Strategies in Action

New business opens in small town.  Great traffic, plentiful parking, delicious product.  Plenty of curiosity and subsequent business first 3 months, 2 months of drop and plateau.  Owners concerned about longevity; thought it would be busier for a longer period of time.  Fewer 'regulars' than they thought they'd have at this point, with 7 months of start-up capital remaining.  Staffing costs high.  Marketing:  Facebook page only.

StratEvals Response:  

1) This small restaurant needs to build a brand and develop a voice, a compelling corporate identity.  Customers love the bagels, but leave the building feeling no connection.  We met with the owners and conducted strategic evaluation.  Critical Tier 1 recommendations included:

• Increasing interior/exterior appeal with use of established color palette;
• Incentive program creation;
• Practical social media outline;
• Local, low cost advertising program

2) These business owners want to make more money.  We suggested implementing the following diversity plan:

• Product - Man can't live on bread alone. Part of this story needs to be additional interesting foods and beverages;
• Realty - With the door locking at 5:00 pm and staff on their way home by 5:05, there remain plenty of hours to use this large, comfortable space.  We advise developing after-hour rental opportunities;
• Retail - A Point of Purchase (POP) plan could turn this slow tune into a POP song!

3) Business development is a verb and these owners needed some education to understand what a pipeline is, what theirs could look like, how to explore and nurture potential business leads, and finally, how to close the deal.

Post-Evaluation Story:

The owners of this small business were committed to making this work.  They decided to move quickly and decisively on many of the recommendations that came directly from their StratEval Summary.  A 4-month proposal was implemented; 5 months from their StratEval, these business owners were breathing a sigh of relief at a 16% increase in sales and realization of 15-month minimum projected profit achieved at 12-month measurement.

Three independent attorneys join forces in order to create a firm with a broader reach than any one of them could have achieved alone.  This resource-sharing relationship is going well.  The attorneys are well-respected, and many of their previous, individual clients know about this new partnership, but there has been no public announcement, nor have they been marketing or advertising to new clients.  They wanted a consultant to provide creative options in order to launch a corporate identity campaign, fully embrace their partnership, and build their client pipeline. 

They couldn't wait for their StratEval; after reviewing the results, they decided they needed a marketing program to roll out over the course of a year, pledging to learn two new social media technologies.  This client wants to manage their marketing plan and expenses every step of the way, and they loved that their inexpensive StratEval gave them a comprehensive overview which helped them leverage each attorney's administrative and practice strengths.

StratEvals Response:

1) This client's StratEval specifically needed to assess the ultimate interests and skill level of each partner in order to determine what programs the partners had the ability to self-manage.  Both joint and individual discussions were held to determine corporate goals and vision.  The firm's physical space was considered as well.

2) This partnership was established, in agreement, and ready to move forward.  Perhaps best of all, their business dreams merged.  They were poised to grow their partnership, and we provided them with a path to walk toward that growth which included a new mobile-friendly website design, two new social media accounts, and all associated corporate identity elements. We also created a four-advertisement series, with one ad to focus on each partner, and the fourth to tie them together with their new firm, showing their strengths and practice niche.

3)  The partners wanted and needed a creative administrator to focus on communications and business development.  But they did not have time to onboard this person and weren't sure how to best support and direct them.  This was yet another area where Strategic Evaluations was able to provide comprehensive support.  We created a job description, conducted early interviews, and took the pain out of the onboarding process when the partners decided on their candidate.

Post-Evaluation Story:

Helping this enthusiastic partnership work toward their dreams was incredibly rewarding! Connecting these three busy attorneys with the right administrator enabled this firm to come together faster, quickly implementing strategies to achieve their social media and marketing goals.  The new affiliation desired a specific corporate identity; we developed a voice reflective of the 3 personas of the partners:  1 part factual, 1 part customer experience, and 1 part relationships and humor.  The latter helped establish a friendly-yet-credible feeling and achieved measurable client interaction on social media.

The client waiting area was further developed to incorporate comfort and practicality, and included a semi-private work station for paperwork completion.  A small soundproof phone closet/room was installed, and other upgrades were made toward client comfort.  Enabling the client to have an experience as opposed to simply a meeting built a connection that preceeded actually meeting their attorney in some instances.

The four-advertisement series was run in a local newspaper which generated measurable new client traffic.  The partners also ran their series in the more regional legal newspaper, which generated new referral leads and opportunities.