January 6, 2025 • 37 mins
Struggling to retain loyal customers? Feeling the pressure of rising costs or sustainability demands? In this episode, we’re to help you work out the secrets of business success in 2025 and come out stronger than ever.
We kick things off with a light-hearted sketch before exploring practical strategies to keep your best customers engaged and scale your business without sacrificing quality. Using insights from trusted sources like Forbes, we'll share ways to meet evolving customer expectations while staying ahead of the curve.
Worried about keeping up with industry changes? We discuss how resilience and adaptability can give you the edge, along with tips for breaking down silos in your teams to boost efficiency. Plus, with political and economic shifts reshaping priorities, especially around sustainability, we’ll explain why going green still matters – particularly for industries like food and drink.
Feeling the pinch of rising minimum wages or national insurance costs? Discover innovative ways to empower and motivate your without relying solely on pay rises. From hybrid working models and leadership development to multi-skilling, we’ll give you tools to keep your employees engaged and productive.
Finally, we tackle the challenge of expansion: how to grow your business while staying true to your brand identity. With lessons from Gordon Ramsay's business experiences, you’ll see why focusing on your core strengths is key to long-term success.
Packed with relatable advice, real-life examples, and a touch of humour, this episode will leave you feeling ready to take on 2025 with confidence and clarity.
For more info, free resources, useful content & our blog posts, please visit realitytraining.com.
Reality Training - Selling Certainty
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
come in, bobby.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, good morning ah good, I'm glad you could uh
come and join me, have a seat,have a seat.
Um, I know it's slightly early,but drink, I'd love one.
Yes, I mean, it's such a sunnyday, I'm getting quite excited
about 2025, are you?
Well, uh, to some extent I am,although I think it's time we
had a bit of a chat.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, I've got something on my agenda.
I wonder if it's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, what's your thing on your agenda?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, it's the thing that everybody talks about.
Traditionally we've done payrises from January.
Sometimes I look back a fewyears.
We've done them from March.
I suppose two questions whenare we doing them and have we
got a sort of fixed?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
percentage increase across the board.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I mean obviously you've seenthe budget.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Well, yes.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yes, so all the people that we employ who are on
minimum wage are going to bepaid more anyway, because the
government told us we have to,and everybody else is going to
be costing us way more innational insurance contributions
this year.
So, frankly, they're all luckyto still have jobs, but there
will be no pay increases thisyear.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I mean to make that very clear as your FD.
Our profits are stillrelatively healthy and I've
pretty much led on to mostpeople that there will be a rise
.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, you've taken that on yourself and that was
the wrong thing to do.
We're now in for thousands, asyou know as FD, thousands of new
taxes that we're paying, whichabsolutely wipes the slate for
any kind of pay rise.
That's going on, I'm afraid,and I have spoken to four or
five of my fellow chiefexecutives at other
(01:44):
organizations who are doingexactly the same.
So, look, have a think about it.
Think about giving themsomething else instead, just
something instead of moneyTraining.
Oh, come on, I'm not made ofmoney.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Hello Bobby, Good day to you good day.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well, that was an interesting sketch and slightly
sad and depressing I was.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I was picturing a jaguar driving clearly an old
jaguar, not the new yeah yeah,courting an old jaguar driving.
Light industrial ceo yes, lightyes manufacturing.
That's it, I think you.
You do something with adhesivesand your base not far from
rickman's worth yeah, thatsounds good.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Now why are we using that asour starting point?
Listener, was a very goodquestion.
We are talking about our topfive success strategies for 2025
.
And we thought we'd get a bitpolitical straight off the bat,
because 2025, in the UK inparticular and in terms of
(03:16):
business, is going to beaffected by what's happened in
the budget in the last fewmonths and there's lots of
commentary going on about thatat the moment.
But the good news for you,listener, is that I've done
extensive research on variouswebsites to look at what are the
top five strategies successstrategies for 2025.
(03:37):
And we're going to take youthrough some of those and then,
lucky old you, I've actuallycome up with what I think should
be your five success strategiesfor 2025.
So let's begin.
So I did quite a lot ofresearch actually on various
websites and one of the bestones actually was Forbes, but
I'll come on to that in a bit.
If you do a straightforwardchat GPT thing, you know what
(04:01):
are the top five successstrategies.
This is what's thrown at youand they're very simple.
Number one customer retention.
Now, we've covered this in anumber of our books, so it costs
way more to attract a newcustomer than it does to hold on
to a current one.
So anything you can doespecially for 2025, to retain
your customers is going to saveyou money and make you money at
(04:22):
the same time.
So that's a number one, and Ithink that's a fair point, and a
lot of our work these days isin retention.
Now number two, and I'm goingto come back to this embrace
sustainability.
Yeah, good, now we've just beentalking about this offline and
I think there's a real debate tobe had about the reality of
(04:44):
sustainability in what you mightcall the developed world, and
we'll come on to that in a bit,because I think there are some
factors they're going to makethat a little bit harder next
year, which we'll come on to now.
Number three, and this won't beof any surprise to anyone,
given our recent episodesleverage ai interesting that
episodes leverage AI Interestingthat AI tells you to do that as
(05:06):
well.
Yeah, AI tells you to leverageitself.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Keep me in business.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yes, now we've already started to use AI quite
extensively for various thingslike research and copywriting
and stuff like that.
We've literally only scratchedthe surface, really, of what it
could potentially do, and that'san interesting one.
One number four, and this is abroader marketing point grow
your digital presence, and thatkind of makes sense.
(05:32):
I suppose that these days,everyone has a digital shop
window, and why not develop thatnext year?
And lastly and this may sort ofsound like they're stating the
bleeding obvious really makesure you have a scalable
business model.
Now I'm wondering whether theAI was struggling for something
there.
For number five, because that'sso broad Well that's also very
(05:56):
debatable Lots of.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I think we talked about this on a previous
business.
If your business is at itsscale, if you were to scale up
and the quality would drop dueto your scaling, then it isn't
scalable.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, quite Now.
Let's now move that on toanother CFO website I was
looking at simply an article onthe same question.
So number one was similar tocustomer retention.
It was align with changingcustomer needs.
So I think that's a broaderthing about, you know, improving
the customer experience,regardless of the channel that
they come in.
(06:30):
Invest in technology anddigital transformation.
That's the same as grow yourdigital presence.
Three and this is more our bagupskilling and hybrid work, as
if the two things are sort ofpart of the same strategy, where
you get new people in, youtrain them, you have your
current people, you train themand you explore how hybrid
(06:54):
working is used more creativelyand successfully and possibly as
a way of retaining good staffas well.
Number Number four was aboutfinance.
They think that now's a goodtime to borrow money for growth.
I'm not so sure about that.
Interest rates are kind of inthe middle somewhere, but maybe
for businesses it might not be abad time.
(07:16):
Is the article sponsored by abank?
No, it wasn't, actually.
But number five is a big one,and we're going to come back to
this in a minute as well.
Geopolitical things are goingto help you be successful and we
are in a very uncertain worldat the moment.
There's wars all over the shopand I think a lot of businesses
have to try and navigate theirway through the uncertainty
(07:39):
that's going around, and one ofthe ways to do that is to think
okay, I can't do anything aboutsome of these terrible things
that are happening, but what wecan do is continue to innovate
in what we're doing and come upwith ideas and try and find ways
to connect with more people,regardless of their situation.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's a tough one also what you've shared with us as
the listeners.
Listening is the very top lineof it.
There's not so much oh of a howis there.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
No, no, no.
So my last list is from Forbesand theirs is really
straightforward Customerexperience that we've mentioned.
Strategic use of AI, which issimilar as leveraged AI.
Sustainable businesses Now,what I've taken that one to mean
they're reading about it is,rather than just say, oh, we
must have a sustainable business, which is one thing which you
(08:26):
hope is going to make youattractive to customers, but I
think that's debatable.
