Have you been wondering what it takes to grow your business at a rate faster than the market?

Many business owners keep their head to the grindstone. They work hard at their craft and delight in serving their customers. Unfortunately, all that work takes time away from building the business in time-effective ways.

Sure, you go to networking events, make phone calls (you do make calls, don’t you?), maybe advertise in certain places or encourage people to make referrals on your behalf.

Still, not enough profit in the bank account leaves you feeling exhausted, confused and frustrated.

“What’s a body to do?”, you ask.

In my more-than-a-decade of helping business owners improve their situations, I’ve discovered that it takes 3 things to rise above the herd and outpace the market in terms of industry sales in your category.

1. A killer niche
Without a clear niche, you’ll likely never make any headway in your industry. People will struggle to understand what you do and won’t know why they should work with you versus any other provider of … (you fill in the blank).

You will likely struggle yourself positioning yourself against the competition. Your lack of clarity will keep your confidence level suppressed resulting in timidity.

Your message to the market will be muddled. No one will hear you. No money will flow to you. Sales will come through a lot of hard work.

2. Pricing that maximizes your profits
When you’re crystal clear about who you serve and how, your next challenge is packaging your products and services to garner the highest levels of profitability for your firm. You may struggle with this by doubting your ‘deservability’ factor hearing a little voice in your head shouting ‘Who do you think you are?!?!?”

That doubt will cause you to leave money on the table. Your niche clarity will make you appeal to people who are ready to work with you. When you understand their issues and have solutions for their problems, THEY will place a high value on your work and happily pay you for it.

3. A business plan to monetize the first two
Many a business owner, even those who know who they are and what they’re worth, have floundered because they lack insight on what it takes to take a product or service to market. Let’s face it, you have to do some sort of marketing in order to gain the visibility you need to land clients. They won’t just fall in your lap becuase you’re a good person. You must have a proactive plan that includes goals and action steps to achieve them. The Bamboo Approach to Lush Business Growth lays out a framework to making your mark on the world.

Once you have these three elements in place, the world becomes your oyster. Life and business success become attainable. For those of you who are ready to take a significant leap on any of these 3 elements, visit http://emeraldharvest.com/vipday.htm or apply for a Profit Proliferation strategy session with me at http://emeraldharvest.com/profitapplication.htm.

Uncover the secret motivations that drive your ideal client’s decisions so  your marketing results in more sales

Identify the weak links in your business that are robbing you of your revenue

Expose the criteria that people use to make purchase decisions about what you offer.  Ignore this and your marketing will fall on deaf ears. Master this and business will flock to you.

Distinguish specific opportunities your business is facing that could mean a dramatic increase in profits for your firm

Evaluate your current revenue streams and determine which ones are primed to produce even more in the future.

Brainstorm on potential NEW revenue streams you can create easily without doing a ton more work

Evaluate your current sales channels and marketing strategies to make sure you’re capitalizing on what’s right in front of you

Create concrete goals and strategies for their fulfillment to accelerate your success

Calendaring templates to make mapping out your marketing plan simple and easy

Get details http://emeraldharvest.com/lushbusinessgrowth-ws.htm

Many times career professionals fail to achieve their goals. Even though they stay ‘busy as all get out’, they aren’t accomplishing the substantive things that will truly make a difference in their careers, lives and businesses.

Why is it that some people seem to have all the ‘luck’?

I have found over the years that some people just make more progress, have more ‘wins’ to show for their efforts, have more ‘toys’ to show off.  It’s not that life is really at all about the toys, but a few of them with personal significance to the owner help validate that something was working right.

So what is the key to having things go well? I say there are three. Read them and see if you agree. Leave a comment either way.

Cover of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Have a plan

I hear all the time how busy everyone is. They are working on the ‘urgent’ things that Stephen Covey identified in Habit 3 of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. How much time are you spending putting out fires? How many of those fires could have been averted or prevented?

Being proactive and setting aside time to SET GOALS and ANTICIPATE BREAKDOWNS will keep those fires and breakdowns to a minimum. If you think you’re too busy to plan, think again. You, especially, need to devote some time to getting ahead of the curve.

2. Work your plan

It does little good to have a plan and never look at it or never work on it.

Some people who DO make plans, fall victim still to getting hung up in short-term emergencies. Their plans sit in a binder, on a shelf, in a drawer or their PC.

You must confront your plan – DAILY. Make sure you take at least one action on it each day. Do something that will make progress on your short term goals as well as a long term goal. If you have long term goals that you aren’t actively working on, they aren’t goals, they’re pipe dreams. You’re not really serious.

You’re just hopeful. But after a few months or years of inaction, you’ll be embarrassed and depressed. ACT TODAY on your dreams for the ‘morrow.

3. Assess your results against the plan

Things happen. Plans don’t go as expected. Unexpected things arise. You’ll learn more and become more effective when you look at what you said you would do, compare that with what you DID do and then evaluate how it all turned out.

What did you learn? What would you do if you could do it over? What would you NOT do? What resources did you need that you didn’t have? Whose help would you enlist?

Even though you may never have that particular goal again, you’ll still learn something about yourself, your environment and the process of ‘ACTION‘ that will be applicable to future endeavors.

Have a plan. Work your plan. Assess your results. Those are the keys to success.

