experience, process waste eliminated, and employee satisfaction to name a few.  To learn more about lean please contact xSynergy Solutions at info@xsynergysolutions.com

xSynergy Solutions is a full-service business transformation firm located in Centennial, CO. We impact every aspect of your business from marketing to operational strategies.  Learn more at xsynergysolutions.com.