The Top 20 most useful Business Acronyms and Mnemonics

Have you ever thought about the top 20 most useful business Acronyms and Mnemonics, these are mine…

1:SMASH

A 21^st Century update of the 1978 Management By Objectives mnemonic SMART

Specific, Measurable and Achievable all stay…

Realistic: – was deemed to be the same as achievable – so is replaced by Stretching

Timebound: -was deemed to be the same as both specific and Measurable and has been replaced by Harmonious.

Stretching – all sales people should have a stretch element – my target is x but if the business supports me I could get y [the idea is that if you invest £1 most businesses should be returning a profit – could be £1.40]

Harmonious – is all about being able to clearly see the link between your objectives and the total company objective – if you cant see how yours helps deliver the total business objective – then you need to ask or re write your objective. This is called nesting and stops the declaration of UDI and stops you pulling in a different direction form the rest of your business

The important thing is you have a clear objective – I use…

Specific : Measurable : Achievable : Stretching : Harmonious

2: 5 E’s

A five-part psychological persuasion –

Explore the needs;

Establish Interest;

Explain how it works;

Emphasise Key benefits;

Execute the close or the next steps

3: 7C’s

A method for collecting, sorting and storing useful knowledge to improve your credibility, earn you more money and make you generally happier in life – See [Link]

4:SWOT

Strengths in the eyes of the customer vs a named competitor

Weaknesses in the eyes of the customer vs a named competitor

Opportunities – for both the customer and ourselves in the future [Use PESTEL to ensure a longer event horizon]

Threats – for both the customer and ourselves in the future [Use PESTEL to ensure a longer event horizon]

5: SoWOTs

These are the outputs from an action based SWOT – ‘what should I do as a result of identifying the Strength, Weakness Opportunity or the Threat

6: Big Easy

The Boston Matrix by which we sort priorities – The axis are Big and Small [return vs objective] and Easy or Hard [to achieve] – does an activity give a Big reward vs the SMASH objective or small reward, is it EASY to achieve or hard then we imagine the space is full of water and drop a pebble into the top left hand corner – the ripples which emanate from the top left then define the priority order

7: Consumer Centric Wheel

This is the method by which you stay customer or consumer focused – Do I know what the consumer or customer wants. Can I make money from selling the consumer what they want – if I can then I will if I can’t make money then I will pass – Once selling the consumer what they want… can I refine the supply chain to make it more efficient to make more money selling the consumer what they want, then do I have good staff who understand how to refine the supply chain and talk to the customers about where to find the stuff they want in my shop and to provide insight into what the consumer is telling them that they want – so we can start the process again.

8: T,TU,TA,E

These are the ONLY ways to grow any business – See more information here [Link]

9: Explore; Propose; Trade; Close

Is a structure for negotiating –

Explore – get their list,

Propose – the traffic light – If I can deliver these things you need can we have a deal today

Trade, what do I want from them to cover the cost of the things they want from me

Close – use one of the many which will work with the negotiator

10: PESTEL

A method for extending the event horizon, looking further out to see things developing – if you use this method you tend to avoid fire fighting

Political – What is happening in the political landscape which might affect you

Economic – What is happening in the economic landscape which might affect you

Social – What is happening in the Social landscape which might affect you

Technological – What is happening in the Technological landscape which might affect you

Environmental – What is happening in the environmental agenda which might affect you

Legal – What is happening in the legal agenda which might affect you or your customers

11: SLIPPER

A method for overcoming objections Stay calm, Listen, Inquire, Present back, Probe, Explore Solutions, Resolve

12: PIG

Personal Improvement Grid consisting of things to start doing, things to stop doing, things to do more of things to do less of – it is used to focus and share areas of personal improvement

13: ASK

What makes an individual World Class and not just good –

Attitude;

Skills and

Knowledge

14: JBP

Joint Business Plan between the supplier and the retailer

15: Aces

This is about your product or ideas unique elements and how it might help the person you are talking to See [Link] 

16: Avatar

This is all about how you create and store information about different subjects, people or places [Link]

17: IPS

Inter personal styles, determined by 2 axis Formality and Dominance – why you get on with some people and not with others

18: Planning and Pain

Refers to how much time you spend planning vs in the pain zone – if you do not plan you may be successful however you will spend more time than needed in the PAIN ZONE – if you can bring the time in the pain zone above the line into the PLANNING ZONE – you will be more successful and it will cost you less and take less time – compare the time a sportsman spends practicing vs playing – the harder they practice the better they play – “the more I practice the luckier I get” an apparent quote from golfing legend Gary Player – how much time do you spend planning? [Link]

19: CBA

Contra to the way my son uses this abbreviation – in business this actually stands for Cost Benefit Analysis – read more about why this is important here [Link]

20: PVA

Purpose Value Agenda – read more information here [Link]

These are my top 20…

Do you have any more you would like to add… leave me a comment but please always remember…

There is always MoreThan1answer…