Here are some important business growth tips I’ve learned in working with client over the years.

1. Business Growth is a mindset.

Yes, your growth may be influenced by factors like the economy or the market sector you have chosen to play in. But your growth is not fixed by fate. It’s driven by a growth mindset.

Right now, there are growth sectors that have failing businesses in them. And there are sectors that have reached maturity which have growth stars rising in them.

You decide to grow. You commit to grow. Growth follows the will to grow.

What’s the difference between someone who has a successful local restaurant and someone who has a chain of successful restaurants? Mindset. One wanted to expand, the other was content with the success at hand.

There is nothing wrong with being content with your current level of business scope and scale. But don’t deceive yourself that you cannot find ways to grow your business.

Consider this: The minute you see the economy or the market as the reason you can’t grow, you’ve surrendered control of your business to outside forces beyond your control.

The only way to regain control is to decide to grow in-spite of what others in your industry have decided to do.

2. You often grow faster by doing less

I often have an audience of business leaders make a list of all the ways they can think of growing their business.

Guess what…

I’ve never seen anyone put on that list things they are going to STOP doing.

There is something instinctive in human nature that makes us think of adding when we think of growth.

Yet, numerous times over the years I’ve helped clients grow by stopping certain products, marketing channels, sales processes, etc.

Imagine you have a bucket of water and 7 rose plants to water. Your water (resources) are now equally divided between those rose plants.  Now imagine that instead of watering all 7 of those plants, you only water two of them. Which scenario will create the largest, most beautiful roses?

One client I had discovered that their most successful clients all came from one type of lead source. They stopped spending time and effort on all others and only focused the sales team on that one channel. Sales doubled in a month.

Another client discovered that one type of customer was far, far more valuable than all the others. They chose to narrow their business focus to that one customer type and grew from $1 Million to $7 million and got on INC’s Fast Growth 5000 list.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Stop thinking of all the things you might do. Do a 80/20 analysis on your business and focus your efforts on the best opportunities.

3. Listen to the market

Very often a business leader has a passion for a product, service or segment. Yet, if you do and 80/20 analysis on a business, you’ll find the profit and growth is coming from somewhere else.

You have two choices. Continue to swim against the current — or swim with the current.

I think you can guess which is going to help grow your business the fastest.

Just because we have a passion, an idea, a focus doesn’t mean the market is going to buy it. Sell them what they are buying!

4. Test, Test, Test

By helping companies innovate their sales and marketing processes, it’s not unusual to see their sales double or triple.

That growth doesn’t come from working harder, it comes from working smarter.

But often you cannot predict in advance what ad, what sales process or what product is going to be the big winner. So you have to conduct very careful split test.

And when you do, you’ll have uncovered the path to fast, low risk growth.

5. Follow the right sequence of growth steps

There are 4 ways to grow your business.

A) You can focus on market penetration and sell more of the same product to more of the same people.

B) You can sell different products or services to your existing customers

C) You can take your existing offerings out to new markets.

D) You can create new products and services for new markets and customers.

The highest probability, lowest risk strategy is “A”.

The second lowest risk, fastest payback is “B”

Yet, time and again I see business leaders by-pass these two steps and leap right into higher risk “C” and “D” strategies.

I strongly encourage you to find ways to increase the effectiveness and productivity in step “A” before moving on.

Many business mistakenly think they are doing all they can in step “A” but too many times I’ve seen new ideas and knowledge applied to existing sales and marketing efforts double sales.

And if you improve your “A” game it will make your ventures up the growth ladder even more sure and successful.

Here’s a quick overview of a simple, seven-step strategic planning process. This process can be completed in about an hour by a manager, owner or team. Or, it can be expanded into a 1-2 day strategy retreat.

Here’s an overview of the process…

Step One: Where Are You Now?

In this step we take a look at the two major drivers of strategic planning: stuff that is happening now or, stuff we think is about to happen to our business.

That can be good stuff, but it’s usually bad stuff.

So, in step one we get clear on the problems, challenges and future dangers facing your business. Then we narrow them down to those that will create the most impact.

Step Two: What’s The Vision?

While problems and challenges drive the need for strategic thinking, it is vision that drives the rest of the strategy process.

Nothing happens until you have a vision. The more clear and compelling your vision, the more powerful and imaginative your strategy will be.

The vision you craft in this step will act as the “North Star” to the rest of your strategic planning process.

