Tag Archive for: growing your business

When It Comes to Business Partners, Knowledge is Power

When you become a Coaching for CEOs client, we will talk about your business and learn all we can to help it grow. The more we know about you and your business, the better position we will be in to help you put together the best board of directors you can.

We will want to know your POS:

  • Production: How many clients do you currently serve?
  • Offering: What services or products do you offer?
  • Sources: Who are your ideal clients?

Without knowing your strengths and weaknesses and what you need to reach your goals, it’s hard for us to help. We will also need a baseline of where your business is now so we can chart a course for you to grow. Your business partners should also know your POS. If not, they won’t know which of their clients and connections are a good fit for you.

With the right knowledge, your business partners will be empowered to help you.

Production

We’d like to know how many clients you have and your capacity to serve more. You may want fewer new clients who buy more from you or you might be better served by diversifying your clients so there are more of them, but they buy less.

How much growth do you want and how fast do you want to grow? Companies can fail because they lack customers or can’t cope with fast growth and their service and reputation suffer. Your competitors could take advantage of the situation and take your unhappy customers away.

Offering

No one can help your business if they don’t know what you do. Depending on what you do, one of your possible business partners may be a great match, while another may not be much help. Ideally, you find someone who is well connected to the people or businesses you want to serve but they’re not competing against you.

Your business may be very local, have clients in this region of the country, or nationwide. A business making or selling something fairly simple and inexpensive will have a client base much different than if you are selling a product that is complex and expensive. Do you sell directly to users or through distributors?

Service providers face similar issues. A business selling home cleaning services or lawn maintenance is much different from one offering accounting or legal services to business clients. Is your service limited to a geographic area, or can you provide it anywhere thanks to telephones and the internet?

Sources

Your ideal clients could be individuals, small or large businesses, institutions, nonprofits, or government agencies. They might be in the area or within a five-hour drive. You may seek well-off families with considerable disposable income, businesses willing to spend money on you to save more money by cutting one of their costs, religious organizations looking to grow their membership, or car repair shops looking for more customers. There’s no potential customer out of reach with the right board members.

Get the Help Your Business Needs

If you want to learn more about how to leverage your relationships with business partners and grow your business, fill out my contact form and attend one of my online seminars. Let’s start the conversation about how we can help ourselves and others.

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Create Your Own Economy

We all live in our own environment. It’s where we live, socialize, do business, attend religious services, and shop. We’re in a bubble that bounces into and sometimes merges with other bubbles as we live our lives. You can create your own economy by finding and leveraging the bubbles of future clients and customers.

You must target those who may buy your product or service. It’s like being a private detective, researching someone you need to know more about so you can enter their bubble, be a part of their world directly or through your connections.

To get a sale you could try a direct approach. You may get lucky with a cold call or by introducing yourself at a networking event. But most of these “frontal assaults” fail, so investing time and energy in a more stealthy approach may work better. You won’t pop up out of nowhere, you’ll be connected by someone your future customer knows and trusts.

To create your own economy, you must find out…

Who is Your Ideal Client?

Depending on your business, you may have a few clients who make big purchases or many smaller ones with lower budgets. Who are they? Where are they? Is contacting them in person or through your connections the best route, or must you take another route because they’re too far away?

If there are many possible ideal clients nearby, how should you prioritize your sales efforts? You can focus on a big fish that may be more difficult to catch, but the rewards are bigger. Or, you could go after the smaller, easier-to-catch fish first.

Your track record of success and happy but smaller customers may make it easier to hook the big fish. Though they may not generate the same income, your more numerous customers may provide you with more connections, more possible partners, leading to more sales with more accounts (and maybe a big fish).

What Other Types of Businesses Interact With Your Ideal Client?

Imagine yourself in your ideal client’s bubble.

  • Who might have access to your ideal client?
  • What businesses is he or she working with?
  • Who are they buying from or selling to?
  • What relationships might this person or business have?

These businesses can have a connection on a personal level. They can be the person’s realtor, hairstylist, or landscaper. It could also be business-based, like a supplier, a contractor, an insurance broker, or a banker. Ideally, all these people should have your business card handy in case they want to connect you with someone.

Create Partnerships With Those Businesses

Connect with those connected to your ideal client. They may be people who have no need for your product or service, but they need connections too. You’re offering a relationship that doesn’t cost anything to them (they’re not paying you for anything, though they are using time and energy to promote your business) but offers potential rewards (benefits from your efforts making connections for them). They should, when the time is right, mention you to your ideal client or make an introduction.

These partnerships can be made in person or generated through LinkedIn (which is also an excellent place to research ideal clients and potential partners), content marketing including blogs, and instructional videos posted on your website and social media.

If you want to learn more about how to leverage your relationships, create your own economy, and grow your business, fill out my contact form and attend one of my online seminars. Let’s start the conversation about how we can help ourselves and others.

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