When Was The Last Time You Innovated? - Question #9

Welcome to the ninth video in our series of the first twenty questions we ask to understand your business. We're talking about your product or service in this segment and in the last video we dug deep into your sales volume numbers over the last few years.

Understanding your sales trends and pricing by product or service line helps you begin to understand where your business is actually making or losing money. But after you understand these numbers what comes next?

Some of you may find the answer to this question challenging.
When is the last time you introduced a new product or service?

This question tells me about your interest in innovation, diversification, and growing your business. It tells me whether or not you take time to find the opportunities in your business, do something about them, and diversify your offering…
It tells me whether or not you're paying attention to your clients wants and needs.

A hallmark of businesses that grow consistently is that they require a percentage of their revenue comes from new product or service offerings launched in the last two or three years. It's a written goal for them.

If you're in the fast food business you'd use a metric like revenue that comes from new stores or you might do something like Subway did and launch a breakfast product. If you're in manufacturing then you'd require that a percentage of your sales each year comes from a new product.

If you've been following along you'll notice that Subway was
probably trying to also figure out how to be more efficient with their assets when they did that - a question we asked earlier in this series.

Do you require your business to serve new customers in new ways or with new offerings or at new locations? If your business has been stagnant for a while, this could be the reason why. If you're not paying attention to how your client's needs and the market are changing, you can rest assured that a competitor is.

But be careful here! You could fall into the trap! Some businesses try to start too much too fast and they fail because their eyes are bigger than their stomachs.

Launching too many initiatives at one time is also a path to disaster, so there has to be some balance here. Your efforts should be thought out and targeted, and you should avoid shiny object syndrome.

By taking a look at your most recent product or service introductions, and whether or not they’ve succeeded, this gives me a big clue about how you manage your business. This question can be a bit of a double-edged sword and you've got to find the right balance for it in your business.

For more free business coaching tips and free resources check out my site at: https://www.askphilipwilliams.com

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