There's also a focus here onlook at businesses that work in
the sustainability, greener,environmental world area.
That's where the future is, sothat's an interesting one.
They've got one area whichhasn't been touched by anyone,
(08:47):
and I love this.
What do you think hyperautomation is, jeremy?
Hmm?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
hyper automation gosh , we're now chucking that word
in we've.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
We've had enough of agile um yeah, you've got to be
hyper automated.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I think it means a bit like um well, we nearly had
an interesting client in I can'teven what it was called where
they would print and buildentire things from their
printing machines.
Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Oh, yes, Okay, no, that's nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
No, no, I'm connecting to it.
What they were doing was theywere putting their machines into
the customers so they couldrespond quickly and replace and
make their own parts.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So I'm just going to go for.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
HyperBing speed that you can automate something at.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, that's one particular possible application
that you've hit upon there, butthe actual broader term means
that through using AI reallywell, data flows through your
organization, predicts demandand appears exactly when it's
needed.
What appears, the data, thedata.
(09:59):
So you're sitting at your deskand it goes.
If you ring these 10 peopletoday, five of them are going to
buy something.
If you do this today, you makethese products.
They'll be sold in three daystime.
Well, that analyzes demand andwho's buying what or who's doing
what or, and serves you servesyou information yes that you can
(10:21):
get very hyper and hyper aboutexactly.
And then the last one is thesame as the last one of the
previous list.
It's about how are youresilient through uncertain
times, given that there arelarge, damaging, yeah, very
testing wars going on right now,and those are big issues.
(10:44):
And I think that you know manyindustries are struggling at the
moment because they're tryingto make their products and
services valid and appealing topeople in a time where people
haven't got a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Or they're more discerning over where they put
it.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Hugely discerning and also, I think, given the
uncertainty, that's a greatreason not to do things.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, I was going to say it's funny, I'm I don't know
, you could use the wordmentoring my nephew who chose
not to go to university and he'sworking with an interesting
company I won't say what it isbecause it hasn't launched yet
and we were doing one of oursessions the other day and he
said to me yeah, you see, thething is, jeremy, it's a tough
(11:32):
market out there now.
And I said what?
I'm not having you saying thaton any of your sessions with me.
What do you want about it?
Where did you get that from?
Well, people have been sayingit no, no, no, no, it's between
your ears.
I thought your thing aboutresilience and attitude.
We know a lot of people startthe year slowly, wind up, slowly
, wait for something good tohappen, blue Monday, all that
(11:54):
cack, whereas how you feel aboutthings, you know the classic
Zig Ziglar is it's between yourears, is the market?
It's not out there.
It's how you feel.
So there are people, you know,as he would say, there's people
still buying jeans, milk, cars,and it's who's going to be in
the best possible position tomake them feel good about it.
So so much attitudinal we tomake them feel good about it.
So so much attitudinal.
(12:15):
We're kicking off.
You don't know this, but thismorning Anne and I, we've won a
new little project.
We are kicking off the new yearon a purely attitudinal program
for someone.
Wow, how to be resilient androbust in the face of a
challenge they are going to face.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I'll tell you about that in a bit.
It's quite exciting, okay,great.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Good bit.
It's quite exciting.
Great good, and that also fitsin with your other thing on your
list.
We're immediately delivering itvia teams because because they
can react very quickly, run thistraining out across where it's
going, to a few countriesupskilling and hybrid, yeah,
yeah, it's upskilling people andwe're using the hybrid method
to do it.
Yeah excellent.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Well, I mean, that's that's all part of the joy of
the modern world that youconstantly are adapting what it
is you're doing to suit thesetrends, which is what they are,
but, I think, for our listeners.
I was looking at these and Ithought these are so broad and
you then got to think well, okaythen, what does embracing
(13:15):
sustainability mean to myorganization or my company or my
firm or my partnership orwhatever it may be?
So what I've done is I've takena little bit of time to think
about this and I've come up withfive strategies that I think
everyone should definitely do inthe next few months.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
After the break, let's have a listen to those
then.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, okay, after the break, let's have a listen to
those then.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Okay, welcome back to the Reality of Business
presented by Reality Training.
If you're looking to boost yoursales, strengthen your
leadership or enhance yourteam's performance, you've come
to the right place.
Our tailored training programsare designed to deliver results.
(13:56):
Ready to take the next step,head over to realitytrainingcom.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
So, bobby, you have distilled like a whiskey maker
the strategies that you thinkare listeners.
I will just check Is thisrunning a business, large or
small?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I think a business of more than a few people
definitely Okay, but some ofthem are relevant to all.
I mean, before I look at these,I just want to say something
about the sustainability thing,because that came up on a few of
the lists.
I just worry that businesseswho are focusing on
sustainability and thinking howcan we be more green and
sustainable, whilst I absolutelyapplaud the efforts, we are
(14:42):
entering a period where so manycountries in the next few months
are probably going to be led bymore right-wing governments who
are completely climatesceptical and not in the least
bothered about this kind ofthing and that doesn't mean we
shouldn't be.
But I just think that that areaof sustainability is going to
have a real battle on its handsover the next year or so.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Well, I think it's always what the individual can
do and believe in, sure.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
But the point is that would one of our customers look
at us and go how sustainableare you being?
Oh good, you're recycling, good.
I don't know that there's thatlevel of scrutiny of other
organizations.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Well, no, it is for well.
Certainly, where it is mostnoted is in food and drink
businesses.
I saw a thing on television atthe weekend.
I think it's the world's firstrestaurant that is completely
off-grid in how heats cooks.
There's no, no batteries thebatteries but there's no um
(15:42):
energy, and every single thingserved in the restaurant comes
within five miles.
Now, that's very appealing toconsumers, who are who, I bet,
you the prices reflect that aswell, though, jay oh, I'm sure
they do oh, no, no, this wasthis wasn't a cheap.
This wasn't punting out sausagerolls.
No, no, no, no and so that.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
So then you?
You then realize that you'redealing with a tiny percentage
of the world.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Who would actually give a fig about that, whereas
most people are less botheredabout it no, I think it's very
hard to put an audit on atraining and development
business to see what we're doingthat's sustainable.
But in the way that everyone isstill an employee.
How an employee acts andbehaves with their own recycling
, with their own air miles, withtheir own food miles, with
their own you know behaviors ismaybe that's the evolution that
(16:31):
you click on an employee and itgoes Roger cycles to work, da da
da.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And you read the profiles yes, sorry, jeremy,
you're only 30 sustainable.
I'm afraid we're gonna have tolet you go.
We had a look.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
We had a look at you yeah, and also you're about to
sign a contract.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I looked at four other people and uh, mary's not
reading anything about gardening.
I mean does she, does she notdo her own bit to create oxygen?
We shouldn't she grow her ownvegetables?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
We're not interested.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, so okay, here are my five things, and they're
in no particular order.
The first one is a big one forany medium to large sized
organization, and it's simpleFold your silos into one Should
we talk about how they might dothat into one.
Should we talk about how theymight do that?
Yeah, so if you've got a newbusiness team and a retention
(17:22):
team, they are essentially thesame conversations, just there's
a slightly different dynamic,and it shouldn't be beyond the
wit of man for you to create asystem that will allow you to
respond to either type ofconversation Combine when you
say fold, you've just been Foldthem together, together, yeah.
So why have two big groups ofpeople when you could have one
group of people doing both?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
and it creates a greater understanding of where
that customer then goes toanyway and it gives everyone a
better variant of work and italso is.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
it just makes sense and it's what the multi-skilling
of it is, the next level, and Ithink people need to just bite
the bullet and go for that.
Yeah, so that's the first one.
The second one is aboutmarketing.
We did a thing years ago on athing called Lanchester strategy
, which I won't go into now, butit's a really simple way of
focusing on your competitors,whether it be large or small,
(18:11):
and I think if anyone gets thechance, they should read up
about Lanchester strategy interms of marketing.
