How to REALLY Grow Your Business (Fast)

Not sure how to start this installment, and clearly not winning my staring contest with a blank page, I hammered a question into Google:

"how do you grow a business?"

What followed was one of those 500-volts-to-the-chest defibrillator experiences, accompanied by a vivid flashback to my earliest compulsion to start The HyperGrowth Company.

There is so much misleading (and downright dangerous) advice about business growth floating around on the Internet.

For starters, 7 Ways to Grow Your Business by Forbes is vague and impractical.

It's a list that smells like a blend of marketing aversion and sales avoidance.

From my vantage point, these are actually some of the slowest and most strenuous ways to grow a business.

So how about a bit of "quick and easy" instead?

These were the next results:

Okay, wait just a minute!

"Build a Sales Funnel" ?? Errrm… how is that easy?

I started a digital marketing agency that builds online sales funnels for clients.

Before that I owned a local business networking event; a corporate gifting & events company; and an online business directory — all of these businesses demand their own sales funnels.

Trust me! Building a sales funnel (that actually works) can be complicated.

And as for "Hire the right people", how is that #1 on a "quickly" list?

Anyone who has hired a single employee knows just how painfully slow this process can be — often requiring you to take a few steps back before you get to move forward.

No. These lists aren't worth the pixels they're printed with.

If you're a small business owner doing less than $2 million dollars in annual revenue, then you might appreciate a more simple + practical +? sequential way to grow.

Here's a (simpler & speedier) 7-Step Sequence to 6-Figure growth:

1. Develop an MDP & Increase Prices

2. Craft an Irresistible Incentive Offer

3. Build a Value-Supplementing Lead Generator

4. Increase Sales Conversion with a Downsell

5. Increase Average Order Value with Upsells & Cross-Sells

6. Form Strategic Alliances and Joint Venture Partnerships

7. Reactivate Former Customers

Unlike the lists from the Google search above, these are not random and isolated tactics — they're strategic steps within a sequence that methodically build on each other.

This is the same sequence we teach in World's Best Business Foundations.

The emphasis here is on 'Foundations' — our A.M.P.L.I.F.Y Method presents 40 other fanciful growth strategies, but these are the bedrock basics of sustainable business growth.

STEP 1

Define your MDP and increase your prices.

Your Market Dominating Position is why customers should pick your business over competitors.

It hits the hot buttons of their specific frustrations and desires, and presents a powerful promise of unmatched value.

Some examples of a Market Dominating Position include:

• The personal trainer who guarantees you'll lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks.
• The online course that promises a job within 30 days of graduation.?
• The accounting firm that guarantees you'll save twice their fees in taxes

STEP 2

Craft an Irresistible Incentive Offer that provides ideal clients with an experience of your value.

Have you ever purchased a food item on the back of a promotional taste-tester?

(Even if your answer is no, you probably understand the premise).

That's why free trial is my favorite type of Irresistible Incentive Offer.

Here's a random array of examples to spark your imagination:

• an accountant offering a free tax assessment
• a gym or health club offering a free session with a personal trainer
• a restaurant offering a free signature cocktail with a meal
• a painting service offering to paint a small section, demonstrating their neatness, technique and the quality of the paint they use
• a catering service preparing a quick dish or snack on-the-spot, highlighting their culinary skills and the quality of their ingredients.

STEP 3

Build a Value-Supplementing Lead Generator

I often refer to this as the hand-in-glove referral machine.

[Seriously, if you were to ignore all the other steps in this post and only apply this one, you'll be left slack-jawed and starry-eyed at the resulting growth in revenue and profit].

There are businesses out there that already serve your dream customers.

By plugging your Irresistible Incentive Offer into their value offering — in a way that requires minimal effort from them — you enhance the perceived value of their offering, while channeling their customers into your pipeline.

Here's a recent example:

Gary owns a home automation and security company, and wants to attract owners of luxury homes.

The problem for Gary is that most of these affluent clients are already locked into service contracts with other providers, and the costs and inconveniences of switching make them unreceptive to new offers.?

To get ahead his competitors, Gary connects with luxury real estate agents in his area, and offers a free installation & 40-day free trial of his most premium package for new home-owners.?

The agents then present the trial as their own housewarming gift — introducing the homeowners to smart home technology with no upfront cost, while? boosting their own reputation in the real estate market.

STEP 4

Increase Sales Conversions with a Downsell

Downsell offers are an effective way to convert leads who might not be ready or able to commit to your core product or service.

Let's stick with the home security and automation example in STEP 3.

If after the 40-day free trial, the new luxury home owner decides not to invest in Gary's most premium security and automation service, he can offer a less comprehensive service at a lower price point.

Having a team come into your home and uninstall a system that was there when you arrived, brings with it very real feelings of loss — which I may have learned from Dr. Phil on Oprah — and a Downsell presents a win-win scenario.

As a bonus, here are 5 ways to supercharge your Downsells:?

1. Explore why a customer hesitates on a higher-priced option (budget, complexity or uncertainty etc.), and tailor a Downsell that addresses those specific concerns.?
2. Create a tiered product or service structure where the value proposition is clear across the different levels —? the difference in features and benefits between each should be significant enough to justify the price variance.
3. Position your Downsell between the high-priced option and a less attractive, similarly priced option — making it the "most logical option" by comparison.
4. Use the Downsell as an opportunity to educate customers about the value of what they are buying. This approach builds trust and can lead to higher customer satisfaction and potential upsells in the future.
5. Collect feedback from customers who opt for the Downsell, so you can understand their decision-making process and refine your offers and value presentation.

