Over the past few weeks we have discussed The Business Bullseye – 6 Parts of Your Company, Marketing – The Art of Attraction, Sales – Create Value and Win and Operations – The WOW Factor. The next two weeks we are going to dig deeper into the leadership pieces of The Business Bullseye to discuss their purpose, opportunities that you may or may not be familiar with and processes & systems that can be implemented. This week we are going to talk about the general manager and running the business with systems and processes.
The general manager oversees all functions of the business and reports to the owner. Tracking the sales and marketing numbers – incoming contacts, qualified leads, quotes/sales presentations and closed sales. Managing the production, output and delivery of your product or service, including material cost, labor, waste, production schedule and logistics. And, overseeing the administrative tasks and responsibilities to make sure the company is growing and continues to operate. Often, the general manager role is filled by the owner in the beginning and it is up to him to develop and create processes to automate and systematize the business, so he can replace himself in the future.
Hey, all you owner-operators out there, does this sound familiar? This week you have been out marketing your business, visited with contacts, made several sales calls and by the end of the week you closed a few deals. Next week comes and you are coordinating and making arrangements for production, probably doing the majority of the work yourself, pressing and pushing the limits and you were able to complete the projects from last week, but you are back to square one and have nothing on the books for next week. So you spend the next week marketing & selling and the week after that focused on operations, production and delivery – and the cycle continues, until you change it.
For you active general managers and the owner operators that want to grow your business and become GMs, it is your job to create and implement systems and processes, teach them to your team and then manage them to make sure the business is performing and headed in the right direction. Systems and processes are simply a set of rules that should be followed, they can be simple or complex, and several can be established in each part of your business including marketing, sales, operations and admin. Here are a few examples:
Marketing
Minimum number of new contacts (per day or per week)
Marketing campaigns – examples include email, lumpy mail or direct mail
Sales
Minimum number of sales calls (per day or per week)
Sales process
- Know, Like & Trust
- Ask Questions to Find Problem
- Offer Your Solution
- Call to Action
Operations
Prepping equipment at the end of the day to be ready first thing in the morning
Inventory checklist that prevents time consuming trips to the store
Minimum inventory levels that trigger re-orders
Equipment Maintenance Scheduling
Administrative
Automated Bill Payment
Travel Arrangement Process
Expense Process
As a general manager, you can rely on systems and processes to run the business without you having to be on top of every decision, minimizing the potential for a bottleneck in the operation. Business metrics can be established to track performance and new personnel can be trained using these systems, reducing the impact of turnover. Management of your systems and processes can replace micromanagement of your people and will improve the operation of your business.
Next week we will take a look at the Owner.
For more information from Spray Foam Advisor, make sure to subscribe here.
