A monthly installment of a newsletter focused on BMI - That's Business Model Innovation, not Body Mass Index. Follow us as we provide tools and skills to better your business now.

1. What’s my BMI? Issue 1 March 2010

3. It will be hosted on youtube with an audio component.

4. Downstream, we’ll include video.

5. It’s more about ideas than it is about news – news has happened and ideas are yet to be born

7. An example of how another organisation has been innovative in this area

8. A guide on what to do nextThis month, we’re talking about customer channels SOPHIE RUSSELL EDITOR Lead generation is everything – it’s not acceptable if you don’t know what works The 5 Channel phases Awareness – how are we creating awareness (marketing) Evaluation- how do we help our customer assess our value proposition? Purchase – how do we enable our customers to purchase specific products or services? Delivery – not boxes and trucks – how do we deliver on our value proposition? After sales – what do we do after the transaction, to support our customer?

10. How do we currently connect with our customer and does it match the answer to question 1?

11. If we know the channels, are they integrated and functioning?

12. Which are the most cost effective and cost efficient channels we do use or could use?

13. How, if at all, do we integrate these with our customers routines?Effectively, you’re looking internally at what you’re currently doing and you should look externally to find out what you could be doing. I don’t hold with the philosophy of A,B and C class clients as a rule. If you’ve gone through the exercise of defining your target customer, then you have to ensure that you’re using the best channels Exercise Identify your top 20 customers, by whatever metric you choose to be important. Consider – Ease of doing business Profitability Lifetime value of the client Referral generation Put them in column one by name and in column 2 rate them from 1-5 on your metrics scale (you can download the sheet from our tool kit on the website) Think hard and establish how the customer found out about you – if you can’t work it out, ask them! Work out approximately what the customer is worth to you per annum. Put the figure in the appropriate column. Now the science – What percentage of your annual turnover do these customers provide? What’s the most effective channel? When did last connect with these customers outside of a business transaction?

14. Innovation : channels Personalised phone application Channel phase : evaluation Specific to your business Low cost Incorporates maps Include FAQ’s Point to website Viral Makes your business part of the fastest growing industry – apps & gadgets Available for iphone/blackberry/android From as little as $29 pm Follow our story via the website – www.andycollyer.com/iphoneapps Skype : andycollyer