That's worth checking out.
But I've got a really simplething.
I saw the other day onmarketing that I thought you
could apply to this and it was asimple sentence the best known
company always does better thanthe best.
The best known company alwaysdoes better than the best.
(18:36):
So you could have a reallyfantastic solicitor's firm,
brilliant at what they do inevery sense, but who are hardly
known at all, and a much betterknown solicitor's firm will just
do better because of thatawareness.
And I think that these days wetry so hard on digital marketing
to be accurate and pick ouraudiences and pick our people
(18:57):
and pick our individuals doingthese various things that I
think sometimes we forget thatgeneral awareness is a really
great objective.
And, of course, when it comes toLancaster strategy, whether
you're a small or a big company,you all need that.
So I think, re-look at yourmarketing and think how do we
make ourselves the best knownfor what we do?
(19:20):
That's really going to help you, especially in a difficult
marketplace.
Then we've got executivecoaching.
So we've done an episode onthis a few months ago, but we've
also done several features onthis as a task on our other
podcast channels as well.
And this is about senior people.
(19:41):
If you are a senior personrunning a business which is
going to have an interestingyear for various reasons, you're
going to need some development,you're going to need some help,
you're going to need some timeto get your brain working and to
do better, and I thinkexecutive coaching is the really
superb way of doing that and Imean with anything that we're
saying.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
The part is, how do I start this?
I think both the the first twothings that you've said.
Yes, you can have your biground off kickoff meeting, but a
lot of it, you know, the powerof a strategy isn't always the
strategy.
I think it's terry lee he saidwhen we saw him speak years ago.
He said all of us sitting inthis room pretty much know what
(20:22):
to do.
The companies that succeed arejust good at implementation.
They diarize it.
They're going to do it.
Now Bob's thing on coachinghe's just shared.
When I catch up with clients orindividuals and they say, yeah,
I missed it this week, I saidwhat do you mean?
I missed coaching my team, Imissed two of my one-to-ones.
Then your time management'sshot, what did you allow to
(20:45):
prioritize it?
What knocked it out?
So perhaps you hearing ussaying coaching is important and
you go we do that, yeah, we, wedo that, do you?
How many are missed.
Are they proper sessions?
Are they actually pipelinechats where you sit down with
someone and go?
So how's your pipeline?
Oh, I thought it was coaching.
Yeah, but it's a sales meeting.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, it's a sales meeting.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And you're meant to be coaching your head of
marketing on innovation and youactually say so.
How many campaigns are goingthis month?
Oh, again this month.
Oh, I thought we're talkingbroadly and coaching me.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
No, no, no, I want to know what we've got running oh
right.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So it's an inventory, you know.
So I think that's the point isdiarizing it.
Yeah, putting in the work towork on the work.
That's the tough stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Well, that brings me on to my fourth thing, which is
team leader development.
Yeah, now we've worked withloads of team leaders in this
last year and it's fair to saythat so many team leaders are
appointed to their roles andbegin that role leading a team
of people who are supposed to beproductive with no actual
(21:47):
notion of how to do that, apartfrom what they've seen from
their own team leaders.
Yeah, that is ridiculous.
And there's so much trainingyou can give team leaders that
will have a direct impact onyour frontline people and will
make them better leaders andwill get better results.
It's just, it's such a quickwin, and I think that's one area
(22:07):
where all organizations whohave teams must think okay, when
was the last time we gave ourteam leader, our sales manager,
any development at all?
You know, when was the lasttime they really were challenged
to come up with great ideas andwe gave our team leader, our
sales manager, any developmentat all?
When was the last time theyreally were challenged to come
up with great ideas?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Well, it's interesting the famous quote
from Drucker Peter Drucker whichis leadership is about doing
the right things.
Management is about doingthings right.
Increasingly, we're seeing inour work more and more clients
are allowing their team leadersto be team leaders and not team
managers.
They're actually requiring abit of innovation at the
(22:43):
coalface.
So, instead of just implementthis strategy and do it, there's
a bit more oh, we didn't expectthat reaction.
Work with your leader on howyou might respond.
Work with your leader and yourteams on how you're going to get
through this period, how you'regoing to sell this, how you're
going to market this, how you'regoing to deliver this.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So there is more leadership innovation at that
level yes, so that's a big oneand I think, if you're listening
to this, 2025 is beginning.
It's a great time to think,okay, when was the last time we
worked with these people andgave them anything of value?
Because that position, which isabsolutely leading your people,
(23:21):
is such an important one to getright.
I think the investment therewould be good.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I had a phone call about our Christmas party Hi,
I'm just confirming your tablefor 10.
And I said I've tried to changeit online all week.
It doesn't work the system.
Oh right, what is it you needto do?
I need to add one more.
We're now 11.
What do you think she says?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
You can't do that.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
No worse.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You have to cancel.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, what are we talking about?
Man managers?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I'll have to check with my manager, to check with
my manager.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Oh heavens and she said I'm in charge of all of the
christmas party tables.
Okay, so you're leading thatpart of this business at this
busy time of year.
I, I'm, I, I can't, I can't dothat.
I'll have to check with mymanager.
And then this is even weirderthey will get back to you.
Don't know if it's a here, orshe don't know she does either.
They will get back to you ifthere's a problem, otherwise,
(24:14):
just turn up and we'veaccommodated that extra person
amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Well, that brings me on to my last one, which is
empowerment.
Oh, there you go, there we go,and that's that's what I said.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I was on to lorraine at the time and I just said why
can't they allow that ladyringing me up to go in and click
a few bits and tell me if youcan wedge another person around
the table?
Just make the decision.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Just say, just make a decision.
I know Such a waste of time.
It is Well the reason I pickedpodcast, which is this.
So there is a double whammyhitting lots of businesses this
year.
That is an increase in theminimum and living wage, which
is significant.
(24:54):
So if that's what most of yourpeople are paid, then you are
forced to give them the pay rise.
That's the first thing.
And then, secondly, allemployers have to pay more
national insurance for all thepeople they employ, and in some
cases it's a significant amountof money yeah, as much as you
would even consider givingsomeone as a pay rise.
(25:15):
So the idea that there's goingto be large percentage,
regardless of inflation, by theway, the idea there's going to
be large wage increases over thenext six months, it's not going
to happen.
Employers are not going to takethis lying down and I think
it's a really retrograde step.
I would love this new governmentto be doing better and to be
doing well, but I find this tobe such a stifling of innovation
(25:39):
from a government who came inon a ticket saying we want to
get growth into the economy.
I just find it extraordinarythat they would make this move.
However, I spun it positivelyin my brain and thought okay, if
you're not going to give peoplebig pay rises, then what can
you do?
Well, I tell you exactly whatthat is, and that is empower
(25:59):
them to make choices and makedecisions.
And that comes onto the hybridworking thing and how you engage
and how you work and thebenefits and the kind of
enjoyment that one gets fromone's job.
It's tough, but I thinksometimes you know to do
something which is restrictedand doesn't have any empowerment
(26:22):
.
For the same, money isdemotivating, whereas at least
if you give somebody someempowerment, give them some
choice, give them some brilliantleadership from good team
leaders, give them some expertcoaching, give them some great
marketing strategies thatincrease awareness and increase
inquiries, and also you'reempowering them by your folding
(26:42):
in those silos so that you'vegot people becoming
multi-skilled in what it is theydo.
Then at least you're investingin their employability and that
is almost as good as giving thema pay rise well, you're giving
them variety as well yes,absolutely absolutely humans
require for innovation andmotivation
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I'll talk a bit about strategy, if I may, just
generally speaking.
So you may already have an ideaof what you're going to focus
on, and this episode's helpedyou.
You think, actually, we shoulddefinitely do more of that.
You get the ideas in the potand you start to write out your
lists of things you're going todo.
One of the great skills is torule things out.
