A business without any problems is a picture that never becomes part of reality, no matter how great an idea you have for your business. Many experts have said that identifying or articulating a problem is easy, but it is not at all obvious what to do to fix it. So, when it comes to facing business challenges, the first thing is to start finding the cause of the problems without wasting any minute. For instance, if your business had to cut the cost by 20%, you should, without further ado, figure out what led you to this decision-making.

Having identified the cause, the next step is to explore optimal solutions. For instance, if your business seems to be losing ground because of new competition in the market segment, figure out what you can do to gain a competitive edge against a new player. Be proactive.

Unfortunately, sometimes identification, too, is not that obvious. Sales are dropping, for example. There could be a number of causes, such as your sales team being at a loose end, your sales team not having advanced tools to track users’ behaviours, or a substitute being available on the market for better prices. But sometimes none of them is a cause for dropped sales. Poor customer satisfaction leads to a high customer attrition rate.

Hidden problems and ways to fix them

Here are some hidden problems businesses face and ways to fix them:

A high customer attrition rate

Your sales may quickly drop if your customers are not satisfied with your products and services. When competition is fierce, everybody tries to make their products or services better to grow their customer base, or nowadays, some businesses use clever promotional tactics to sound like they are better than the competition and surprisingly manage to talk people into buying their products.

There can be a lot of reasons for customers abandoning you, such as:

• They may not be happy with the way your sales team treat them.
• Your team may be taking a long time to reply to their queries or not reply to them at all.
• Your customers have found much better products or services than your competitors.
• Prices are way too high.

You should identify the real cause of a high customer attrition rate. Not until you know the root of the problem will you be able to reduce the customer attrition rate.

Solution:

• Train your customer care staff to ensure they respond to customers’ queries efficiently.
• Make sure your product or service offers what you promise. You cannot grow your customer base on the basis of apocryphal claims.
• See what you can do to make your product more unique and better to hook your customers.
• Set the right pricing. Way too high prices will cost you potential prospects, while way too low prices will cost you profits. Research carefully so you do not face a setback.
• Use advanced tools to track customer behaviour to provide them with what they need before anybody else does.

Unenthusiastic employees

Unmotivated employees are one of the reasons why your business struggles to meet the sales target. It is hard to determine whether your employees have been putting their back on getting revenues. You should know how many calls they make every day and how they approach a customer. What way do they use to pitch them for a product? But all these things will only tell you whether or not they are doing fine.

If not, they might not be motivated enough. It is easy to conclude that the business is going flat because they are running on an empty, but were they, not the same employees who brought your business to where it is today?

Solution:

• Set clear expectations and make sure that you use your employees based on their skills. For instance, some might be good at cold calling while others can be good at email replying or face-to-face pitching.
• Take feedback from your employees and encourage them to tell what expect of the company. Is there anything they need to amend?
• Provide them with all the resources they need to do their jobs effectively.
• Offer benefits to your employees such as birthday leaves, health insurance and the like.
• Reward your employees as a token of appreciation when they come through.

Poor credit screening

If most of the sales are done on credit, you may suffer from cash flow problems. It is no wonder that your customers shy away from paying you on time, which means your business suffers from meeting daily expenses, and, as a result, you rely on a business loan with a guarantor.

They can cost you even more money because interest is paid back along with the principal. Some customers take advantage of generosity, but it can badly affect your business.

Solution:

• You should reduce the payment cycle.
• Carefully check the credit rating of the people you are lending to; however, you will have to
• Make sure that you remind your customers about the due date.
• Impose penalties on those who fail to pay off.
• Think of ways to extend the duration of payments to your creditors. Make sure you have received money from your customers by the time you have to pay your creditors.

New competitors

Most of the entrepreneurs take the competition seriously when a new competitor enters their market segment with additional features in a product. Of course, more and more people will be keen to buy the new product because it offers extra benefits, but it does not mean you will lower your guard when the new competitor enters with the same product.

It is crucial to remember that a few entrepreneurs come up with a new product or service. Most of the time, businesses offer more or less the same kind of product, and yet everyone has a different level of customer base. Why does so?

This is because the way they market their product is unique. You cannot underestimate the potential of a new competitor just because they have the same product as you have. They may promote it in a much better way. Marketing is not just talking about the plain features of a product, but it rather means setting yourself apart from the crowd.

Changes in the dynamics of competition often go unnoticed. You should keep abreast of the latest marketing trends.

Solution:

• You should figure out the marketing approach of your competitors to compete.
• Talk to your sales team and ask them to come up with new ideas to make your product seem better than your competitor.
• Try to know who the right person is to address the issue.

The final word

A business cannot thrive unless you identify the hidden problems. Every business is unique, and therefore, there must be a couple of problems that a particular business faces exclusively. You should identify them and come up with a solution to fix them.

The business world paces fast. You should try to nip it into the bud so problems do not accumulate to the extent that it becomes harder to solve them, which may throw you out of the competition race.

If there are financial problems, try to contact a business finance broker. They will help you explore options that suit your business requirements.