Thanks to basketball I was able to attend college on an athletic scholarship. My parents might have been able to send me, and probably would have, but I was grateful they didn’t have to. I also had the pleasure of playing on a team that achieved some success. In fact, the team I played on was inducted into the college Hall of Fame last year. The reason we were successful against some very good opponents was due to two things - teamwork and fundamentals.

These same two items are the principle reasons why one small business will succeed and another will fail. In this article I want to explain how you can use them to make your business more successful during these uncertain times.

Objectives and strategies
Before playing another team, we would examine the strengths and weaknesses of that team. Then we would assemble some objectives we felt would lead to victory if we executed them properly.

For example, we would want to neutralize the opposing team’s best player as much as possible. The strategies to make that happen might be to assign our best defensive player to their best offensive player. Even the best defensive player will sometimes need help. That’s where the teamwork comes in. While at the same time, good defense comes from hours and hours of practice, strength training and determination to be the best possible player.

These same tactics apply to business. Let’s apply these same basic principles to a business. Let’s say our objective is to increase sales in the first quarter of 2014.

What are some strategies we can use to make that happen?

Objective: Can you attract more customers?

Strategy: Analyze your current customer base. Who are your best customers? What characteristics do they have in common? Who are similar customers you might be missing.

Objective: Can you increase your average sale? If your average sale is $100.00 how will you increase that to $110.00?

Strategy: Train your salespeople to show value and not rely on price. You need salespeople, not order takers.

Objective: Add on Sales: Increase profits with add on sales.

Strategy: Teach sales people to “package” products together. Never sell a man’s dress shirt without a matching tie.

Objective: Sell your most profitable products and services.

Strategy: Make sure salespeople know your most profitable products and services and how to sell them. Have sales people practice on each other for better product presentations.

Some Final Thoughts
Obviously I could go into great detail for each of the above objectives but space prohibits that. The point to take away is that sitting down and defining what you need to do to keep the doors open in 2014.

There are going to be a host of problems that you will have no control over. Higher gas prices, corporate layoffs, housing market, taxes, the credit market, to name just a few. With a detailed plan of what you want to accomplish you will at least have a fighting chance at achieving the success you want.