How To Grow Your Business

Growing a business to be a powerhouse in its industry, or even building a business to be bigger and better, is a goal of many business owners. I believe that the future of niche (high-margin) business is going to be in creating a consistent, unique, and fantastic experience for customers. The brick-and-mortar or online businesses that are going to outdistance their competition and grow to exceptional levels of profitability are those that will consistently deliver a distinct experience for their customers.

The first step in creating the kind of exceptional experience that will enthrall customers is to create processes and systems. Look at how your business is currently interacting with customers. What can be done to refine and redesign how customers are engaged so that they are significantly delighted? Simple things include activities such as interacting with the customers on a more personal level or integrating a process in which you collect personal (but not private) information such as personal preferences, birthdays, etc.

The second step is to get an understanding of the customer’s D.O.S. The D.O.S. concept is from Dan Sullivan and it stands for Dangers, Opportunities, and Strengths. Understand why customers need your business offerings, what they are afraid of in their world (Dangers), what they want to achieve (Opportunities), and why they are confident about what they are doing (Strengths).

Comprehending these and refining your customer’s experience to match this understanding will create the situation that you are no longer just providing a product or service, but you have begun to solve their problems in such a way that creates and strengthens your relationship with them – where you make their world a less confusing place, and a less lonely place.

Thirdly, give customers an opportunity to creatively express themselves and see themselves in new ways. Provide an event that has them learning something or engaging them in a way that they have never done before.
Once you’ve worked on refining, customizing and cementing the experience, then the business is ready to grow. The ability to consistently deliver that customer service experience will allow the business to be scalable and develop to be bigger than it currently is.