Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

As we ramp up our coaching business in Miami, Florida I am speaking with may small business owners and entrepreneurs.

One of the burning questions I am asked is: “What Should We Work on First?”

Here are three things that I recommend you focus on when you begin your work with a business coach:

Develop a Plan for the Next Three Years, One Year and Ninety Days

Most business leaders do not take the time to plan for the future.  A business coach can help you get a grip on the things that are important.  A business coach will also help you remember why you got into business in the first place.  Once you have crystallized these ideas you need to put them down on paper.   

After you have written down your expectations for the next three years you need to determine what you want to accomplish this year.  You business coach will help make these expectations actionable and convert them into goals that you can focus on immediately.   Breaking you goal into one-year and ninety-day segments will help you measure progress, generate momentum and work on high-value tasks.

Identify and Focus On your Best Customers

Many business owners and leaders spend their time and effort working with customers who provide limited value to their business.  All customers are important, but a customer who spends $400,000 is more valuable than a customer who spends $400.  That’s a fact. 

You need to know who your best customers are and you need to focus your time and energy on them.  Why?  Two reasons:

1). The top 20% of your customer base probably makes up 80% (or more) of your business’s revenue.  They deserve your time and your attention 

2). If they trust you enough to give you a sizeable amount of business right now, they probably have potential to give you more business in the future.

If you think about it logically, you probably focusing on a group of customers who complain the most, the loudest and spend the least.  This is true in just about all the businesses with whom we work. As responsive business leaders we want to make everyone happy.  Your business coach will help you adjust your plan so that you spend most of your time with the customers who are most valuable to your business.

Identify and Create More Relationships Like Your Best Customer Relationships

As we have already discussed, all customers are not created equal. Identifying high-potential customers is critical.  When you prospect for new business you should not just be looking for any customer with a pulse and a wallet.  You should look for customers who have the potential to become high-value clients. 

How do you find these potential customers?

This process begins by studying the group of your best customers.  Frequent interaction with this group will help you understand what they look for in a business relationship and where you can find more businesses like them.

Your coach should be familiar with how to conduct this research.  He/She should be able to help you quickly identify the drivers of these relationships.

Focusing on these three things will immediately help you prioritize your work and aggressively drive revenue growth.

 

 

Filed under: Coaching
TrackBack URI     

No Responses

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.