3 THINGS ALL SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES HAVE IN COMMON

I've spent a lot of time studying successful businesses to understand what sets them apart from the rest.

I wanted to know what they all have in common that enables them to beat the statistics and keep profit margins consistently high.

Compiling everything I've seen and experienced over my 18 year commercial marketing career, I've boiled it down to these three things:

AUTHORITY

AUDIENCE

TRUST

Here's why...

AUTHORITY

To engage an audience, attract clients, and win a consistent flow of work, businesses, and the experts within them, need to be seen as a leading authority.

Demonstrating you know your stuff, sharing the results you achieve, and staying ahead of trends and developments in your industry, is what will set you apart from the competition.

All too often, businesses become overly reliant on their brand, pushing a list of services, and relying on outdated methods of engagement.

When this happens, the individual experts within a business can get lost, their authority diluted.

The old addage of people by people applies to all service based businesses, and ignoring the need to build expert authority is an ill advised strategy.

Those that spend time building authority and credibility reap the rewards of becoming a key person of influence.

These experts are highly valued, they attract opportunity, they earn more money.

ACTION: write about the problem you solve, how you solve it, and who you solve it for.

AUDIENCE

By now we've all heard about the dark art of creating client avatars to 'put the client at the heart of the business' - but what does that really mean?

Way too often, I've seen businesses go through a lengthy exercise to create client avatars only to never use them because they don't know how.

It isn't just about knowing your audience - who they are, where they live, how much money they earn...

It's about digging much deeper to understand their pain, what keeps them up at night, what motivates them to keep going when things look bleak.

It's about relating to their passions, values, vision and purpose.

It's about crafting every element of your business around eliminating their biggest pain.

When you get this right (and there is an art to it), everything you say and do will resonate so deeply, they'll be inextricably drawn to you and excited to work with you.

ACTION: Ask your top clients what keeps them up at night and what motivates them when times are tough - take some time to really understand what this means and how you can help.

TRUST

We may sometimes feel there's no loyalty left in business (which there is, by the way), but Trust is still the most highly prized of all emotions.

If your audience, clients, staff, suppliers, colleagues, and contacts KNOW they can trust you to deliver what you say you will, they'll become raving fans who gladly recommend you to their connections.

Knowing they can trust you makes them feel good, gives them comfort, and helps them to believe you have their back and are on their side.

They'll come to you with their guard down, letting you in so you can get to the heart of the problems they face, and that empowers you to serve them profoundly.

Once they trust you, they'll become loyal to you - why go somewhere else when you know you've got the most reliable solution in your back pocket!?

Trust builds loyalty and will increase your client base and profits exponentially.

ACTION: What can you do today to delight one of your clients? How can you help them solve a major problem - even if it's not you personally who solves it. Deliver a solid, workable solution, and the trust will start to grow.

If you're a business owner who feels there are any gaps in your strategies to create Authority, Audience and Trust, I can help.

I help businesses build authority and trust; increase profile; and win and retain clients by identifying and plugging strategic gaps in their business and marketing plans.

I also go a step further, working closely with business owners, and their teams, on their own clarity - motivating and inspiring them to take focussed, strategic action with their end goals in mind.

If you'd like to chat about how we can work together, you can either email me at [email protected] or book a call using this link.

I hope you've found this article useful. Please feel free to pass it on to anyone else you feel will benefit.

All the best,

Sally