I was chatting to a group yesterday who all know they’re experts in what they do and they can create a real change for their clients.
The problem was, they felt massively overwhelmed and had managed to get their business into an entangled, well… Mess.
If this sounds familiar, well it’s because it’s 99% of business owners, especially when as my Dad used to always say ‘the business is you.’
I’m not sure any of us setup our business to be stressed and burnout working all the time?
When I didn’t follow my Dad’s advice (as he’s always had a great business mind), I would find myself coming up with more ideas than I could ever deliver and finding myself at 3.08 pm on a Wednesday wondering what I had done with the day.
The thing is, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Over the last few years I’ve seen countless people grow successful businesses, without all the stress and drama.
I’ve equally grown my business year on year, despite many personal and professional challenges.
Today, I thought I’d share 11 of these ways to grow a legit expert business with you.
1) Relationships over sales
The best way to sell on a completely different level, is to forget about yourself completely.
A perfect example here is in a consultation or meeting, we end up thinking more about ourselves than we do the client.
“Will they buy from me?”
“I need this sale to pay bills.”
“Goodness, I don’t think they’ve got the money.”
Unfortunately, our insecurities become bigger than helping the client and this is where the problems begin.
Whatever we think about, then shows up in our body language, micro-facial expressions, tone of voice and so on.
A.K.A, the sale becomes more important than the relationship.
If it’s the first time with a potential client or your 1000th interaction with a current client, the relationship will always be more important than the sale.
Can you genuinely add value?
Can you legitimately create a bigger transformation?
Is the client ready to take the next step?
When your energy shifts from your needs to the client, you’ll soon see a very different outcome.
2) Focus on being known for one thing
If you know me already, then I’m probably like a broken record with this point, but for good reason.
It’s so difficult to become known for multiple things.
In fact, I’ve never met anyone who’s become genuinely successful (even if they pretend to be).
The major challenge with becoming known for multiple things, is that you’re forever chasing your tail.
The unstoppable force of focusing on one thing, is you get known for your depth in that topic and in today’s world, depth is one of the big reasons why people buy!
If you want general tips and advice, go to Youtube.
If you want to create a real change in a specific area of life, go to an expert.
I’ve had countless products over the years (far more than I’d recommend), but I’ve stayed true to one thing, sales transformation.
Today, most of my sales happen on autopilot and even in a terrible month, I still get more referrals than I can keep up with, ultimately because I’ve put in years being known for this one thing.
Appreciate the time it takes to become known for something, the work, the years and the process.
I always smile when I run a £99 programme and I can see in the room everyone wanting their powerful solution worth thousands of pounds by the end of the day.
I usually have clients in the room and I simply ask them “how’s your powerful solution going?”
They always respond and say “I’m two years in, it’s selling like crazy but it’s an evolutionary process and I respect the work.”
You see, if you’re selling endless things, you never actually get out of the gate with your business because you’re always firefighting.
Slow down, ask what you want to be known for and become the best in your community at marketing, selling and delivering on that one thing.
3) Simplify everything
I am the master of overcomplicating everything, I believe many of us are.
But, we shouldn’t wear it like a badge of honour.
Instead, be brutal and ask where your business is bloated and isn’t adding value to the client or your life.
Today, I’ve simplified my business on an epic scale.
I have my free community where I offer tons of value to help educate the market (because 95% of people aren’t ready to buy straight away) + I genuinely love helping people.
I then have my 1 day Bootcamp which gives an epic introduction to what it takes to build an expert business.
Then, I have my Diploma which gives everything you ever need to build a successful expert business.
That’s. It.
More so than this, it creates a simple journey from FREE (zero risk) all the way to my high value solution (Diploma).
What would happen if you offered 90% less services and put 90% more effort into the remaining 10%?
By the way, if you haven’t joined my free community yet, make sure you do by clicking here.
4) Say “no” to at least 30% who want to work with you (if not significantly more)
When we start out in business, we just want to find clients who’ll pay us.
Sure, this makes logical sense at the beginning, but it also creates the addiction of lack.
In other words, we feel a constant lack of clients and we end up saying “yes” to anyone who will pay us, which ultimately gives us headache clients again and again.
However, a subtle but profound shift is to start saying “no.”
Think about it this way, if you had millions in the bank, would you choose to work with everyone who pays you?
Probably not, you’d likely become extremely selective.
Well, why wait for the millions?