STEP 5

Increase Average Order Value with Upsells & Cross-Sells

When a customer decides to buy from you, it's the perfect time to introduce additional value that complements their initial decision.

(They're in a heightened state of trust that makes them more open to suggestion, which I probably learned from a Tony Robbins Instagram reel).

This doesn't only increase your revenue. It also enhances your customers' satisfaction by raising the value for which they're trading their money.?

Let's take a moment to cut through the often-confusing jargon here:

An upsell offers an upgrade to a higher-end version and a better experience.

A cross-sell offers products and services that complement the initial purchase.

Let's drive the difference home with a few side-by-side examples:

STEP 6

Form Strategic Alliances and Joint Venture Partnerships

As they say in the old school, "teamwork makes the dream work".

Aligning with businesses that complement yours (in a way that benefits you both) has the potential to unlock significant growth opportunities, and increase your reach and your revenue.

In addition to referrals and commissions; bundled value offerings; and co-branding opportunities, Strategic Alliances and Joint Venture Partnerships also facilitate resource sharing and access to new markets.

Yes!? I just crammed half a doctoral thesis into a single sentence, right there.

There's so much to dig into here, that I'm going to dedicate a future post to it.

(I'll put some effort into making it worth waiting for).

So that brings us to…

STEP? 7

Reactivate Former Customers

Quick question:

How many customers have you lost over the past 3 - 5 years?

If you're in travel or hospitality, the average customer attrition is 45%

In media or professional services, it's around 20%.

That's not a leak; that's a gaping hole!

Remember (about 953 words ago) when I said, "These are different steps within a strategic sequence that build on each other"?

Step 7 is about capitalizing on steps 1 through 6, to recapture years of lost revenue and profit.

Think about it like this:?

Had you been actively taking these steps along the way, you would now have…

• a powerful value proposition (i.e. your Market Dominating Position) that clearly distinguishes your from your competitors — more than that, positions you as the proverbial Nike of your niche;?

• an Irresistible Incentive Offer that provides your ideal customers with an experience of your value, and (while not relevant to reactivating past customers) an effective hand-in-glove lead generation system that drives them to that initial experience;

• a Downsell offer for those who aren't ready or able to commit to your core product or service, and that gets them onto your value ladder (and lowers your overall Customer Acquisition Cost);

• an Upsell and Cross-sell strategy for those who do purchase your core offer, but are looking to upgrade their experience (which increases Average Order Value); and?

• some Joint Venture Partnerships and Alliances which ( to tease out a future post) provide extra bumps of revenue and profit via commissions from adjacent products and services.?????

At this point, 85% of the foundation for exponential growth has been laid.

The final step in the sequence is to run a very targeted promotional campaign that exclusively targets inactive past clients, and presents them with a special offer that presents the company's new Market Dominating Position; offers them an experience of the honed value offering; and moves them onto (and along) the value ladder with Downselling, Upselling, Cross-selling and added-value referrals from partners.

(There's a lot packed into the above sentence, so feel free to read that a few more times, and really let it sink in before moving on).

If you've executed steps 1 through 6 well, this "oh baby, I want you back" campaign can reasonably expect a 15% to 20% conversion rate.

Translation: You can expect to recapture at least 15% of the customers who have fallen away over the past 3 - 5 years with a single promotion.

Congratulations!!

You have successfully laid a solid foundation for exponential growth — and for becoming the world's best business, which is what this newsletter is all about.

So let's talk about timeframes… How long should this process take?

I bolted "(fast)" onto the end of the title of this post for a reason.

With clearly defined goals and processes, all 7 steps should take less than 9 months — and that still provides a lot of cushioning for (most of) life's happenings when you had other plans.

In light of the resulting revenue and profit impacts, that's pretty darn quick.

Here's What Comes Next…

With the World's Best Business Foundations laid, your business is ready for exponential growth.

The A.M.P.L.I.F.Y Method is an advanced and more comprehensive framework for doubling revenue and tripling profit within 12 months — and then doing it all over again, year on year.

Here's the acronym decoded:

A = Average Order Value?

M = Maximum (Lifetime) Value Potential?

P = Profit*

L = Leads & Sales

I? = Intellectual Property?

F = Faculties and Facilities (teams and systems)

Y = Yard Size (market share)

If you're looking for a dependable, sequential and sustainable framework for compounded increases in revenue, profit, valuation and market share, The AMPLIFY Method was built for that purpose.

*You can dig deeper into the Profit strategies in MasterChef Your Business (Profit Edition), the previous installment of this newsletter.

Want help laying the World's Best Business Foundations?

We'll be running virtual seminars in March, and then introducing public and (inhouse) private workshops in April and May (in parts of the United States)

These (actually-do-the-)work-shops will be interactive and collaborative, and the goal is to have attendees leave with a well-defined 7-Step Foundations Blueprint that readies their businesses for exponential growth.

If this rings your bell and you would like to attend one of these workshops, send me a DM on LinkedIn and I'll send you more information.

Here's to your supercharged success!