's Business Profile
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the ‘best), how would you rate your current ENERGY levels in terms of your own mindset, focus, momentum and action?
When you started with us, did you have a personal brand, a company brand or both?
Has this changed since then and what is it now, a personal brand, a company brand or both?
Do you think your logo is legible and professional?
If you have a website, does the URL exactly match your company name?
What is the URL?
Do you have a professional email signature?
Do you have a professional email address, in other words, not a gmail email address as an example?
What is your work title (I am a Conversion Optimisation Specialist)?
Have you always used this title or is it new since joining us?
What is your purpose?
What is your Vision?
To help build Purpose-Driven, Sustainable Businesses - To work with leaders to shape and steer successful organisations that inspire excellence, motivate high performance and deliver value to its stakeholders now and in the foreseeable future.
What is your 1st Primary Goal?
To develop clients into purpose-driven, forward-thinking organisations that inspire trust and sustainable value creation.
What is your 1st Objective for this Goal?
To sign on 2 long-term retainer clients
What is your 2nd Objective for this Goal?
To have international clients who contribute at least 50% of the revenue
What is your 3rd Objective for this Goal?
To digitise lead generation
What is your 2nd Primary Goal?
To attract and retain forward-thinking large corporates and SMEs in South Africa and internationally
What is your 1st Objective for this Goal?
To grow business in Cape Town and Johannesburg within 12 months
What is your 2nd Objective for this Goal?
To sign up 6 clients for the StratCapital service stream through the Lion's Den landing page within 12 months
What is your 3rd Objective for this Goal?
To convert 50% of the clients into StratEx 4.0 for complex, multinational projects within 18 months
What is your 3rd Primary Goal?
To get 50000 followers on our StratConnect podcasts and webinars
What is your 1st Objective for this Goal?
Build social media following by consistent, relevant podcasts and webinars - 2x month
What is your 2nd Objective for this Goal?
Sign up Pay-to-Promote clients on FutureThrive SME's through adverts / Lion's Den landing page
What is your 3rd Objective for this Goal?
Land speaking and boardroom strategy talks through IODSA publications.
Write your Value Proposition below as per the formula in Principle 4
Will be completed – Need to check Principle 7
Do you believe it is appealing? And why so?
Do you believe it is exclusive? And why so?
Do you believe it is clear and simple to understand? And why so?
Do you believe it is credible? And why so?
List all the ‘Elements of Value’ your product offers
Connects
Integrates
Badge Value
Quality
Makes Money
Write one case study of something you have achieved with a customer
StratAstute Consulting was called in to help a 70-year old business cut costs and implement a retrenchment programme. At our first meeting, I explained that our strength lies in growth and expansion, not shrinking and downsizing.
The directors trusted StratAstute Consulting enough to start an 18-month journey:
The business culture changed from command, control to delegation and empowerment.
All 150 jobs were saved in a city where every other large company was retrenching
In 70 years, the company had its first, interactive strategy session with its recently appointed HOD’s
The walls literally were broken down to reflect the new, open-door culture.
We built management appetite to pivot and diversify the business from one city to national and international
We ensured that the company played to their strengths to go from “Good to Great”
The look and feel of the brand has changed and modernised – employees are feeling energised and the company now has a fresh image
The business also developed a “voice” for the brand – employees became a lot more interactive internally and on social media.
What features does your product have?
STRATCAPITAL:
Energise the Organisation. Get people to talk about their business story from different perspectives – Co-Create Strategy. Instill direction and Purpose.
Develop Effective leadership – define and clarify the strategy and align every decision maker to that – Leadership and Communication
Build the value proposition and connection to stakeholders.
Develop a culture of systems-thinking, accountability and high performance.
Enable clients to optimally Engage with Stakeholders. Connect to the Customer. Walk the Brand Talk/Values.
What benefits does you product offer?
Create a growth and sustainability roadmap
Align and drive the organisational efforts in the “right” direction
Position the business in the eyes of customers and stakeholders
List 3 objections you get to your product and the 3 answers to these objections
1) Short-Termism:
We don’t need to work on the big picture. Our executives want to focus on profit-generation (this is after they have spoken to us for 3 to 6 to even 12 months!)