We are not going to do directmail this year.
(27:23):
We're not going to try and doour radio ads.
We're not going to do thesemail this year.
We're not going to try and doour radio ads.
We're not going to do theseevents, whatever it may be.
You've got to look at the returnon the activity what's working,
what's not working, whichstrategy bore fruit, which one
needs redoing.
But you also need to make somestrong commitments of things
you're just not going to do.
(27:44):
There's no point us trying todo 25 things.
Well, what is our core strategy, our secondary strategy and
maybe our third?
I think if companies were muchclearer in what everybody was
really focusing on, then it'd beso much easier, rather than
scrapping around to try and hitsome other digital channel that
you think you must perform in.
(28:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, this is the challenge and it is going to be
an interesting year for so manyorganizations, and we also have
come through a very sort ofdifficult period after COVID and
all that sort of stuff, and inmany ways, the economy is sort
of sorting itself out after thatbig shock, and then we've had
the energy crisis and what haveyou.
So there's all sorts of thingsthat have happened that affect
(28:30):
people's view on things.
At the same time, there is anopportunity to, as you always
say, you know, affect what youcan affect.
I can affect my leaders.
I can affect my senior people.
I can think about our marketingand have something really simple
like I want to become the bestknown.
I can think about hang on aminute, this call is very
(28:53):
similar to this call, or thisconversation is very similar to
this sort of conversation.
Let's bring them together sothat we actually have
multi-skilled people working forus, and let's also think what
the hell can we do to empowerour people so they become better
and more efficient in what theydo.
If we can do some of thosethings, then you're going to
have a pretty good year.
Well.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I think you're also making me think of something I
heard Seth Godin talking aboutthe other day, talking about
strategy and marketing.
He said you've got to decidefundamentally are you doing more
or are you doing better?
You can't always have both.
Fundamentally, are you doingmore or are you doing better?
You can't always have both.
You know if?
And he interviewed a chocolateguy on his Akimbo podcast who
makes chocolate and sells it ata high rate, and so on and so on
(29:38):
.
And he said what do you want?
He said, well, I'd love a cafenext.
And he said okay, so at themoment, the chocolate works for
you.
When you switch to that, you'regoing to be working for the
chocolate.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Very good, that's great.
Yeah, works for you.
When you switch to that, you'regoing to be working for the
chocolate.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Very good, that's not great.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
You said and every time ifyou've got your own cafe and
every time you see a table withno one near it, no one sitting
around it, you're going to godamn, that's four covers I
haven't got.
Uh, he put it at him in a verygood way.
It was just a really nice sortof like a live interview, and so
he said do you really want acafe or do you want to stay on?
I think he was on some islandlike Nantucket or something or
(30:11):
said do you want to stay on theindustrial estate Because people
don't come to you?
You haven't got a shop, youdeliver it to their door.
They don't need to see whereyou're making it, what do?
you want?
Do you want more or better?
And some of the things you'retalking about are better.
Empowerment means better.
Folding or combining your silosis better, and maybe that's
another thing.
(30:31):
What could we do better thisyear?
But won't necessarily get more,but maybe it cuts into that
retention thing.
Maybe our existing clients, youknow, is digging a bit more
with us, maybe you get a bitmore traction from them.
Convincing somebody of yourworth who knows nothing about
you is hard.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It is, it is, and therefore maybe getting them to
know everything you do is toomuch of a stretch.
Yeah, maybe you just need tomake them aware of you.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Simple awareness.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
This is us and our universe now is, let's say,
5,000 people who are aware of us.
Let's try and make 10,000people aware of us by the end of
the year and see whatdifference it makes.
You know, it can be as simpleas that, because that's going to
only help you Well.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
that increases your opportunity of the timing being
right for more people.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So it's funny.
I had an old friend in mykitchen last week who he's doing
some really good stuff, somereally videos, and he was saying
I'm just not getting enoughmeetings and I find that when I
ring people they're not in theoffice.
You know, we've talked aboutthis on other episodes just
getting hold of people, but hisawareness is extremely good and
very, very high for theparticular thing that his firm
(31:42):
are offering.
And I said what do you?
You've just got to be there.
You've got to keep increasingthat awareness and perhaps
you're more direct with the oneway you could help, because I
also think that if you've got akind of menu of things a bit
like Gordon Ramsay, you know whyshould I walk into this
(32:04):
restaurant as I'm walking downthis street?
What is it that you do so wellthat perhaps that's my entry
point?
I'll come to you for that.
So just to make you aware,we've been doing this incredibly
well for this long.
Maybe that's an easier strategy.
That's your first in.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Although these days, at this time of year, to be able
to walk straight into a GordonRamsay restaurant, you'd be
doing well without a restaurant.
Oh, one of his.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, I'm talking about the ones he helps on his
nightmare programs oh yes, youknow what do you do well here,
what is it you're?
And they say oh, we're knownfor our clam bakes or whatever
you know.
Fine, okay.
Well, why is your menu got 45things on it?
You know if?
Speaker 1 (32:44):
uh, I I saw um as an aside.
I saw an episode of that um, aplace in america that was known
known for its shepherd's piesreally in the us and uh, and
gordon ramsey went and orderedone and this thing was
absolutely uneatable.
It was nothing like ashepherd's pie.
Right, okay, and he complainedto the owner and said this
(33:06):
shepherd's pie is disgusting.
The owner said, right, well,you make one, I'll make one and
we'll see who's his best.
So the owner makes his normalgloopy, horrible shepherd's pie.
Gordon Ramsay makes this mostincredible shepherd's pie which,
incidentally, I've been makingever since the recipe's online,
and he serves it to someregulars in this place and they
(33:29):
eat both his shepherd's pies.
And he comes out and gordon'snot there and he goes come on,
guys which tell me which one'sbest, and they go.
Well, gordon's is obviouslythey go.
You're kidding me, you'rekidding me.
He couldn't believe it.
He couldn't believe the gordonramsay, the top chef might cook
better.
How bizarre Would be a betterlamb-based shepherd's pie than
his own.
And he was absolutelyincredulous that they would
(33:54):
think his was better, and itjust plainly was.
The ego on him.
It's extraordinary, isn't it?
But some people just won't betold.
Now back to your original point.
Yes, we all think we're doingthings the right way, but
actually I think that the waythe world is going, and it's so
uncertain and there's such aroller coaster in terms of what
(34:17):
things are, what things cost,interest rates, all that sort of
stuff so much uncertainty goingon I think, really, if you can
just funnel your focus into afew key areas, I think you can
have a good year, or as good ayear as you can have, by making
sure that you just focus on someof those key things and I think
it has to be less shotgunmarketing, more sniper.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
I still think I get such blanket pitches to my email
.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
You know we do this and they don't know anything
about you.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I even had a one-to-one with a person.
I agreed to a meeting aboutbooks.
She hadn't read the brief themeeting set up.
She didn't know what we did no,no.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
And what is it?
You do wow I get these thingsrecently where they send you
emails and they use variousthings to try and get you to
read the email.
Yeah, and someone said sosomeone sent me this email and
it said hello bob, I'm hopingthis email finds you in good
standing.
Good standing, what the helldoes that mean?
(35:18):
Hello bob, I'm hoping thisemail finds you in good standing
.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
You could say I've slightly sprained an ankle
playing squash.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
So my standing's a little off it's such an odd
thing to say, isn't it?
And there was another one I hadyears ago, which was um, I've
sent you this to bump this up tothe top of your email oh, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
So I've had it and they magically bump up the
original email, but this isanother email, if I wasn't
interested when I first saw it,why would I be more interested
now?
Speaker 1 (35:43):
what's your thinking of that?
Speaker 2 (35:45):
oh, are you getting?
This is my last one.
Those are funny, aren't they?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
oh, this one is my last attempt circling back after
my previous email yeah,circling back where's that come
from, so?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
you're now an airline pilot.
