Guarantee Your Business Growth With These Growth Strategies

Mark LeBlanc, owner of Small Business Success (San Diego, CA), has worked with more than 300 entrepreneurs for growing their businesses more quickly and profitably. After hearing him speak in June, I bought Mark’s small book, Growing Your Business (www.smallbusinesssuccess.com). Within an hour, I read about the strategies that can be the bridge to our future success. We’re discovering that applying these strategies makes business more fun and raises the probabilities for success. And we love seeing those probabilities go up. After all, the Small Business Administration often provides statistics to remind us of how challenging it is to grow a successful venture. Five of ten businesses fail within a year and nine of ten businesses miss celebrating a fifth business anniversary.

You can read a wealth of information in Mark’s book, but three key concepts to put to work include your defining statement, Target 25, and building your M.A.P. attack. As I’ve considered businesses in the area as well as my own, I can see that many of us have pieces of these ideas at work. However, Mark positions each idea with a richness that can only add value to those of us who pay attention and sharpen our skills with these three concepts.

In this article, we’ll address the defining statement. Your defining statement is a clear and focused response to the question, “What do you do?” Your defining statement is your opportunity to differentiate yourself in the market by focusing on the benefits of your work with your customers. Your defining statement motivates your listeners to learn more about how your services and/or products can be helpful to them. Michael Eisner (Disney) has said, “when an idea can’t be articulated simply, crisply, and accessibly, there is usually something wrong with it.” Too often, we muddle through the question, showing an inability to communicate what we do and for whom we do it best! As you consider developing your defining statement, keep the following list of Mark’s rules in mind. He promises you that if you keep four of the rules, you will have a good statement; if you honor all seven, you will have a great one. For example, at Executive Strategies, when we are asked “what do you do?”, we respond, “thank you for asking. We work with companies who want breakthrough results and with people who know that they can achieve more.”

Consider evaluating our statement using the seven rules:

Rule 1- Language. Make it user friendly to the eighth grade level. Your statement is easier to remember if it is simply stated.

Rule 2- Conversational. Your defining statement can easily fit into a conversation. It’s not a slogan or an advertising theme. It is an honest answer to the honest question of, “what do you do?”

Rule 3- Attraction. Well, yes. The whole point of the exercise is to attract the people who need what you provide. But remember, you will not attract everyone. Be true to yourself, be true to what you provide, and those who need your services or products will come.

Rule 4- Dream-focused. You increase the probability of attracting people to hearing more about what you do when your defining statement focuses on their desired dreams and goals.

Rule 5- Contains What and Who. In your statement, specifically identify the outcome of your work and who is best served by working with you.

Rule 6- Dual focus. If possible, create a two part defining statement. Then you automatically appeal to a broader audience.

Rule 7- Memorable. If others remember and repeat your defining statement, then you’ve hit the jackpot. The focus and simplicity of your statement raises the rate of your referrals.

There you have it. The seven rules for building your defining statement. Once you’ve identified a statement that is exciting for you, test it. Put it in the marketplace. Speak up. Say it. Write it. Share it.

Good luck. We invite you to share yours with our office if you’d like specific feedback.

By: Susan B. Wilson, President, Executive Strategies