Knowing what you’re selling, who buys it and why isn’t enough. It’s a great start. But it’s not enough.
We must probe your business more deeply. For example, there may be many things preventing sales in your business but there is only one number one. You must correctly identify what that is.
Let me be blunt. You are probably fooling yourself as to what the showstopper is. [Don’t worry, it happens to all of us.] So, if you are working with me on your business, we’ll look at the list of possibilities to isolate that one thing. Then, we’ll work out a plan to remedy it.
I’ll ask you how many ways you are currently collecting feedback from customers, potential customers and lost sales. This is very important to your future.
Customers buy what they want, not what you think they need. Let them tell you what that is and you’ll save yourself a whole lot of wasted time, energy and money. (Remember, you’re dealing with all three currencies with every business decision you make.)
By the way, do you know there are at least 12 ways to get feedback? You should be doing as many of them as possible. Most take less than a day to implement.
That pretty much covers examining what can be done to be bringing more money into your business and leads us to the ultimate killer question, “What is the date your business dies if you never make another penny at it?”
The point of being in business is to stay in business. Nothing crystallizes your thinking faster than knowing when it’ll be game over if you don’t make it work. Post that date where you can see it on a daily basis and you’ve got yourself an effective tool for beating procrastination and maintaining focused attention on revenue-generating activities.
You may be thinking I’m not very sympathetic to your entrepreneurial spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth. But, as mentioned in an earlier post, a coach’s job is to save you from yourself while optimizing your potential for success. How ’bout we call it tough love?