Yeah, who's unable to land?
Yeah, yeah I.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I just find why are people doing this need to circle
back flight 16?
I have plenty of people who arereaching out to us.
Oh, oh yeah, yeah, reaching out,reaching back, reaching forward
Everyone's doing some kind ofreach.
But anyway, ladies and gents,customers, listeners, thank you
for listening to our podcast,but we hope you find it useful
(36:24):
in terms of your planning.
Thank you for listening to usthrough 2024.
We've really enjoyed doingthese podcasts and playing
around with new formats and thenew way that we're running it.
We are enjoying that and wewish you all the very best for
2025, don't we, jeremy?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
We do.
Yeah, have a cracking year anddon't try and do everything.
Thank you.
come in, bobby.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, good morning ah good, I'm glad you could uh
come and join me, have a seat,have a seat.
Um, I know it's slightly early,but drink, I'd love one.
Yes, I mean, it's such a sunnyday, I'm getting quite excited
about 2025, are you?
Well, uh, to some extent I am,although I think it's time we
had a bit of a chat.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, I've got something on my agenda.
I wonder if it's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, what's your thing on your agenda?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, it's the thing that everybody talks about.
Traditionally we've done payrises from January.
Sometimes I look back a fewyears.
We've done them from March.
I suppose two questions whenare we doing them and have we
got a sort of fixed?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
percentage increase across the board.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I mean obviously you've seenthe budget.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Well, yes.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yes, so all the people that we employ who are on
minimum wage are going to bepaid more anyway, because the
government told us we have to,and everybody else is going to
be costing us way more innational insurance contributions
this year.
So, frankly, they're all luckyto still have jobs, but there
will be no pay increases thisyear.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I mean to make that very clear as your FD.
Our profits are stillrelatively healthy and I've
pretty much led on to mostpeople that there will be a rise
.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, you've taken that on yourself and that was
the wrong thing to do.
We're now in for thousands, asyou know as FD, thousands of new
taxes that we're paying, whichabsolutely wipes the slate for
any kind of pay rise.
That's going on, I'm afraid,and I have spoken to four or
five of my fellow chiefexecutives at other
(01:44):
organizations who are doingexactly the same.
So, look, have a think about it.
Think about giving themsomething else instead, just
something instead of moneyTraining.
Oh, come on, I'm not made ofmoney.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Hello Bobby, Good day to you good day.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well, that was an interesting sketch and slightly
sad and depressing I was.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I was picturing a jaguar driving clearly an old
jaguar, not the new yeah yeah,courting an old jaguar driving.
Light industrial ceo yes, lightyes manufacturing.
That's it, I think you.
You do something with adhesivesand your base not far from
rickman's worth yeah, thatsounds good.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Now why are we using that asour starting point?
Listener, was a very goodquestion.
We are talking about our topfive success strategies for 2025
.
And we thought we'd get a bitpolitical straight off the bat,
because 2025, in the UK inparticular and in terms of
(03:16):
business, is going to beaffected by what's happened in
the budget in the last fewmonths and there's lots of
commentary going on about thatat the moment.
But the good news for you,listener, is that I've done
extensive research on variouswebsites to look at what are the
top five strategies successstrategies for 2025.
(03:37):
And we're going to take youthrough some of those and then,
lucky old you, I've actuallycome up with what I think should
be your five success strategiesfor 2025.
So let's begin.
So I did quite a lot ofresearch actually on various
websites and one of the bestones actually was Forbes, but
I'll come on to that in a bit.
If you do a straightforwardchat GPT thing, you know what
(04:01):
are the top five successstrategies.
This is what's thrown at youand they're very simple.
Number one customer retention.
Now, we've covered this in anumber of our books, so it costs
way more to attract a newcustomer than it does to hold on
to a current one.
So anything you can doespecially for 2025, to retain
your customers is going to saveyou money and make you money at
(04:22):
the same time.
So that's a number one, and Ithink that's a fair point, and a
lot of our work these days isin retention.
Now number two, and I'm goingto come back to this embrace
sustainability.
Yeah, good, now we've just beentalking about this offline and
I think there's a real debate tobe had about the reality of
(04:44):
sustainability in what you mightcall the developed world, and
we'll come on to that in a bit,because I think there are some
factors they're going to makethat a little bit harder next
year, which we'll come on to now.
Number three, and this won't beof any surprise to anyone,
given our recent episodesleverage ai interesting that
episodes leverage AI Interestingthat AI tells you to do that as
(05:06):
well.
Yeah, AI tells you to leverageitself.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Keep me in business.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yes, now we've already started to use AI quite
extensively for various thingslike research and copywriting
and stuff like that.
We've literally only scratchedthe surface, really, of what it
could potentially do, and that'san interesting one.
One number four, and this is abroader marketing point grow
your digital presence, and thatkind of makes sense.
(05:32):
I suppose that these days,everyone has a digital shop
window, and why not develop thatnext year?
And lastly and this may sort ofsound like they're stating the
bleeding obvious really makesure you have a scalable
business model.
Now I'm wondering whether theAI was struggling for something
there.
For number five, because that'sso broad Well that's also very
(05:56):
debatable Lots of.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I think we talked about this on a previous
business.
If your business is at itsscale, if you were to scale up
and the quality would drop dueto your scaling, then it isn't
scalable.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, quite Now.
Let's now move that on toanother CFO website I was
looking at simply an article onthe same question.
So number one was similar tocustomer retention.
It was align with changingcustomer needs.
So I think that's a broaderthing about, you know, improving
the customer experience,regardless of the channel that
they come in.
(06:30):
Invest in technology anddigital transformation.
That's the same as grow yourdigital presence.
Three and this is more our bagupskilling and hybrid work, as
if the two things are sort ofpart of the same strategy, where
you get new people in, youtrain them, you have your
current people, you train themand you explore how hybrid
(06:54):
working is used more creativelyand successfully and possibly as
a way of retaining good staffas well.
Number Number four was aboutfinance.
They think that now's a goodtime to borrow money for growth.
I'm not so sure about that.
Interest rates are kind of inthe middle somewhere, but maybe
for businesses it might not be abad time.
(07:16):
Is the article sponsored by abank?
No, it wasn't, actually.
But number five is a big one,and we're going to come back to
this in a minute as well.
Geopolitical things are goingto help you be successful and we
are in a very uncertain worldat the moment.
There's wars all over the shopand I think a lot of businesses
have to try and navigate theirway through the uncertainty
(07:39):
that's going around, and one ofthe ways to do that is to think
okay, I can't do anything aboutsome of these terrible things
that are happening, but what wecan do is continue to innovate
in what we're doing and come upwith ideas and try and find ways
to connect with more people,regardless of their situation.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's a tough one also what you've shared with us as
the listeners.
Listening is the very top lineof it.
There's not so much oh of a howis there.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
No, no, no.
So my last list is from Forbesand theirs is really
straightforward Customerexperience that we've mentioned.
Strategic use of AI, which issimilar as leveraged AI.
Sustainable businesses Now,what I've taken that one to mean
they're reading about it is,rather than just say, oh, we
must have a sustainable business, which is one thing which you
(08:26):
hope is going to make youattractive to customers, but I
think that's debatable.
There's also a focus here onlook at businesses that work in
the sustainability, greener,environmental world area.
That's where the future is, sothat's an interesting one.
They've got one area whichhasn't been touched by anyone,
(08:47):
and I love this.
What do you think hyperautomation is, jeremy?
Hmm?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
hyper automation gosh , we're now chucking that word
in we've.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
We've had enough of agile um yeah, you've got to be
hyper automated.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I think it means a bit like um well, we nearly had
an interesting client in I can'teven what it was called where
they would print and buildentire things from their
printing machines.
Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Oh, yes, Okay, no, that's nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
No, no, I'm connecting to it.
