Growing a business is easy! Just offer products that customers want, price them well, and sell away...right?
Well, not quite. Customers don’t just show up – you have to find them, engage them, and move them down the funnel, from prospect to lead to buyer. There’s no going around it: growing a business is rigorous and complex – and often just plain hard!
Fortunately, you and your team can ease the business growth process – and dramatically increase your payoff – by optimizing your growth machine.
Wait - what’s a growth machine?
Think of the growth machine as nine integrated systems that work together to help create, convey, and capture value in a business. Each is necessary to achieve growth, yet none is sufficient by itself. Your growth machine is a sequence of value-adding systems that, when optimized and aligned, enables revenue to flow openly and naturally.
We can break the nine elements of the growth machine down into three groups of three. The first three elements - a compelling vision, an effective firm, and valuable offers - work together to create value in a business. The second three elements - strategic market selection, effective targeting, and strong business positioning - work together to convey value. The last three elements - productive lead generation, high-impact sales tactics, and consistent upselling - work together to capture value.
Below is a quick synopsis of the nine key elements that play a role in the growth machine. (As mentioned previously, elements #1-3 create value; elements #6-9 convey value; elements #10-12 capture value.)
Vision: Why your business exists - it's purpose and understanding of what success looks like.
Firm: How your business is organized and equipped to achieve your vision.
Offers: What unique value you are delivering to the market.
Markets: Pursuing opportunities that are the best fit for your offers and organization.
Targets: Focusing on future buyers that are truly ideal customers.
Positioning: How you’re set up – being in the right place, with the right prices and qualifications.
Lead Generation: Capturing prospects’ attention, reeling them in, and converting them into leads.
Sales: Engaging, cultivating, and converting leads into satisfied customers.
Partner: Partnering with customers to maximize stickiness and lifetime value.
How is your growth machine doing?
Is it cranking along? Does it need a tune up? Do some systems need repair, or overhaul?
Check the pulse of your firm’s growth machine with our three-minute questionnaire. We’ll then send you a Growth Capacity Report that pinpoints strengths and opportunities to optimize your growth machine. All this, and a follow-up consultation, at no charge.
Over the next few months, we’ll be digging deep into many aspects of the growth machine. Want to learn how to really power up your growth machine? Follow Shepherd Advisors on LinkedIn and stay tuned.