3 Ways to “Go deep” in Your Own Business to Increase Revenue.
Too often in order to increase revenue, we re-evaluate our businesses with such a critical eye that we miss obvious opportunities for growth, spending valuable time asking and solving the wrong questions.
Six months ago, thanks to Troy Dean and the amazing Agency Mavericks podcast, I had the privilege of chatting with Seth Godin , as well as a sobering one month follow-up. Seth’s words at the 16:00 minute mark of the original podcast about working within my existing network shed a glaring light on a huge missed opportunity.
The problem for me pre-Seth Godin was that I kept looking on how to grow revenue in the wrong places. Seth makes this evident as he gently “slaps” me down from wanting to reach into new territory (view my sad look at the 25:20 mark). It wasn’t easy to hear but taking his advice, I set off on a path to evaluate my business with this new focus.
Here are three ways I went “deep” in my own business that resulted in huge results:
1. Get to the bottom of what makes you valuable
Seth Godin talked about being a “meaningful specific.” In order to find out what value I offered I went “wide and deep in my own business” – a twist on the Troy Dean “wide and deep” classic.
Below was my real world question/answer thought process that has lead to the answer of what makes me valuable:
What is working in my business? My monthly client plans
What else? My processes for monthly maintenance and website projects
What else? My relationships with clients
What else? My ability to communicate
What is the most valuable/profitable of those things? My monthly client plans – high retention rate.
Why? Because I help my clients
Why else? Because the process to do this is straightforward
Why else? Because my clients need me to help them
Boom! “Because my clients need me to help them”!
It was in this answer that I realized I was more than a value add, I was a problem solver. I knew what they needed and I was too busy focusing on other things to see that each one of them needed my guidance and advice. I needed to be active in reaching out to my current clients with solutions.
2. Reach out to your current, most profitable clients
One of the key points Seth Godin made that went clearly over my head initially was that “you should sell to people who will buy” and who better than your existing network (view minute mark 23:00 and 27:55).
A popular myth is that you must reach out through marketing to create a funnel of new leads in order to increase your revenue. By refusing to buy into the myth for “more,” and turning to my existing clients, I realized that strengthening my client’s business through their website allowed for more opportunities to offer them services.
In fact, the more I increased my outreach to my past and current clients, the more my referrals increased. I don’t think this was a coincidence. I believe it was by reaching out to my clients that I arose to the forefront of their minds as a resource and problem solver who they wanted to recommend.
3. Make the small tweaks and wait for feedback
The last piece of advice that has blossomed since the podcast was to be “an initiator of what is made” – go to my clients rather than wait for them to come to me.
I had to really think through what I wanted to change in order to take advantage of my current most profitable clients, as well as this new view of myself as a problem solver. I decided I would survey my clients with a poll to see what services they actually valued.
In a matter of weeks I re-organized my client plans with a few small changes. I increased my price for new clients since I now understood the value I was offering and I created a series of value “add-ons” I knew my current clients needed. I was acting as the initiator. I emailed it out to my clients for feedback. Very quickly I got response, referrals and a lot of bookings for phone conversations to understand more about the new services.
These simple tweaks increased my recurring monthly revenue 50% in one month.
Now six months after my convo with Seth Godin, the focus on that network of current clients is as strong as ever. It has become a bustling funnel of business, very active and profitable. Thank goodness I actually took his advice!
Better than the increases in revenue, I now feel more confident in what I offer, in my daily process and in the future of where my business is heading.
What can you do with your current client list?
I challenge you to do the same in your business. Instead of thinking about all the things you have to improve, focus on what is working well which could very easily mean turning to your current client base. By nurturing that area of your business, you may just find the increase in revenue you’ve been searching for.