What they were doing was theywere putting their machines into
the customers so they couldrespond quickly and replace and
make their own parts.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So I'm just going to go for.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
HyperBing speed that you can automate something at.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, that's one particular possible application
that you've hit upon there, butthe actual broader term means
that through using AI reallywell, data flows through your
organization, predicts demandand appears exactly when it's
needed.
What appears, the data, thedata.
(09:59):
So you're sitting at your deskand it goes.
If you ring these 10 peopletoday, five of them are going to
buy something.
If you do this today, you makethese products.
They'll be sold in three daystime.
Well, that analyzes demand andwho's buying what or who's doing
what or, and serves you servesyou information yes that you can
(10:21):
get very hyper and hyper aboutexactly.
And then the last one is thesame as the last one of the
previous list.
It's about how are youresilient through uncertain
times, given that there arelarge, damaging, yeah, very
testing wars going on right now,and those are big issues.
(10:44):
And I think that you know manyindustries are struggling at the
moment because they're tryingto make their products and
services valid and appealing topeople in a time where people
haven't got a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Or they're more discerning over where they put
it.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Hugely discerning and also, I think, given the
uncertainty, that's a greatreason not to do things.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, I was going to say it's funny, I'm I don't know
, you could use the wordmentoring my nephew who chose
not to go to university and he'sworking with an interesting
company I won't say what it isbecause it hasn't launched yet
and we were doing one of oursessions the other day and he
said to me yeah, you see, thething is, jeremy, it's a tough
(11:32):
market out there now.
And I said what?
I'm not having you saying thaton any of your sessions with me.
What do you want about it?
Where did you get that from?
Well, people have been sayingit no, no, no, no, it's between
your ears.
I thought your thing aboutresilience and attitude.
We know a lot of people startthe year slowly, wind up, slowly
, wait for something good tohappen, blue Monday, all that
(11:54):
cack, whereas how you feel aboutthings, you know the classic
Zig Ziglar is it's between yourears, is the market?
It's not out there.
It's how you feel.
So there are people, you know,as he would say, there's people
still buying jeans, milk, cars,and it's who's going to be in
the best possible position tomake them feel good about it.
So so much attitudinal we tomake them feel good about it.
So so much attitudinal.
(12:15):
We're kicking off.
You don't know this, but thismorning Anne and I, we've won a
new little project.
We are kicking off the new yearon a purely attitudinal program
for someone.
Wow, how to be resilient androbust in the face of a
challenge they are going to face.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I'll tell you about that in a bit.
It's quite exciting, okay,great.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Good bit.
It's quite exciting.
Great good, and that also fitsin with your other thing on your
list.
We're immediately delivering itvia teams because because they
can react very quickly, run thistraining out across where it's
going, to a few countriesupskilling and hybrid, yeah,
yeah, it's upskilling people andwe're using the hybrid method
to do it.
Yeah excellent.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Well, I mean, that's that's all part of the joy of
the modern world that youconstantly are adapting what it
is you're doing to suit thesetrends, which is what they are,
but, I think, for our listeners.
I was looking at these and Ithought these are so broad and
you then got to think well, okaythen, what does embracing
(13:15):
sustainability mean to myorganization or my company or my
firm or my partnership orwhatever it may be?
So what I've done is I've takena little bit of time to think
about this and I've come up withfive strategies that I think
everyone should definitely do inthe next few months.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
After the break, let's have a listen to those
then.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, okay, after the break, let's have a listen to
those then.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Okay, welcome back to the Reality of Business
presented by Reality Training.
If you're looking to boost yoursales, strengthen your
leadership or enhance yourteam's performance, you've come
to the right place.
Our tailored training programsare designed to deliver results.
(13:56):
Ready to take the next step,head over to realitytrainingcom.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
So, bobby, you have distilled like a whiskey maker
the strategies that you thinkare listeners.
I will just check Is thisrunning a business, large or
small?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I think a business of more than a few people
definitely Okay, but some ofthem are relevant to all.
I mean, before I look at these,I just want to say something
about the sustainability thing,because that came up on a few of
the lists.
I just worry that businesseswho are focusing on
sustainability and thinking howcan we be more green and
sustainable, whilst I absolutelyapplaud the efforts, we are
(14:42):
entering a period where so manycountries in the next few months
are probably going to be led bymore right-wing governments who
are completely climatesceptical and not in the least
bothered about this kind ofthing and that doesn't mean we
shouldn't be.
But I just think that that areaof sustainability is going to
have a real battle on its handsover the next year or so.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Well, I think it's always what the individual can
do and believe in, sure.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
But the point is that would one of our customers look
at us and go how sustainableare you being?
Oh good, you're recycling, good.
I don't know that there's thatlevel of scrutiny of other
organizations.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Well, no, it is for well.
Certainly, where it is mostnoted is in food and drink
businesses.
I saw a thing on television atthe weekend.
I think it's the world's firstrestaurant that is completely
off-grid in how heats cooks.
There's no, no batteries thebatteries but there's no um
(15:42):
energy, and every single thingserved in the restaurant comes
within five miles.
Now, that's very appealing toconsumers, who are who, I bet,
you the prices reflect that aswell, though, jay oh, I'm sure
they do oh, no, no, this wasthis wasn't a cheap.
This wasn't punting out sausagerolls.
No, no, no, no and so that.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
So then you?
You then realize that you'redealing with a tiny percentage
of the world.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Who would actually give a fig about that, whereas
most people are less botheredabout it no, I think it's very
hard to put an audit on atraining and development
business to see what we're doingthat's sustainable.
But in the way that everyone isstill an employee.
How an employee acts andbehaves with their own recycling
, with their own air miles, withtheir own food miles, with
their own you know behaviors ismaybe that's the evolution that
(16:31):
you click on an employee and itgoes Roger cycles to work, da da
da.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And you read the profiles yes, sorry, jeremy,
you're only 30 sustainable.
I'm afraid we're gonna have tolet you go.
We had a look.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
We had a look at you yeah, and also you're about to
sign a contract.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I looked at four other people and uh, mary's not
reading anything about gardening.
I mean does she, does she notdo her own bit to create oxygen?
We shouldn't she grow her ownvegetables?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
We're not interested.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, so okay, here are my five things, and they're
in no particular order.
The first one is a big one forany medium to large sized
organization, and it's simpleFold your silos into one Should
we talk about how they might dothat into one.
Should we talk about how theymight do that?
Yeah, so if you've got a newbusiness team and a retention
(17:22):
team, they are essentially thesame conversations, just there's
a slightly different dynamic,and it shouldn't be beyond the
wit of man for you to create asystem that will allow you to
respond to either type ofconversation Combine when you
say fold, you've just been Foldthem together, together, yeah.
So why have two big groups ofpeople when you could have one
group of people doing both?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
and it creates a greater understanding of where
that customer then goes toanyway and it gives everyone a
better variant of work and italso is.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
it just makes sense and it's what the multi-skilling
of it is, the next level, and Ithink people need to just bite
the bullet and go for that.
Yeah, so that's the first one.
The second one is aboutmarketing.
We did a thing years ago on athing called Lanchester strategy
, which I won't go into now, butit's a really simple way of
focusing on your competitors,whether it be large or small,
(18:11):
and I think if anyone gets thechance, they should read up
about Lanchester strategy interms of marketing.
That's worth checking out.
But I've got a really simplething.
I saw the other day onmarketing that I thought you
could apply to this and it was asimple sentence the best known
company always does better thanthe best.
The best known company alwaysdoes better than the best.
(18:36):
So you could have a reallyfantastic solicitor's firm,
brilliant at what they do inevery sense, but who are hardly
known at all, and a much betterknown solicitor's firm will just
do better because of thatawareness.
And I think that these days wetry so hard on digital marketing
to be accurate and pick ouraudiences and pick our people
(18:57):
and pick our individuals doingthese various things that I
think sometimes we forget thatgeneral awareness is a really
great objective.
