Triangle Business Journal

David Chapman

Annual Business Audit a Key to Staying on Track

To paraphrase a line out of “The Matrix” – “The answer is out there – it’s asking the right question that drives you to the right one.”

My firm is helping an exciting eLearning software company to paint an overarching picture of how to represent its products globally with a consistent, compelling cross-channel brand.

The company was launched in the early ‘90’s around a revolutionary computer-based, language-learning product. Now it’s a multi-million dollar business with more than 60 employees and in excess of 22 products sold around the world.

Amazing as it may sound, the owners did it organically without a written business plan. They did it without knowing their market share, conducting market research, setting departmental budgets with P&L responsibilities, or even concrete sales forecasts based on market realities.

Meanwhile, the company’s market grew and developed and caught the attention of analysts and the investment community. The VC community has pumped more than $1 billion into the market since 1999, acquiring and funding competitors’ on a global basis. The firm is now facing well-heeled competitors with the marketing and technology resources to raise the stakes to a new level.

What happened? The company so focused on building a successful small business that it failed to develop a systematic, focused business approach designed to reconcile their objectives and resources with changing marketplace opportunities.

The point is this: Every business, particularly undercapitalized small businesses, needs to conduct a yearly business audit, combining all that great entrepreneurial passion and creativity with real time information on its products and services, its competitors, its markets and the environment in which it operates into a strategic plan that can actually take the business to the next level.

What will a yearly business audit do for your company?

• You will get a clear, concise view of your company and competitors in an impartial, objective manner. I’ve found that most companies have an over-inflated view of their products and services.
• You will get a badly needed sense of direction. The end result is the creation of a working mission statement, a more effective brand positioning, and product and market emphasis based on market opportunities.
• You will find out why your customers really buy/don’t buy your products and services and those of your competitors. This will force you to create products and services, and sales and marketing programs for the “ground up” based on consumer needs and wants.
• You can maximize your sales and marketing efforts. Once you have a clear understanding of the competitive set, your positioning strategy and the buying decision process, you can develop integrated sales and marketing programs based on expected results.
• You develop a strategic business planning system that allows you to set short and long-range goals and produce yearly sales and marketing plans that can be implemented and readjusted based on market realities. This gives you the discipline to set a future vision of the company and outline the milestones you need to reach between now and then.

It would be wise to investigate the possibility of engaging the services of a certified (National Association of Certified Consultants) marketing consultant. You can go to Prosavvy.com to find a pre-screened expert in your area that has the experience and the rate structure that is in line with your business. (Signing up for a membership is required, but it is free.)

If you decide to conduct the audit yourself, call me and I’ll send you a framework that works for most companies. Keep in mind that each company has to customize a system that best suits its situation. And make sure you check out the following online resources; Insight Express.com (low-cost consumer research), Google.com (secondary research on the industry and the competition) and Mediastart.com (to find out the media you should be targeting from a PR perspective).

The business audit is just as important as that yearly physical we all dread, and the results always come back positive.

Chapman is president of 919 Marketing, a Triangle-based marketing and public relations consulting firm. He can be reached at (919) 557-7890.