{"id":1762,"date":"2011-02-04T06:25:21","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T06:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanecampbellcfo.com\/?p=71"},"modified":"2023-04-19T19:44:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T19:44:52","slug":"tips-for-profit-growth-in-petaluma-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.b2bcfo.com\/shane-campbell\/tips-for-profit-growth-in-petaluma-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for profit growth in Petaluma \u2013 Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a prior blog, I defined a successful company as one which retained at least 10% of sales as net income. I posed the rhetorical question &#8211; who would want to work as hard as most entrepreneurs do, and retain less than 10% of sales? To get to 10%, I mentioned that the company would need to realize at least a 40% gross profit margin on sales. However, 40% is a very difficult target in most industries, considering\u00a0customer price resistance. Further, I theorized that the successful company would have to sell its good\/services at higher prices than that of the competition in order to achieve the 40% gross margin. \u00a0But how can that possibly be done? Here are my conclusions on achieving higher margin sales after 30 years of observation:<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Excellent Goods\/Services<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Beat the competition with excellent goods\/services. You hear this a lot, and it sounds really good. However, this is simply where the bar starts. Your competitors have excellent goods\/services too. If they didn\u2019t, they would no longer be competitors. So if you have excellent goods\/services, congratulations. You met the minimum standard and get to stay in the\u00a0game \u2013 for now.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Excellent Sales Team<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is vitally important, and will help keep your company in the hunt. But your competitor likely has a tenacious sales team that may be better or worse than your sales\u00a0team, depending on what day it is. One way to get an edge is to invest in the product \u00a0<strong><em><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Integrity Selling \u2013 Congruence of Knowledge, Skills and Values<\/span><\/em><\/strong> by <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Ron Willingham (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.integritysolutions.com\/\">http:\/\/www.integritysolutions.com\/<\/a>)<\/strong><\/span>. I strongly believe that Willingham\u2019s <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>\u201cSales Congruence Model\u201d<\/strong><\/span> will transform your sales team and\u00a0significantly improve performance. Please do yourself a favor and take me up on this one.\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><em>Integrity Selling <\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0flat out works.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Excellent Branding and Marketing<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.b2bcfo.com\/part-time-cfo\/part-time-cfo\/\">part-time CFO<\/a> that comes from an accounting education and background, what could I possibly know about good branding and marketing? Admittedly, not much. But I do know it when I see it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Branding<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Let\u2019s consider Petaluma\u2019s own &#8211; dog walker\/handler\/trainer extraordinaire Glenn McTaggart, founder of \u201cThe Love of Dogs\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theloveofdogs.net\">http:\/\/www.theloveofdogs.net<\/a>). Does Glenn have a great service? Oh yeah. Taking dogs out on regular pack walks does wonders for their canine psyche and normally keeps them from chewing up your new $5,000 Italian leather sofa. Glenn\u2019s training, through the use of hand signals and positive reinforcement (as opposed to copious amounts of mystery meat), brings real and sustainable behavioral change. Glenn also facilitates pet sitting and might even get your \u201cLassie\u201d or \u201cRin Tin Tin\u201d on the silver screen through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reeldogagency.com\">http:\/\/www.reeldogagency.com<\/a>\u00a0if there is sufficient talent. But what really is making Glenn\u2019s business take off, in my opinion, is his knack for branding. This car generates at least ten new sales inquiries per month, just driving around. Branding is a difference maker. If you do not have branding that clearly separates you from the competition, creates excitement from potential buyers, and clearly lays out your value proposition, then you have short-changed yourself and are constantly at a disadvantage to your competitors.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Marketing<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><em>Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn<\/em><\/strong><\/span>, your website and other online marketing is here and now. It is not kid\u2019s stuff. It is not a flavor of the week. In your company&#8217;s case,\u00a0online marketing \u00a0likely has a very significant influence on whether prospects buy from you or from your competitors. Embrace online marketing and your company will likely flourish. You can grow your company organically by meeting \u201cone on one\u201d with prospects, or you can grow exponentially with the \u201cone to many\u201d capabilities provided by online marketing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since I know just enough about online marketing to hurt myself, I will refrain from throwing out any \u201csecrets\u201d or \u201cmust do\u2019s.\u201d I instead recommend that you align yourself with an experienced and knowledgeable expert in the field of social media, web development, and search engine optimization. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Ryan Kelly<\/span> <\/strong><\/span>at <strong><em><span style=\"color: #000080;\">WSI Smart Marketing<\/span> (<a href=\"http:\/\/wsismartmarketing.com\">http:\/\/wsismartmarketing.com<\/a>) <\/em><\/strong>would be an excellent choice. <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><em>WSI<\/em><\/strong><\/span> is ranked #1 in Internet Services Business in the world by industry-leading <em><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Entrepreneur <\/span><\/strong><\/em>magazine. Ryan can educate you on the latest Google online ranking rules and other technical online marketing issues, as well as\u00a0strategies that will\u00a0give your company\u00a0a measurable advantage in the marketplace over the competition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Conclusion<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So you want profit growth in or around Petaluma? I believe that 10% net profit retention is the barometer and is possibly an improvement over what your business now achieves, after paying yourself a reasonable wage.\u00a0 To achieve that level of profitability, you will likely need to obtain a 40% or better gross profit on sales. I believe that is attainable through excellent products and services (again, that&#8217;s where the bar starts), a focused sales team to match that of your competitors (please go order and read <strong><em><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Integrity Selling<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>now), and a robust branding and online marketing program which enthusiastically communicates your value proposition. I hope to see you at the top of the charts \u00a0in next year\u2019s <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><em>North Bay Business Journal &#8211; Book of Lists<\/em><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Profit growth, business improvement, sales<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[23,26],"class_list":["post-1762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shanes-really-deep-insights","tag-business-development","tag-profit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tips for profit growth in Petaluma \u2013 Part II | CFO Services | B2B CFO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So you want profit growth in or around Petaluma? 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