The business world is full of jargon, The bottom line, that figure in the far-right hand corner of your financials, is the outcome of all of the work of the business. It is the single most important number to define the health, or otherwise, of the company. As an overall indicator of your performance, it shows that your products and services are valued by your customers, you are controlling costs effectively, and that you understand your market and where you sit within it.  The New Year is traditionally time for planning and I would hope that you have included some goals regarding your bottom line this year.

That said, not all goals are made equal. We have all come across SMART objectives, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound goals benefit your business in many ways. A colleague once worked in a business where SMART was jeered when it was mentioned in sales meetings. That company no longer exists which is a good indication that it is a valuable guide to goal setting.

Thinking about the effect of goal setting on your bottom line,

• Having specific targets for growth allows you to set actions and intentions that can be transmitted to your team. Giving them clear objectives to work towards helps them feel included in the business and motivated to support your plans.
• Measuring the impact of your work on the key figures tells you that your plan is working effectively.
• Time-bound goals help you define where you want the business to be at a given point in time.
• Having these signposts in place also keeps your goals realistic and achievable.
• SMART can at times appear to be a bit of a cliché, but that is because it is universally embraced, and that is because it works.

Unfortunately, there is no magic wand that you can wave to create new business. It is a process that follows clear rules, which you can use to set SMART goals, making the effect on your bottom line predictable allowing you to plan with greater certainty for the future of your company.

The bottom line of the bottom line is that you are in control of how it looks and investing in the future by developing your sales pipeline through targeted lead generation and nurturing is the best way to ensure the growth of that all-important number.

YBDT’s long experience in all aspects of business development support makes us the ideal partner for your business. We can help you create and implement a clear business development strategy and generate and nurture leads to the point that your sales team can take them on to orders. Get in touch to learn more about how we can help.