Our response: Let us know when you are ready and we would love to see your business Thrive.
The Female Entrepreneur Factor i.e. undervaluing service
2) Let’s start with Phase 1 only and see how that goes (they simply are playing with pricing)
Our response: We respect your decision but it will not unlock full value. Ideally we need to work with the business for at least 3 months to start building the sustainability story. We would prefer that you commit to the journey and we start with Phase 1.
Location:
3) When are you next in Cape Town/ Joburg?
Our response: We are willing to travel to meet with you after our exploratory conversation. It would be good to build the relationship to obtain an understanding of your business.
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Name one of your products
StratCapital
List 3 problems you believe your prospects have, related to your solutions
– Every business reaches a choice point
– Uncertainty keeps leaders awake at night – they can’t see the wood from the trees
– There is a disconnect between the decision-makers and the doers
List your 3 solutions to their problems above
1) We unlock clarity in complexity/uncertainty.
2) We hang our hats on delivery-to-promise.
3) We use Purpose and a “build better” Context as directions to a relevant, sustainable future.
Write a detailed spec on your ideal customer (as much info as possible as per the Prospect Principle)
StratCapital:
A business that has reached a strategic choice point.
A business that has the courage and appetite for change.
Decision-makers elect to bring in “fresh eyes” to co-pilot strategy formulation and execution.
A business that seeks to develop and position its value-proposition.
A business that want to start its ESG / sustainability journey
Businesses and individuals who are seeking to grow their wealth (cash investments, financial planning)
StratEx4.0:
Complex, business critical projects that are strategically relevant.
A business looking to optimise business processes and systems.
A business looking to raise the bar and organisational energy on high performance
Broad attributes:
Growth mindset, else we will shape this.
Start-ups, entrepreneurs, large businesses
Businesses that are committed to invest in the company and employees long-term well being
StratConnect:
SMEs, changemakers and thought-leaders to talk to us on “build better” scenarios.
What is their true deep desire?
To build a successful, energised, sustainable business.
To attract customers, employees and wealth.
To be seen as innovative, agile and strategically effective.
Have you optimised your pricing according to the pricing tactics and strategies and what is your pricing for your services or products?
Pricing has been benchmarked against consulting rates in the public and private sector. We come under par on rate per hour and on packaged service against the “Big 4” and other consultants.
Rates are +-40% cheaper.
Business strategy workshop for start-up – 4hours : R 7500
FutureThrive SMEs pay-to-promote platform : R2750 for a 1 hour session including marketing for webinar, preparation session, audio link of the podcast – R2750
Risk Management workshops for Executives (up to 25 delegates) – 4 hours – R70 000
Where do you currently do paid for advertising, list all the platforms or channels e.g. facebook, local newspaper etc
Note: We will not be using FB or Instagram.
No paid for advertising.
Advertising is through:
Referrals (preferred method)
Business Chamber membership
LinkedIn
Google for Business
Twitter
StratConnet Podcasts
Partnership with Herald for Business 360 Webinars
How much do you typically spend on advertising per month?
When we did use Google Ads – R 2500 per month
2020 – had an inhouse marketing person
Do you belong to any business network e.g. BNI, Chamber of Commerce?
See above.
Nelson Mandela Business Chamber
George Business Chamber
Institute of Directors
Proudly SA
What metrics are you measuring monthly?
Pipeline conversion rate
Cash conversion rate
Value of recurring business
Expense to income ratio
ROI on training
ROI in marketing
Debtors days
What KPIs do you have for yourself?
All of the above.
What is your Average Order Value (AOV)
Projects: R 40 000 per project
Transactions: R 5 000
What is your Customer Lifetime Value (Average Lifetime Order Value)
Ranges from R 25 000 to R250 000
What is your Cost of Acquisition (COA)
Marketing is minimal – so far all converted leads have come from referrals or via LinkedIn.
Plenty of time investment to build the relationship – it takes up to 18 months to convert to contract.