Your vision should include tangible targets like revenue goals, market share goals, etc.; as well as intangibles like values, culture and purpose.

Step Three:  What Are The Obstacles?

To have a vision is to have obstacles. They appear the minute your vision is formed.

Yet, many business leaders have trouble taking a realist’s perspective and looking big obstacles squarely in the eye.

Looking at, and admitting major obstacles to your vision does not make you a pessimist.  The purpose of looking at obstacles is not to look for excuses and reasons not to pursue the vision. It’s to look at what our strategy must overcome, so that it can be as effective as possible.

Failure to look at obstacles and adapt your strategy to them creates nasty surprises.

Looking at big scary obstacles realistically gives the imagination the fuel it needs to craft innovative strategies for victory.

Step Four: What are our resources?

Only after you know what the dangers are, what your vision for the future is, and what’s standing in the way are we ready to look at our resources.

We are looking for two major elements: What resources we have to help us achieve our vision, and what resources we need.

Why not do this first – before vision? Won’t a vision be more realistic if we first look to resources?

The truth is a resource often isn’t a resource until a vision gives it meaning and use.

A rock at my campsite isn’t a resource until I discover I forgot a hammer to pound on the tent stakes – or a bear is threatening my life.

In the same way, you’ve got “rocks” lying around your business that you would never think to use until a compelling vision gives them meaning as a resource.

Step Five: What’s our strategy?

Strategy exists to serve your vision.

Vision and Resources answer the questions, “Where do we want to go?” and “Where are we now?” Strategy answers the question, “How do we get there?”

During this step you’ll take a look at your resources, mix in some imagination, and create a path around, under, or over your obstacles to take you to your vision in the fastest way possible.

Step Six: What are our tactics?

Now that we know our major strategic direction, it’s time to get specific with details, time tables and accountabilities.

Tactics answer the question, “Who’s going to do what by when?”

Ironically, if you, or a member of your team, excels at vision and imagination, this will be the toughest step.

On the other hand, if you are a realist and know all that “dreaming” won’t make anything happen, this will be your favorite step.

Either way, nothing will happen until you complete this step in the strategic thinking process.

It’s time to make something happen!

Step Seven: What will we monitor and measure?

In the late 1800′s famed military strategist, Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke noted, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”

What’s interesting is that this quote was from a military man who was known to take 1000′s of variables into account when crafting his battle plan.

His point being:  Things change. You better adapt to them.

Vision is about the future, and strategy is how to get there. Yet, no person knows the future – nor will any amount of intense data gathering fully reveal the future.

Therefore we need to constantly monitor our strategy and tactics, making adjustments where necessary to keep us driving towards our vision.

Too often I see business leaders get so locked on a specific strategy or tactic that they fail to realize when it is time to try something different.

Monitoring and measuring the right things is the only way to keep you on track and on time.

It’s Your Future…

Neither you nor I can predict what will happen in the future. But we’ve been given the amazing ability to shape it in ways no one else can imagine.

As Dandridge Cole once said, “We cannot predict the future, but we can invent it.”

This simple, seven-step process will help you move from today’s challenges and frustrations to a richer future.

You decide…

” I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces. ” –Henry Ford

“But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall — the length of this football field — made of new metal alloys some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food, and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body and then return it safely to earth re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun — and do all this and do it right and do it first before this decade is out — then we must be bold.” –John F. Kennedy

“Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” – Famed Captain of the Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton

“…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” –Abraham Lincoln

“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ “ –Winston Churchill

Now its time to think about where you want to take your business in the next year or two.

Sometimes it’s the simple things that are the source of breakthroughs.

For example: The words we use to describe our products are often far more powerful than we think. They actually position our products in the mind of the customer. A single word or phrase or name change can cause a customer to see your product in an entirely different light.

The following case is a prime example of this principle…

We worked with a client who provided a program for children with learning disabilities to private schools. The program created impact results. It often raised a child’s reading level by 1 or 2 grades in only 4- 6 months.

They were doing well but wanted to grow faster. One of the constraints was getting private school administrators to even listen to them. As one administrator put it, “We don’t have any of those children here.”

The administrators had a perception problem. Very bright children often had learning disabilities that kept them struggling just to stay at a C-level. These disabilities were covered up by the student?s intelligence, creativity and verbal skills.

One day, in conducting an research interview with a school administrator, she reiterated the common claim that she had no learning disabled students. One of the interviewers said, “Are you sure, because this program really helps struggling students.” The administrator asked, “What did you just say?” The participant said, “This program really helps struggling students.”