And, of course, when it comes toLancaster strategy, whether
you're a small or a big company,you all need that.
So I think, re-look at yourmarketing and think how do we
make ourselves the best knownfor what we do?
(19:20):
That's really going to help you, especially in a difficult
marketplace.
Then we've got executivecoaching.
So we've done an episode onthis a few months ago, but we've
also done several features onthis as a task on our other
podcast channels as well.
And this is about senior people.
(19:41):
If you are a senior personrunning a business which is
going to have an interestingyear for various reasons, you're
going to need some development,you're going to need some help,
you're going to need some timeto get your brain working and to
do better, and I thinkexecutive coaching is the really
superb way of doing that and Imean with anything that we're
saying.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
The part is, how do I start this?
I think both the the first twothings that you've said.
Yes, you can have your biground off kickoff meeting, but a
lot of it, you know, the powerof a strategy isn't always the
strategy.
I think it's terry lee he saidwhen we saw him speak years ago.
He said all of us sitting inthis room pretty much know what
(20:22):
to do.
The companies that succeed arejust good at implementation.
They diarize it.
They're going to do it.
Now Bob's thing on coachinghe's just shared.
When I catch up with clients orindividuals and they say, yeah,
I missed it this week, I saidwhat do you mean?
I missed coaching my team, Imissed two of my one-to-ones.
Then your time management'sshot, what did you allow to
(20:45):
prioritize it?
What knocked it out?
So perhaps you hearing ussaying coaching is important and
you go we do that, yeah, we, wedo that, do you?
How many are missed.
Are they proper sessions?
Are they actually pipelinechats where you sit down with
someone and go?
So how's your pipeline?
Oh, I thought it was coaching.
Yeah, but it's a sales meeting.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, it's a sales meeting.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And you're meant to be coaching your head of
marketing on innovation and youactually say so.
How many campaigns are goingthis month?
Oh, again this month.
Oh, I thought we're talkingbroadly and coaching me.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
No, no, no, I want to know what we've got running oh
right.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So it's an inventory, you know.
So I think that's the point isdiarizing it.
Yeah, putting in the work towork on the work.
That's the tough stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Well, that brings me on to my fourth thing, which is
team leader development.
Yeah, now we've worked withloads of team leaders in this
last year and it's fair to saythat so many team leaders are
appointed to their roles andbegin that role leading a team
of people who are supposed to beproductive with no actual
(21:47):
notion of how to do that, apartfrom what they've seen from
their own team leaders.
Yeah, that is ridiculous.
And there's so much trainingyou can give team leaders that
will have a direct impact onyour frontline people and will
make them better leaders andwill get better results.
It's just, it's such a quickwin, and I think that's one area
(22:07):
where all organizations whohave teams must think okay, when
was the last time we gave ourteam leader, our sales manager,
any development at all?
You know, when was the lasttime they really were challenged
to come up with great ideas andwe gave our team leader, our
sales manager, any developmentat all?
When was the last time theyreally were challenged to come
up with great ideas?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Well, it's interesting the famous quote
from Drucker Peter Drucker whichis leadership is about doing
the right things.
Management is about doingthings right.
Increasingly, we're seeing inour work more and more clients
are allowing their team leadersto be team leaders and not team
managers.
They're actually requiring abit of innovation at the
(22:43):
coalface.
So, instead of just implementthis strategy and do it, there's
a bit more oh, we didn't expectthat reaction.
Work with your leader on howyou might respond.
Work with your leader and yourteams on how you're going to get
through this period, how you'regoing to sell this, how you're
going to market this, how you'regoing to deliver this.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So there is more leadership innovation at that
level yes, so that's a big oneand I think, if you're listening
to this, 2025 is beginning.
It's a great time to think,okay, when was the last time we
worked with these people andgave them anything of value?
Because that position, which isabsolutely leading your people,
(23:21):
is such an important one to getright.
I think the investment therewould be good.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I had a phone call about our Christmas party Hi,
I'm just confirming your tablefor 10.
And I said I've tried to changeit online all week.
It doesn't work the system.
Oh right, what is it you needto do?
I need to add one more.
We're now 11.
What do you think she says?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
You can't do that.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
No worse.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You have to cancel.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, what are we talking about?
Man managers?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I'll have to check with my manager, to check with
my manager.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Oh heavens and she said I'm in charge of all of the
christmas party tables.
Okay, so you're leading thatpart of this business at this
busy time of year.
I, I'm, I, I can't, I can't dothat.
I'll have to check with mymanager.
And then this is even weirderthey will get back to you.
Don't know if it's a here, orshe don't know she does either.
They will get back to you ifthere's a problem, otherwise,
(24:14):
just turn up and we'veaccommodated that extra person
amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Well, that brings me on to my last one, which is
empowerment.
Oh, there you go, there we go,and that's that's what I said.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I was on to lorraine at the time and I just said why
can't they allow that ladyringing me up to go in and click
a few bits and tell me if youcan wedge another person around
the table?
Just make the decision.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Just say, just make a decision.
I know Such a waste of time.
It is Well the reason I pickedpodcast, which is this.
So there is a double whammyhitting lots of businesses this
year.
That is an increase in theminimum and living wage, which
is significant.
(24:54):
So if that's what most of yourpeople are paid, then you are
forced to give them the pay rise.
That's the first thing.
And then, secondly, allemployers have to pay more
national insurance for all thepeople they employ, and in some
cases it's a significant amountof money yeah, as much as you
would even consider givingsomeone as a pay rise.
(25:15):
So the idea that there's goingto be large percentage,
regardless of inflation, by theway, the idea there's going to
be large wage increases over thenext six months, it's not going
to happen.
Employers are not going to takethis lying down and I think
it's a really retrograde step.
I would love this new governmentto be doing better and to be
doing well, but I find this tobe such a stifling of innovation
(25:39):
from a government who came inon a ticket saying we want to
get growth into the economy.
I just find it extraordinarythat they would make this move.
However, I spun it positivelyin my brain and thought okay, if
you're not going to give peoplebig pay rises, then what can
you do?
Well, I tell you exactly whatthat is, and that is empower
(25:59):
them to make choices and makedecisions.
And that comes onto the hybridworking thing and how you engage
and how you work and thebenefits and the kind of
enjoyment that one gets fromone's job.
It's tough, but I thinksometimes you know to do
something which is restrictedand doesn't have any empowerment
(26:22):
.
For the same, money isdemotivating, whereas at least
if you give somebody someempowerment, give them some
choice, give them some brilliantleadership from good team
leaders, give them some expertcoaching, give them some great
marketing strategies thatincrease awareness and increase
inquiries, and also you'reempowering them by your folding
(26:42):
in those silos so that you'vegot people becoming
multi-skilled in what it is theydo.
Then at least you're investingin their employability and that
is almost as good as giving thema pay rise well, you're giving
them variety as well yes,absolutely absolutely humans
require for innovation andmotivation
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I'll talk a bit about strategy, if I may, just
generally speaking.
So you may already have an ideaof what you're going to focus
on, and this episode's helpedyou.
You think, actually, we shoulddefinitely do more of that.
You get the ideas in the potand you start to write out your
lists of things you're going todo.
One of the great skills is torule things out.
We are not going to do directmail this year.
(27:23):
We're not going to try and doour radio ads.
We're not going to do thesemail this year.
We're not going to try and doour radio ads.
We're not going to do theseevents, whatever it may be.
You've got to look at the returnon the activity what's working,
what's not working, whichstrategy bore fruit, which one
needs redoing.
But you also need to make somestrong commitments of things
you're just not going to do.
(27:44):
There's no point us trying todo 25 things.
Well, what is our core strategy, our secondary strategy and
maybe our third?
I think if companies were muchclearer in what everybody was
really focusing on, then it'd beso much easier, rather than
scrapping around to try and hitsome other digital channel that
you think you must perform in.