Related articles

• Nine Things Successful People Do Differently (talktomylawyer.wordpress.com)
• Be a Better You in 365 Days Challenge – Day 20 Making Action Speak louder than Words Day (becomeabetteryouin365days.com)

I attended a festival recently and visited a jewelry booth while I was there. (Jewelry, photography and pottery are my favs!)

The jewelry designer was a talented, but modest woman. Her sister, on the other hand, was quite the promoter.

She engaged me in conversation immediately. She asked me question after question while showing me different pieces of jewelry. I definitely knew she was aiming to make a sale but didn’t feel pressured by her activities and comments.

If you struggle to ‘close’ the deal too often, it’s likely you’re doing something in the process that is preventing the other person from stepping forward to take advantage of your offer.

What is it that has some people be great at sales while others struggle?

Here’s what I learned from this sister-promoter that could help you improve your close ratio.

One of the biggest mistakes people make in sales is talking too much. They are uncomfortable with silence and erroneously think they are ‘controlling the process’ by talking all of the time.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from my first sales coach is “People love to buy. They hate being sold.”

Armed with that info, here are some of the things the Sister-Promoter did that ended up with me buying a trinket from the designer plus a few more choice tips that should help you increase your sales.

1. Ask pointed questions
Your aim is to get the other person talking. You’ll learn more and they’ll be more invested in the conversation. People won’t walk away from you or hang up on you when they’re talking!

2. Ask open ended questions mixed with closed ended questions.
Open ended questions (How, What, Where) reveal info to guide your inquiry. They also get the other person thinking. Closed ended (Do/Have/Would) questions get people to some decision point and allow progress toward the end goal to get made.

3. Ask questions about the future
Get people to imagine a future with your or your product. Hypothetical questions suspend reality and allow your prospect to dream about the future they want and what it would be like to get their with your support. (Imagine/What if/Suppose)

I’ve learned another important sales lesson from Sharla Jacobs. She said “Your job is to ask great questions until your prospect convinces themselves, they have to work with you.”

When you can skillfully guide your prospects through that process so that they arrive at the conclusion, they have to have you, on their own, your sales will increase and both parties will leave the conversation happy and inspired.

Related articles

• Open Ended Questions Examples (mademan.com)
• 12 Open-ended Questions That Close Deals (bettercloser.com)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

“Manage your top line and your bottom line will take care of itself.”

I heard Steve Jobs say this in a previously recorded video that was resurrected shortly after Steve announced his resignation as CEO of Apple Computer.

I worked for Apple for almost 8 years – during the time that Steve was not there.  I heard stories of his genius and his temper and experienced first-hand, the most fun and innovative culture I’ve ever worked in.

His statement “Manage your top line and your bottom line will take care of  itself”, really resonated with me.

I’ve been focusing recently on what it takes to land larger, higher-paying clients and the positive impact that can have on a company‘s profitability.

Steve cited 3 things that must be attended to in managing your top line.

The 3 things are strategy, people & products.

Here is my take on how to focus on those 3 critical elements.

1. Strategy
A strategy is an overall plan to achieve specific, generally long-term, goals. It’s an approach, a broad, general roadmap, a way to go about doing business.

A strategy defines how an organization intends to get from where it is now to where it wants to be in the future, perhaps three to five years out.  Pursuing Whales to grow revenue is a strategy.  Going global is a strategy. Penetrating a specific industry is a strategy. Increasing visibility to raise awareness about a product or service is a strategy. A strategy may include time frames but typically they are ‘end point’ dates.

Focusing on strategy charts the course for the organization. It helps yes/no, go/no-go decisions get made in the short term. Positioning and pricing are outcomes of strategic decisions about what markets to pursue and how.

2. People
The best strategy in the world will fall flat on it’s face without competent people to carry it out. Implementing strategy requires a multitude of interdependent decisions to be made. Discerning judgment (a human skill) is a combination of intellect, knowledge, values and intuition. Having the right people in the right positions doing the right things right, can make a strategy come to life and catapult a company to wild success or oblivion.

3. Products
The third leg of this stool is comprised of the products an enterprise offers. Great strategy and great people can make the most of mediocre products. But great products can overcome (at least for a while) weak strategy and ordinary people. Of course, it’s hard to produce great products with mediocre strategy and people.

Apple likely wouldn’t have designed and produced the iPod, iPhone and iPad without great people. But there was a time, pre-’i’ era, when those great people churned out lackluster ‘also-ran’ products.

When all great components are present, revenues rise because the company is delivering what the marketplace wants. great people make wise decisions about marketing, research, manufacturing, administration and financial matters. Great products continue to be delivered positioning the company as innovative with a commitment to quality.

Profits rise.

Jobs brought a unique perspective and vision to Apple.

So the questions are, What do YOU bring to your firm?

What’s YOUR strategy? Do you have one?

Are  you staffed with the right people in the right roles doing the right things right?

Is what you’re offering a match to the market as it is today or tomorrow? Are you even in touch with market needs or are you developing offers in a vacuum and wondering why sales are lagging?

As I’m finishing up this article, I see a tweet that Apple’s stock hit an all-time high today: $411 and change.

Clearly the strategy Jobs espoused is taking the company in the right direction.

Make sure your three legs of this business stool are sitting on solid ground.

Related articles

• Steve Jobs’ legacy at Apple will extend far beyond the products released under his tenure (edibleapple.com)