Manufacturer of Hydraulic Presses
Orders slow down in most machine shops in the last weeks of the year. It’s all too common to see sales slump and productivity fall in November and December. You can’t fight the holidays, but you can make this period a launching pad for a dynamic 2020.
Here are 3 ways to prep your mindset, connect with customers, figure out where you are and where you want to be at this time next year.
Where Are You Now?
Get your accountant to crunch the numbers. Talk to them about your current financial position. Take this information and decide what strategies worked for you during the year, which produced the best results. Look at jobs and revenue on a customer-by-customer basis. Often you’ll find 80 percent of your jobs come from 20 percent of your clients.
Devote as much time to figuring out what didn’t work. For example, are you trying to make do with a hydraulic press that isn’t flexible or precise enough to do the job to customer’s standards? It might be time to look at the value a new custom hydraulic press can bring to your shop.
Choose One Big Project for January
Use this information to start January with a bang. Choose just one strategy you can implement now during the holiday season. You want a doable plan that will markedly improve your business quickly. When you see positive results rapidly, it builds momentum. You and your crew feel energized.
Make it a small project, like contacting each of those customers that are part of the 20 percent providing 80 percent of your income. Their business is also slowing down during the season. Now is the time to reach out. Thank them for their business. Invite them out for coffee or lunch. Ask them how you can improve and what you can offer to help them succeed.
This is also the time to connect in a more personal way with your vendors, other machine shop owners and people in your business network. Go to your business group holiday party. Not a member of any local groups? Now is the time to join.
Be Grateful, Show Gratitude
Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Science shows it can improve your mental health. It reduces stress and helps the mind focus. You become happier and more productive. And when the boss is happier and more productive, everyone in the shop is too!
Let your press operators and other employees know how important they are to you and the business. Be specific when you compliment them. Tell Joe, “You saved the Acme job by reducing material waste and I’m grateful.” It’s has much more impact than, “Joe, thanks for another year here at the shop.” Showing gratitude motivates your workers and boosts their commitment to the job.
Show gratitude to your customers. You can do a lot with a holiday card, email or phone call. Be sure to make it specific, telling them why you value their business and your interactions with them. Tell your vendors how much you appreciate the way they fill their orders. Without them, you wouldn’t have the material to get your work done.
At Press Master, We’re Grateful for Your Business
At Press Master, we operate on the principle that when you succeed, we succeed. We are grateful for each of our customers. We work hard to provide you with the most versatile, dependable and competitively priced hydraulic presses.
Looking for a new custom engineered Hydraulic Presses? Call the experts here at Press Master.
