Growth Strategist Mark Faust Says "High Growth Can Come During Turbulent Times"
CINCINNATI, April 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark Faust, the speaker and author who coined the term "Turnaround Mindset" says "Some of the greatest spurts in growth, innovation and profitability occur because of economic turbulence."
Faust is the author of several books on how to grow a company with the Turnaround Mindset and strategies, including Growth or Bust! Proven Turnaround Strategies to Grow Your Business. He shared how the ideas he learned from turnaround artists who saved companies from "near death or bankruptcy" situations, can be used by any company during good times or bad.
"Leaders can employ these tools any time, but they almost always must use these tools if they hope to survive during turbulent times," said Faust. Since starting his growth advisory firm in 1990 Faust has worked with several hundred companies including dozens of Fortune 500s and over 50 third generation companies.
Faust is zealous about his first growth tip.
"I have never failed to find millions of dollars in growth for a client with revenues of more than $20 million when I've led the project as the third party to interview their best and highest growth potential customers and vendors," he said.
Faust shares that Peter Drucker was the first to write about these third-party interviews with customers and vendors and he dubbed them 'depth interviews.' The purpose is to find innovations as well as untapped potential in the relationships. Inevitably it always leads to discovering value for both the client and their stakeholders.
"Drucker declared that depth interviews were a required step in the process he defined for strategy, but few companies conduct them other than when they are desperate in times like these," Faust said.
Simple sales innovations can frequently double the profits of the average sale. For example, creating three options based on bundling your offerings in a type of gold, silver, bronze choice of yeses vs. a 'yes/no do you want to buy' increases a company's percent of closure and profit per sale.
Innovation efforts conducted throughout a company using what Faust calls his Innovation Machine, walk employees through simple fill-in-the-blank direction forms and idea forms that help the company to find dozens of areas for improvement.
"Because margins tend to average around 11%, even just a 1% improvement in six areas can lead to a 50% increase in profits, so I call this effort the 'Quick Six.' If we can find six improvements that legitimately increase profits by 1% for the company, we've made significant headway," said Faust.
Sean Brennan, CEO of an Orange County construction company and client of Faust's said, "The down time has allowed us to innovate several areas of the company, not only improving our bottom line but bringing new value to our customers."
Another client of Faust's, Mark Wooldrik, a CEO of several companies in the agriculture industry noted, "We've been able to innovate our marketing and selling efforts, and during the pandemic, some customers were actually easier to get a hold of, so adding video conferencing gave us a new dimension of communication with customers."
Faust said this can be a boom time for both his firm as well as others.
"Obviously guys like me see our business ramp up during times like these. I'm screening clients by having a brief interview with the CEO to clarify their 'mid-crisis, post crisis, and new normal' projects and objectives. I'm delighted to give free copies of my books and other tools to CEOs because I know it will help many of them protect employee jobs and grow their business."
When asked which tactics are the most likely to fuel the quickest improvement to the bottom line, Faust said, "It depends on the company, but frequently the most impactful tool is the third-party depth interview process. I love it because the process can uncover enough profit to literally give a client a one-thousand-fold return on our fees. Clients use the findings to amp up innovation, lock in their best customer relationships and hone strategy while building competitive advantage and fueling growth."
About Mark Faust
Since 1990 Mark Faust's growth advisory firm Echelon Management has taken many companies from worst to first in turnarounds, and has worked with dozens of Fortune 500s, over 50 third-generation companies and hundreds of 8- and 9-figure high-growth companies to raise the bar, in strategy, culture and innovation initiatives. His books High Growth Levers and Growth or Bust! Proven Turnaround Strategies To Grow Your Business are available for free from the author in electronic form.
CONTACT:
Mark Faust
513.621.8000
[email protected]
SOURCE Mark Faust
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