Business Process Improvement to Close More Deals

The brain is a fascinating object. When we work, we often overburden it with decisions, leading to decision fatigue.

How will leaders and employees work when inundated with calls, emails, and, worst, the ever-ringing social media buzz? We have fallen into a dark cycle of unproductivity. According to a study, 1 out of 5 employees leave their jobs because of poor work environments.

If a business, B2B or otherwise, wishes to close more deals, it should tackle and improve its external and internal business processes. By streamlining everyday tasks and long-term goals, the daily decision fatigue of a working environment will decrease and give way to creative thinking.

Business process improvement or BPI is necessary for innovation in a work culture, bringing forth new and efficient ideas for doing things. From agile practices and Six Sigma methods to deep work, our current gurus are hellbent on improving the lack of focus in today’s work culture.

Frederick Winslow Taylor introduced the scientific study of working during the Industrial Revolution. He would stand with a stopwatch and measure the time taken for each task.

He set the stage for business processes to flourish and transformed it into a scientific study. But as time flows, we deal with the problems our forefathers did not have to. i.e., the chaos of an always-on society.

Attention spans have decreased, and burnout within 67% of leaders and 76% of employees has increased. If closing more deals and driving growth is the aim, the process to reach that goal must be different than the competition.

A new business process improvement plan must be set by understanding the unique views of your company, its product, and its culture.

Improving business processes is about creating more space for creative undertaking.

What is Business Process Improvement (BPI)?

Business process improvements are the methods an organization undertakes to improve productivity, well-being, and profits.

Business processes are part of the work culture and decide the paths an employee takes to complete their work. There are a host of techniques and methods a business must employ for growth and frictionless work.

BPI is internal and external. From the supply chains (if they exist) to the FTE working at their desk. It all can be streamlined, made efficient, and improved through novel ideas and innovation.

By improving business processes, businesses can decrease internal and external decision fatigue and boost productivity, customer relations, and the bottom line.

Example: A SaaS company adopts Agile practices into their workweek for time and task management and integrating self-buy tools for their product to be easily accessible to the end user.

BPI is imperative for businesses.

Automation, machines, and AI have us forgetting a crucial aspect of work. And that is, we humans have finite energy to do our assigned tasks.

Burnout, lack of focus, and ill-management of time lead to unproductivity. And according to SurePayroll’s Productivity Prohibitors infographic, unproductivity costs employers $1.8 trillion yearly.

That is a lot.

And all of this is caused by not iterating and finding a business process that works for your company and culture. However, it can be improved on an employee, leader, and organizational level by assessing the literature and creating a dynamic yet unique structure for your organization.

Business process improvements mean working to improve internal and external friction points of a company.

The list of methods discussed here are not novel ideas. They existed before the Industrial Revolution and will exist long after the AI revolution of our current century.

As creatives — and make no mistake, from programmers and writers to designers and strategists, we are creatives — focus and concentration will elevate the quality of our work.

The internal business process improvements elevate the quality of a leader’s and an employee’s work and their subsequent enjoyment.

The external BPIs are based on the logistics of a company (for SaaS and AI-based companies, these could be the data centers), the interactions of the end user/buyer with the company’s various touchpoints, and the perception of the company.

Smoothing the internal processes will increase your external efforts.

A high-quality input gives a supreme output. Remember the Pareto Principle: 80% of outcomes come through 20% of your hard work.

Internal

1. Parkinson’s Law Time is not the same for everyone. Think all the times it went in a flash, stretched, and moved in ways you could not comprehend. That is Parkinson’s law in effect. Well, somewhat. If you have an hour to do something, it will take the entire hour, even if you can do it in 10 minutes. It says work expands to fill a given time, wasting this most valuable resource. To improve business processes, we must become aware of the inherent procrastinating tendencies in our work and business environment. This is a personal endeavor and can be solved by just doing it. But that is not too actionable. Here is a list of things you should do to overcome the employees’ and your procrastination streak.

• Encourage the use of the Pomodoro timer. 60% of users who use the technique feel they have control over their time.
• Plan your day: Breaking tasks into manageable chunks is a time-saver. And it is fun to experiment with the time we have. For example, take 15-20 minutes out of the day to prioritize the work. P1, P2..PN. Once the priorities are identified allot time to it (everyone knows their ideal time), and make sure to finish it in that time given by yourself. This planning out saves almost 2 hours every day.
• Time Blocking: One of the most vital tools for a leader. It will help you identify your tasks, balance your schedule to include things you like, and create data for you to review and create more flexible periods in your schedule. It increases productivity by 80%.

