If I asked you to define what “growth” meant for your pharmacy business, what would you say? What would your definition of success be? What triggers could make you say “yes, my pharmacy has experienced growth in the last year, and I’m happy with our progress.”?
These are tricky questions for a number of reasons. Growth can seem like a stretch goal to many. An “after I put out this fire, and get this other thing working right, and learn about this new regulation” kind of thing. And then there’s the fact everyone might approach and view growth a little bit differently. Business growth isn’t exactly abstract, but it’s certainly not as cut and dry as when we were 10 and we knew we’d grown when our jeans suddenly didn’t reach our ankles anymore.
But these layers of complication don’t mean that growth isn’t achievable. You just have to figure out what kind of growth you’d like to see in your pharmacy and take it from there.
Here are 4 areas of your pharmacy business that you might choose to focus on, along with some resources to get started.
Profitability
We’ll start here because so many growth strategies have profitability focused outcomes. For example, the next topic on our list is customer-centricity. And if you grow or improve customer-centricity in your pharmacy, you’re likely going to see a positive impact to your bottom line. But what if you’re looking to make small changes that will improve your cash flow and help your bottom line without reinventing the wheel? There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact, we have some suggestions and tools to help you achieve this goal. One great place to start is with inventory turns and inventory holding. Product that isn’t selling is money you aren’t making. Here’s a quick 6 minute video overview on this concept. When you’re ready to dive in a bit further, checkout this video on Sales and Profit Analysis reporting. This is the most important report in the RMS pharmacy point-of-sale system as it helps you make decisions about product using robust and relevant data.
Customer Satisfaction
Or as we like to call it, customer-centricity. This might be a less conventional way to approach growth, but the customer-centric pharmacy is the pharmacy that thrives. Choosing to grow your customer-centricity will have a ripple affect across your entire business. But what does customer-centricity really mean? This video from Business Coach and Author Patti Mara talks about how opportunities can come from many of the things you already do in your pharmacy every day. Your product isn’t actually the prescription or that bottle of vitamins, but your expertise and care. If you’d like to see it in action from a pharmacists perspective, checkout our two sessions from Entrepreneur Chris Cornelison on Drug Induced Nutrient Depletion Counselling and Customer-Centric Care.
Services
Like customer-centricity, expanding and growing your pharmacy services will have far reaching impacts across your business, including profitability and customer-centricity. Services you might consider growing can come in the form of convenience based offerings like curbside or delivery or you might approach from the standpoint of clinical services. Basically everything you do in your pharmacy beyond dispensing the prescription. Here’s an article on things every pharmacy should know about clinical services to help you learn more.
Leadership- Personal growth is essential and can form the foundation for growth in every other facet of your pharmacy business. Take time to grow your leadership skills, find motivation, assess your goals and reset. Leadership expert and Certified Business Growth Specialist Terri Norvell talks leadership and unleashing your teams potential in this awesome video. And if you find yourself needing a dose of motivation with a side of inspiration, this video on resetting from renowned speaker Giovanni Livera might be exactly what you need.
What do you think? What areas of your pharmacy business would you like to see growth in and how can we help?