Instead, be selective now.
In reference to my Ultimate Sales Diploma, I say “no” to 50% who apply.
I’ve learnt to do this, because it’s an investment both financially and commitment to do the work required and to be honest, most people aren’t ready for it.
By selling my Diploma to anyone who’ll buy it, it becomes a massive clash with my core value to genuinely help people.
Not everyone is ready to buy your product.
5) Teach what you’ve proven to be true
I’ve seen a lot in the online space recently of ‘business coaches’ teaching things they have no experience in.
Alongside other shady tactics, it’s a scary prospect because sure they may know the theory of the topic, but they miss all of the nuances.
I recently saw a business coach teaching ‘how to grow your dream business’ but they only started their coaching business a few months ago.
Sure, teaching or offering things you haven’t proven might bring in the low hanging fruit, but there’s a huge integrity issue, as in… There is none.
I’m not saying I have all of the answers on this topic or any I’m sharing.
All I will say is that I’ve personally experienced many times how difficult things are when you’re out of alignment, but equally how quickly and easily your business grows when you’re staying true to yourself.
The same for many clients I’ve helped over the years.
What do you have personal experience in and have proven again and again in your own life?
This is a great place to build your expertise.
6) More is simply more
More isn’t better, more is simply more.
Adding more products, services, investing thousands in some new technology.
It all sounds good on paper.
But you know what’s the most valuable thing of all?
You and your expertise.
Enough said.
7) Stop contradicting yourself
When you make decisions in your business based upon how you feel at the time, you start to contradict yourself.
Sure, one day you might feel on top of the world and want to make big marketing decisions.
What about the next week though when those sales didn’t come through?
Now, your decisions will be based upon fear and lack.
This is why it’s fundamental to always go back to why you’re in business.
Be crystal clear on your core values and the few things you stand for.
8) Refine your lead generation process
Do you know where your next best client will come from?
Do you have a power base of future customers?
Well – the vast majority of business owners unfortunately do not. So they simply end up hustling all day long and posting randomly on social media.
The more randomness in your business, the less it will succeed.
You want to create a stable and predictable income month on month.
This means being strategic and knowing exactly where your next clients are coming from.
My free community is quickly becoming my power base and already I receive daily messages from new members who are loving the engagement and interaction.
Sales are rolling in from the group too and compounding week on week (and there’s only 300 people in the group as I write this!! So no, you don’t need a big Facebook group or audience).
But, you do need to have process for your lead generation.
9) Refine your client onboarding process
Once someone reaches out to you and says “hey, I love what you offer, can we have a chat?” What is your process?
The reason why I ask is because most businesses struggle not because they don’t have enough leads, but because once someone enquiries they lose the sale.
A fantastic exercise is to create a visual of the entire client journey, from the moment they enquire to becoming a high value client.
Remove anything that will hinder the sale or create friction along the way.
Imagine yourself going through your own sales process.
How would you feel if you wanted to invest thousands, but you didn’t hear back from the seller?
Like all of these tips, you don’t need to be perfect right now, it’s an evolutionary process and we’re all going to make mistakes.
Just last week I had someone who wanted to pay me quite a lot of money and they had slipped through the radar.
But, you do want to commit to continually transforming your sales process from start to finish.
10) Bad clients will cost you more money than you think
You know that client that you can never please?
Here’s the truth.
You’ll never ever please them.
When I track back through my own experiences of bad clients (and I’ve had a few), I’ve always tried everything to keep them happy but the more you try, it’s like the more you get wrong.
So here’s what I realised.
Sometimes you’re just not a fit to work together and that’s ok.
Move on and create space for new clients who are the perfect fit.
After all, it’s easier to move on and adjust, than it is to constantly adjust for the wrong client.
11) Performance manage your month
Finally, instead of running a business ongoing and wondering where the next sales are coming from, learn to performance manage every month.
Run a specific campaign each month, set monthly targets and have fun helping a specific number of clients per month.
Like all of these tips, there’s a lot more to this, but thinking about this month, would you say you’re performance managing your month like a boss?
Let’s summarise
Building a successful expert business where you’re highly paid as the trusted advisor to a small number of clients is possible.
In fact, in today’s market I would say it’s essential.
You can absolutely achieve multiple six figures per year or even more without a single team member and freeing up most of your time.
When you trust you and your high value expertise + lay down the foundations.
Feel free to let me know which tip resonated with you today.
Pete