(28:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, this is the challenge and it is going to be
an interesting year for so manyorganizations, and we also have
come through a very sort ofdifficult period after COVID and
all that sort of stuff, and inmany ways, the economy is sort
of sorting itself out after thatbig shock, and then we've had
the energy crisis and what haveyou.
So there's all sorts of thingsthat have happened that affect
(28:30):
people's view on things.
At the same time, there is anopportunity to, as you always
say, you know, affect what youcan affect.
I can affect my leaders.
I can affect my senior people.
I can think about our marketingand have something really simple
like I want to become the bestknown.
I can think about hang on aminute, this call is very
(28:53):
similar to this call, or thisconversation is very similar to
this sort of conversation.
Let's bring them together sothat we actually have
multi-skilled people working forus, and let's also think what
the hell can we do to empowerour people so they become better
and more efficient in what theydo.
If we can do some of thosethings, then you're going to
have a pretty good year.
Well.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I think you're also making me think of something I
heard Seth Godin talking aboutthe other day, talking about
strategy and marketing.
He said you've got to decidefundamentally are you doing more
or are you doing better?
You can't always have both.
Fundamentally, are you doingmore or are you doing better?
You can't always have both.
You know if?
And he interviewed a chocolateguy on his Akimbo podcast who
makes chocolate and sells it ata high rate, and so on and so on
(29:38):
.
And he said what do you want?
He said, well, I'd love a cafenext.
And he said okay, so at themoment, the chocolate works for
you.
When you switch to that, you'regoing to be working for the
chocolate.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Very good, that's great.
Yeah, works for you.
When you switch to that, you'regoing to be working for the
chocolate.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Very good, that's not great.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
You said and every time ifyou've got your own cafe and
every time you see a table withno one near it, no one sitting
around it, you're going to godamn, that's four covers I
haven't got.
Uh, he put it at him in a verygood way.
It was just a really nice sortof like a live interview, and so
he said do you really want acafe or do you want to stay on?
I think he was on some islandlike Nantucket or something or
(30:11):
said do you want to stay on theindustrial estate Because people
don't come to you?
You haven't got a shop, youdeliver it to their door.
They don't need to see whereyou're making it, what do?
you want?
Do you want more or better?
And some of the things you'retalking about are better.
Empowerment means better.
Folding or combining your silosis better, and maybe that's
another thing.
(30:31):
What could we do better thisyear?
But won't necessarily get more,but maybe it cuts into that
retention thing.
Maybe our existing clients, youknow, is digging a bit more
with us, maybe you get a bitmore traction from them.
Convincing somebody of yourworth who knows nothing about
you is hard.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It is, it is, and therefore maybe getting them to
know everything you do is toomuch of a stretch.
Yeah, maybe you just need tomake them aware of you.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Simple awareness.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
This is us and our universe now is, let's say,
5,000 people who are aware of us.
Let's try and make 10,000people aware of us by the end of
the year and see whatdifference it makes.
You know, it can be as simpleas that, because that's going to
only help you Well.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
that increases your opportunity of the timing being
right for more people.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So it's funny.
I had an old friend in mykitchen last week who he's doing
some really good stuff, somereally videos, and he was saying
I'm just not getting enoughmeetings and I find that when I
ring people they're not in theoffice.
You know, we've talked aboutthis on other episodes just
getting hold of people, but hisawareness is extremely good and
very, very high for theparticular thing that his firm
(31:42):
are offering.
And I said what do you?
You've just got to be there.
You've got to keep increasingthat awareness and perhaps
you're more direct with the oneway you could help, because I
also think that if you've got akind of menu of things a bit
like Gordon Ramsay, you know whyshould I walk into this
(32:04):
restaurant as I'm walking downthis street?
What is it that you do so wellthat perhaps that's my entry
point?
I'll come to you for that.
So just to make you aware,we've been doing this incredibly
well for this long.
Maybe that's an easier strategy.
That's your first in.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Although these days, at this time of year, to be able
to walk straight into a GordonRamsay restaurant, you'd be
doing well without a restaurant.
Oh, one of his.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, I'm talking about the ones he helps on his
nightmare programs oh yes, youknow what do you do well here,
what is it you're?
And they say oh, we're knownfor our clam bakes or whatever
you know.
Fine, okay.
Well, why is your menu got 45things on it?
You know if?
Speaker 1 (32:44):
uh, I I saw um as an aside.
I saw an episode of that um, aplace in america that was known
known for its shepherd's piesreally in the us and uh, and
gordon ramsey went and orderedone and this thing was
absolutely uneatable.
It was nothing like ashepherd's pie.
Right, okay, and he complainedto the owner and said this
(33:06):
shepherd's pie is disgusting.
The owner said, right, well,you make one, I'll make one and
we'll see who's his best.
So the owner makes his normalgloopy, horrible shepherd's pie.
Gordon Ramsay makes this mostincredible shepherd's pie which,
incidentally, I've been makingever since the recipe's online,
and he serves it to someregulars in this place and they
(33:29):
eat both his shepherd's pies.
And he comes out and gordon'snot there and he goes come on,
guys which tell me which one'sbest, and they go.
Well, gordon's is obviouslythey go.
You're kidding me, you'rekidding me.
He couldn't believe it.
He couldn't believe the gordonramsay, the top chef might cook
better.
How bizarre Would be a betterlamb-based shepherd's pie than
his own.
And he was absolutelyincredulous that they would
(33:54):
think his was better, and itjust plainly was.
The ego on him.
It's extraordinary, isn't it?
But some people just won't betold.
Now back to your original point.
Yes, we all think we're doingthings the right way, but
actually I think that the waythe world is going, and it's so
uncertain and there's such aroller coaster in terms of what
(34:17):
things are, what things cost,interest rates, all that sort of
stuff so much uncertainty goingon I think, really, if you can
just funnel your focus into afew key areas, I think you can
have a good year, or as good ayear as you can have, by making
sure that you just focus on someof those key things and I think
it has to be less shotgunmarketing, more sniper.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
I still think I get such blanket pitches to my email
.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
You know we do this and they don't know anything
about you.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I even had a one-to-one with a person.
I agreed to a meeting aboutbooks.
She hadn't read the brief themeeting set up.
She didn't know what we did no,no.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
And what is it?
You do wow I get these thingsrecently where they send you
emails and they use variousthings to try and get you to
read the email.
Yeah, and someone said sosomeone sent me this email and
it said hello bob, I'm hopingthis email finds you in good
standing.
Good standing, what the helldoes that mean?
(35:18):
Hello bob, I'm hoping thisemail finds you in good standing
.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
You could say I've slightly sprained an ankle
playing squash.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
So my standing's a little off it's such an odd
thing to say, isn't it?
And there was another one I hadyears ago, which was um, I've
sent you this to bump this up tothe top of your email oh, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
So I've had it and they magically bump up the
original email, but this isanother email, if I wasn't
interested when I first saw it,why would I be more interested
now?
Speaker 1 (35:43):
what's your thinking of that?
Speaker 2 (35:45):
oh, are you getting?
This is my last one.
Those are funny, aren't they?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
oh, this one is my last attempt circling back after
my previous email yeah,circling back where's that come
from, so?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
you're now an airline pilot.
Yeah, who's unable to land?
Yeah, yeah I.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I just find why are people doing this need to circle
back flight 16?
I have plenty of people who arereaching out to us.
Oh, oh yeah, yeah, reaching out,reaching back, reaching forward
Everyone's doing some kind ofreach.
But anyway, ladies and gents,customers, listeners, thank you
for listening to our podcast,but we hope you find it useful
(36:24):
in terms of your planning.
Thank you for listening to usthrough 2024.
We've really enjoyed doingthese podcasts and playing
around with new formats and thenew way that we're running it.
We are enjoying that and wewish you all the very best for
2025, don't we, jeremy?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
We do.
Yeah, have a cracking year anddon't try and do everything.
Thank you.
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