What’s On My Mind
I love thinking strategically.
And I love helping people grow their books of businesses, teams, practices, and organizations.
That led me to design a simple four-box model I use to help people prioritize what to focus on next.
I’m going to teach you this model in this five part series.
Today: the model.
Then: an article diving deep into each perspective.
This is what I use in growing our business–it results in unlocks every time I use it.
First, let’s tie back to last week. Like we talked, there are three ways you can think about growth: Sporadic, Sprint and Systems.
And like I closed last week’s article…
Systems create staggering results.
Measurable. Repeatable. Consistent.
Back to the four-box model. It’s about thinking through each important aspect of your business or book of business with a systems mindset.
Important: I’ve found that there’s always a limiting factor in every person or team’s growth system.
(If you want more on attacking limiting factors, I wrote about them earlier this year HERE.)
Your job: Use the model to diagnose where you or your team’s limiting factor is.
Remove the most limiting factor, and you’ll add growth.
It’s counterintuitive: remove to add.
And it works.
eHere’s the model.
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Let me walk through each area.
First: Solution
The solution is what clients buy from you.
Key question: Is your solution clearly differentiated in the marketplace? If not, this is a bottleneck.
Why?
If you’re not differentiated, you’re a commodity. If you’re a commodity, you won’t win often, and when you do, it’ll be at low pricing.
Most solutions are differentiated in one or more of four ways:
- Higher ROI
- Faster or safer process
- More enjoyable or engaging for stakeholders
- Tighter positioning or more focused approach
I’ll go deep on ways to think about and improve your Solution in a single article later, but for now ask yourself…
How could you better differentiate your solution?
Second: PreBD
PreBD is how people find you and, when done right, become predisposed to hire you before you even meet.
Some people call this Marketing, but I like the phrase PreBD much better.
PreBD means:
- Activities that add tremendous value to the recipient, triggering awareness you exist, gratitude, and reciprocity.
- Things that add so much value they spread and increase in impact over time. (Think: reverse half-life.)
- Gratis content that prompts outreach to you to get even more value.
(Soapbox point: I LOVE marketing professionals, the people doing great work. It’s the word marketing that’s getting a bad name, similar to how “sales” has a bad name. It’s time for a rebrand!)
PreBD is strategic. It is aligned with BD. And it rhymes.
(Isn’t rhyming awesome? It’s especially fun when you don’t expect it.)
Key question: Do you have more leads than you can handle? If not, this is a bottleneck.
Like the other four factors, I’ll dig into PreBD deeply in its own article.
(Hint: Digital assets grow in power over time, and I’ll show you how to harness them.)
But for now ask yourself…
What are the most common questions you answer in initial conversations? That’s what you can build your PreBD around.
Third: BD
We all know what this means!
Key questions:
- Do you and your teams convert at the rate you want?
- Do you cross-service across your expertise areas as much as you want?
- Is your BD process and playbook efficient across all your client-facing roles in the way other functions are efficient? (Like IT using agile or accounting using GAAP?)
If not, this is a bottleneck.
You know I’ll have lots to say in that article!
But for now ask yourself…
What part of BD isn’t working as well as you’d like? What’s your limiting factor? Certain roles? Client planning? Expertise areas? Geographies?
Last: Delivery
For most of you reading this, you could replace Delivery with talent, but you might also consider your delivery process.
Key question to ask yourself: Once something is purchased, do you have the talent and streamlined process to deliver, exceeding expectations, and creating raving fans?
If not, this is a bottleneck.
You guessed it–we’ll dig in deeper into Delivery a future article.
But for now ask yourself…
Where do we have pockets where we need more delivery talent or processes to get A+++ grades?
Let’s close this first article in the series with this.
Attacking limiting factors is incredibly powerful.
(Seriously, check out the previous article if you missed it!)
It reverse engineers your thinking.
There are countless people that need your expertise right now. Countless perfect clients. Countless dollars.
Is your solution truly unique, to a level where they would sense in a matter of minutes?
Are your perfect clients finding you at a rate you can barely keep up with?
Can they easily buy from you to a level the process goes fast?
Are they delighted after purchase to a level they want to tell others?
Every leader I’ve ever shown this through has limiting factors. It’s normal.
And when you fix one, creating a major unlock, you’ll find another.
That’s fine. The game is finding the next limiting factor and unlocking the flow.
We’ll tackle each area in an upcoming article. Four more!
Best yet: this is going to give you a head start on next year.
We’ll attack growth head-on.
Let’s Bruce Lee 2023!
Mo
ps. Speaking of PreBD…We are hiring another important team member, a Digital Media Specialist. This is a different role than what we promoted the last few weeks.
If you know of someone that would be interested, have them apply HERE.
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