Problem solved. The administrator said, “Oh, well I have a lot of those.”

Instantly her mind went to teachers coming in and asking for advice on how to handle Johnny, Suzy and Brad who were bright but were doing poorly. Her mind also flashed on different parents pleading with her for advice on what to do about their child who was bright, but struggling for hours every night to get through homework.

The problem was that those problems where never recognized as stemming from underlying ‘learning disabilities”.

Once the company changed their marketing, sales approach and literature to feature “Hope for the Struggling Student” sales immediately doubled. Administrators, teachers and parents all became instantly receptive once the problem was phrased in their terminology.

For a moment, forget everything you know about your product. Ask what the underlying problem is that it solves for your customers. Now ask THEM how they talk about that problem – what language they use to describe the problem.

You may just be a few simple questions away from a business growth breakthrough.

Here are some critical lessons from three businesses that are growing in the middle of this recession…

I’ve seen a recent pattern now with clients who are growing and profiting – in this recession and want to share them with you.

I think it is a message that will help other businesses see their way to more sales and profits.

And I think it is a sign of a coming sunrise that many don’t see in the dark of night.

There’s a saying that “crisis brings clarity”. And clarity brings insight. Insight brings breakthroughs.

So, I’ve seen a trend of business begin to experience breakthroughs as a direct result of the unwanted clarity this market is bringing.

I have a client who has a private practice.

For first time his practice is full because he did something different. He did something different because the market forced him to.

As a result, he’s more profitable than when the market was “exuberant”.

Often when things are going well enough, we don’t stop and do the hard analysis of what in our business is working, what isn’t, and why. But when we are forced to do the hard work by a hard market, new business growth insights are discovered.

I know of another small business that was doing very well. Their business model has been running flawlessly the last 10 years.

But when the markets turned ugly a year and a half ago, their revenue plummeted in half.

Finally, they had to take a hard look at their business, their marketing and expenses. They discovered that the law of 80/20 was at work in their company – 60% of their profits were coming from only 1/25 of their effort.

So, they were able to slash their marketing budgets by focusing on that single market – and increase their profitability.

Next, they had someone analyze their marketing methods and messages. With a few simple changes their cost per lead dropped from $28.00 to $10.49 within a week.

Yet another business owner operated a contractors supply store. When the market turned, their revenues dropped a heart stopping (and business killing) 85%.

It wasn’t their fault. It was pure market forces that brought the crisis.

Yet, after looking hard they were able to find small leverage points in their marketing that began bringing in new customers and contractors for virtually no cost and no effort.

What’s the point of these examples?

That even in a brutal market, there are ways to grow your business — even if you don’t think it is possible and your budgets are non existent.

Further, the insights and discoveries of how to grow a business in a brutal market are going to fuel success and growth in the years ahead beyond what is being predicted now.

It is inevitable. As business learn to grow in tough times, they bring light to a dark market and show others the way.

If you need, or want, a breakthrough in your business…these lessons from the pilot who broke the sound barrier are vital to your future success

The other night I was flipping through the channels and ended up catching part of the History Channel’s story on Chuck Yeager’s shattering the sound barrier.

If you’re not familiar with the story, here are the cliff notes. Planes that had tried to breakthrough before were often torn apart. At the time, they didn’t even know if it was possible to break through the sound barrier.
And, when Yeager fired up the engines to try it, they had no idea what was waiting for him on the other side. As he approached the barrier, he experienced the typical turbulence and violent shaking. He held the X1 plane together though and passed through. As he did, the turbulence vanished and he slammed the air speed needle over mach-1.

Two quotes from the segment I saw burned into my mind.

The first was from a fellow that was a colleague of Yeagers. He said, “We discovered that there wasn’t a sound barrier, we had a knowledge barrier.”

The second came from another colleague. He walked up holding a book on aeronautics. He threw it in the trash can and said, “Let’s go re-write the book.”

A couple of thoughts…

Many of the breakthroughs in sales or profits have an interesting commonality. Often, after the breakthrough, the company is able to achieve more productivity or sales or growth with fewer resources.

Almost all the breakthroughs came because someone new came to the table from another industry or specialty. In short, new knowledge was introduced into the formula.

Finally, if you truly want to achieve breakthrough growth and sales, you need to carefully consider whether or not the “book” you’ve been running your business from needs to be thrown away, and a new book written.

