Hi
I was talking to a client last week and their big problem is delivery of their services. They have enough leads, in fact, they are having trouble keeping up with the number of leads.
Clients are getting dissatisfied because the level of service has slipped. My client simply does not have enough staff and is having trouble getting good staff. So we had a chat about the options.
And it was a blinding flash of the obvious!
The answer lay in outsourcing certain functions. The interesting point here is that this was not obvious to my client. He was too close to the action. His service delivery needed to be re-jigged but the re-arrangement was not difficult and could be quite easily managed. He saw just 2 options - totally in house or totally outsourced. But the answer was in a combination of solutions.
It needed a bit of lateral thinking but once he saw the solution then it was full steam ahead.
It sometimes takes an outside view to see all the options. One of my business advisers is just great at spotting these solutions. In fact, I feel a bit dumb at times - ‘how come I did not see that. It is so obvious!’
I’ve learnt that I cannot have an ‘outside’ perspective of my own business. Even though I am an adviser to clients it is impossible for me to play this role for my own business. I’m simply too close to it.
If you are hitting a few dry gullies then think about getting an adviser on board. You’ll be surprised what they can come up with.
Cheers