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?

Are buzzwords killing your business growth?

Fact: Your marketing communications are one of the highest leverage assets in your company. It is not unusual for a new headline on an old ad to cause a 50% or more increase in leads and sales. I’ve seen small changes in an ad or sales letter boost response by 300%.

However, I often observe companies attempt to boost their advertising results by loading it up with buzzwords.

This is important: a few words that acknowledge your “insider knowledge” and expertise of a specific market or niche can improve the effectiveness of your advertising.

But, loading your website, ads, emails and sales letters with all the latest buzzwords will kill your response.

As an example, I ran across an ad for a marketing seminar with this description…

“Next generation strategies to employ a single customer definition for improved multi-channel marketing”

Are you excited yet?

There is so much wrong with this description that I don’t have time to cover it all here. For now, if there is anything like this in any of your marketing communications, sales letters, or ads – kill it – because it is killing your sales!

Many companies seeking growth, must first overcome a great force for evil – “Product Gravity”.

Product Gravity acts like like a big black hole that draws all the company resources into itself. It becomes the raison d’être. The sole focus of the company. Sales reps begin to chant its praises. Manufacturing worships it. Finance throws offerings at its feet. Employees define themselves by it, “We are keepers of the Widget.” Soon, it becomes all consuming.

This great force blinds a companies executives to what their customers really desire. It causes the company to miss market opportunities, yield share to competitors, and loose their grip on valued customer relationships. Ultimately, this death star pulls the company from profitability and into a spiral of doom.

The only thing that can save the company is the Bright Star of customer focus.

The Bright Star reminds us that products were meant to be the servants of customers. That their only reason for existence is to increase the wealth, the safety, the efficiency, and a 100 other needs of customers. The Bright Star is where growth driving insights are found. It’s where the new growth of the business will come from. It is the fount of competitive advantage.

How do you escape this death star’s gravity?

Simply start talking with your customers about THEIR business – not yours. Don’t be like the narcissistic friend who says, “Enough about me, What do you think of me.”

Start asking your customers about their goals, their dreams. Ask them about their biggest challenges. Ask them to rank the challenges by priority. Do this without asking about your product or areas of their business or life your product or service impacts.

You are getting to know them, the complex network of needs, wants, desires, problems and challenges that occupy their mind.

Only when you have this broader perspective, start narrowing your questions to areas that your product impacts. Ask them what the don’t like about your product or service.

And on and on…

When I work with companies, I know they are in the Product Gravity’s grip when they say they have never once surveyed their customers.

Asking your customers about their world is the only anecdote that will break you free from the Product Gravity Death Star in your own world.

Right now, both forces are battling for the mind and soul of your company. Which will you let claim victory?

Fact: You can’t follow your way to a business growth breakthrough.

New sales, new profits and new growth don’t come from the old ways of thinking.

If you want to create a breakthrough you need to do something different. Something you’re not doing now. And more importantly, something that your competitors are not doing.

If you think that is obvious, this vignette should show otherwise: One of my clients had a new media solution that was proven to increase sales rates by 20% and more at half the cost of traditional marketing done by retailers. When they presented this solution to High-Level Executives, the number one question was “Who else in my category is doing it?”

It is a sad commentary when the knee-jerk response of an entire industry’s leaders is to look around and wait for one of their competitors to move first on a potential breakthrough.

These retail executives couldn’t move forward unless they could look around and see other people in their industry doing the same thing already.

I’m not advocating blindly jumping at every new concept without doing some due diligence. In fact, a few innovators chose to “test-forward” and brought millions of dollars of incremental revenue to the bottom-line as a result. But as business leaders we also need to look around, see that no one else in our industry has thought of something and see the potential Gold Mine of opportunity that creates.

Are you a business leader, or a business follower?