If you want to quickly boost your sales and profit in this economy…

I suggest you start using the “F” word a lot more often.

The “F” word I’m talking about is FOLLOW-UP!

In the last month, I’ve talked with too many businesses that are letting cash slip through their fingers like water because they are not doing ANY follow-up on customers and prospects and leads.

I’ve seen therapist not calling back leads in a timely manner, manufacturers not following up on folks they’ve sent brochures to, retailers never sending their clients offers, information, newsletters – nothing.

And the great irony (or tragedy) is that these companies have already paid the price to generate leads and customers. The greatest investment has been made. The business at the front door – but the door is never opened.

It’s like a farmer who has spent a year preparing the fields, fertilizing them, tilling the soil, removing rocks, planing seeds, watering them, caring for them and then when the fruit is ripe on the vine, ready to be picked, the farmer leaves it there to rot.

The good news is that you may be sitting on a lot of hidden and overlooked profits, just waiting for you to harvest them.

This cash can be yours almost as easily as pulling cash out of your own pocket. It just takes a little simple, timely follow-up.

If you have a past customer list, contact it with timely offers, customer only specials, or valuable information just to keep your business top-of-mind.

If you are not yet capturing customer data – name, address, email, phone – START NOW (this is the single most activity your business can do – ever!).

If leads are requesting information, follow-up quickly and get it in their hands A.S.A.P.. In today’s internet economy I can guarantee that your prospects are not sitting around waiting for your info to arrive in their inbox or mail box. They are surfing the web, visiting your competitors and moving on solving their problems.

I’m not sure why so many companies lag on their follow-up activities, but they do. Even in this economy.

So, rapid, thorough follow-up is a competitive advantage you cannot ignore. It can be a simple phone call, a quick email or a one page letter dropped in the mail.

More leads, sales, customers and profits are yours in the next 30 days — if you’ll start using the “F” word today!

Here are some great quotes about business growth from great leaders. Some may surprise you -

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”
John F. Kennedy

“You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.”
Abraham Maslow

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
Benjamin Franklin

“Growth, in some curious way, I suspect, depends on being always in motion just a little bit, one way or another.”
Norman Mailer

“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”
Calvin Coolidge

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together. ”
James Cash Penney

So, who’s your most dangerous competitor?

Is it the company in your industry that is well funded and steadily increasing market share and has a slight product or service advantage? Or is it the company that is struggling for air, about to slip under for the last time?

Surprisingly, it is often the struggling competitor.

Here’s why…

They are out of options. Doing things the old way is no longer an option. There is no illusion that “doing more of the same, only harder” is going to save them.

So, they have to do something different…

And that is where the danger lies.

They will have to try breaking an industry assumption or paradigm. They will have to think thoughts that neither they nor any other competitor in the space has thought. They will have to look at customer needs through new glasses. And each of those shifts in thinking, in mindset and in action can be the birth of a dramatic breakthrough.

So, don’t celebrate the demise of a competitor too soon. They could soon be your most dangerous competitor.

I’ve sat in on more than my share of company vision meetings. So have you.

At some point in the proceedings, usually about a half hour after the discussion of potential directions, futures and markets has begun; you’ll see an Executive biting his lip so hard it is about to bleed. Finally, unable to constrain him or herself any longer, he’ll erupt and spew out a lava-flow of immediate issues.

“I don’t care about a vision, we have to survive today.”
“We need to fire Person X.”
“We need better communications between executives.”
“We’ve got production problems that need to be taken care of now.”
“This is silly to think about when we have immediate payroll and cash-flow issues.”
“Sales are in the toilet and we need to figure out how to make them go up NOW!”

In fairness to this Executive, if a company is always future-gazing, not taking action on obvious opportunities and generally not executing, he has a point. Often you have to survive today to even be able to consider a vision for tomorrow.

But, more often a company’s vision of the future is far too blurry. And you can’t fire and cost cut your way to a vision. That’s why it’s critical to pull your head out of the day-to-day issues and create a crystal clear vision of where you are going and how you are going to get there. It takes time. The answers aren’t always easy. It can be downright frustrating!

But, what the Fire-fighting Executive often discovers is this: Having a vision of tomorrow acts like a compass guiding today’s decisions.

Here’s the bottom-line…

Once you have a clear direction and purpose for your company, every daily decision you make becomes more productive.

What’s your vision?