2) Deep Work

• That brings us to deep work. Popularized by Cal Newport in his book, he brings out the timeless techniques from the past and present. Deep work, in a sense, is creating ideal conditions for full-focus work.
• This method increases focus and creativity. However, it does require the sacrifice of distractions (whatever they might be for you and your team). In recent years, it is the onslaught of emails and other work-social tools.
• Deep work gives organizations and individuals a competitive edge. For a busy world, time-blocking is a sure way of getting into this zone. Then it is up to the individual and the work culture if they can utilize this treasure.

3) Active Listening

• Coined by Carl Rogers and Richard Farson, active listening is one of the most vital tools for a leader. It involves listening and understanding different viewpoints, feelings, and opinions. It enables leaders to open trust channels, generate new ideas, and create a positive environment.
• Active listening is game-changing for closing more deals because it enables teams to understand what their end users/buyers are talking about and why. If you are still unsure about this abstract concept, take these statistics as a reference.

4) The Eisenhower Matrix

• The matrix helps you divide and eliminate work based on priority. It divides the work into Do, Delegate, Schedule, and Delete.
• It takes a while to get used to it. Urgent and important are not synonyms in the matrix; they are different for a reason. Urgent tasks have to be submitted; it can be as tedious as signing multiple finance forms, and important tasks could be to increase ROI. These are two examples of urgent and important tasks.

5) Rewards

• From recognition programs to incentives, it is a time-old strategy that employee rewards boost productivity and well-being.
• These rewards, however, should not be shallow. Every company has R & R, but employees often find such displays shallow and part of the rat race. A high-performing team does not exhibit this behavior.
• The leaders of high-performing teams understand the value of each team member and bring it out. These teams share credit and engage in open forums of disagreements. It is the leader who will recognize the value of each member and give them appropriate rewards. This could be something small as a thank you note or grand gestures like flexible timings for work well done. Displays like these show trust between the teams.

6) The 4DX Framework

This framework is similar to the Eisenhower Matrix. It suggests that teams should focus on: –

• The Wildly Important: Identify your organization and team’s critical goals.
• Action on Lead Measures: These are KPIs that show success in the short term. This could be completing an ad creative in x time.
• Keep a Scoreboard: Creating visual displays of success and failure gives tangible reality to outcomes. Simplified data in the form of easy-to-look visuals in the company.
• Creation of Accountability: This is where the idea of a sprint comes from. Enabling clear weekly or monthly goals will give your team clarity.

7) The Lean Methodology

It is the strategy of minimizing waste and focusing on customer value. Even though lean is customer-centric (Relevant, by the way), it is the ideal framework for team workflows. The key principles of lean are to: –

• Identify Value: The lean method helps teams identify the needs of the user/buyer and provide these to them. By identifying the intricacies of the customer and their requirement, the teams can map out a streamlined creation and delivery process.
• Mapping the Value Stream: By visualizing the entire journey and smoothing out rough edges, teams can identify waste creating habits or processes and eliminate them.
• Creating a Flow: Once all the steps are identified and smoothed out, the creation of flow has teams create and optimize the steps inside the method.
• Establishing a Pull: For marketers, this step is intimate. It is to create what is needed and only when needed, ensuring a demand rather than selling.
• Pursuing Perfection: Reiteration. Identify what works and what does not. Remove the waste-generating steps and experiment with newer models and thought processes.

External

1. Outcome Based Marketing

• One of the biggest complaints in marketing today is cutting budgets and more work. Google says to tackle this by communicating with your CFO and providing tangible growth metrics aligned with the company’s yearly outcomes.
• This means creating metrics that help a business generate its intended revenue while covering or giving ROI over the marketing cost.
• Reading that article, you will find that Andrew, VP of Mariani Premier, created a three-year business plan processing that involves quantitative objectives for client acquisition, retention, and revenue expansion.

2) Omnichannel Strategies

• The omnichannel experience is about reducing customer-brand friction or creating a frictionless customer journey. It is vital for companies today. Google says that omnichannel buyers have 30% more LTV.
• Omnichannel strategies are a clear reflection of the internal structure of a business. It showcases that your sales, marketing, and customer success are aligned.

3) Sales and Marketing Alignment

• Whether your sales strategies to close more deals or your three-year business plan. helps close deals.
• It streamlines the process for both teams and establishes clear ROI metrics that each must meet. It also helps customers learn more about your brand and close high-quality deals.

Business Process Improvements are strategy and creativity coming together in cohesion.

You must have noticed that establishing an internal and external BPI structure complements each other. Alignment, omnichannel marketing, and outcome-based marketing’s success hinges on internal improvements.

This creates a healthy work environment and reduces decision fatigue in employees and leaders, giving them space for broader and creative decisions. It is no coincidence that we see productive gurus on the rise. Because we are facing an extensive lack of time and distractions, unproductivity has increased, and with it stress and fatigue.

And everyone faces it, the buyer and the marketer. We need to create systems that give us a sense of purpose and control of time. Whether closing more deals or fostering care in your work culture, now is the time to iterate and improve.