Today, I’m going to share a strategy with you that’s used by the world’s most successful businesses. I’ll also show how I use it and explain why you should too.

I’m referring to operating your business with a focused and agile mindset. Those words almost sound like opposites. But they’re not. And in business they work together beautifully. Here’s how focus and agility work together.

• You need to know what it is you want to achieve from your business and stay focused on it.
• However, you also need to adopt an agile approach regarding how it happens. Then, as new feedback and opportunities come along, you can adjust your strategy accordingly. This is always sound advice, but in 2022 it’s essential.

In short, you remain both focused and agile.

Here are a couple of well-known examples, along with how I use the same strategy.

You couldn’t buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks

It’s hard to believe today. But it’s true. Starbucks had been in business for several years (and had already opened its first 5 outlets), before they sold a cup of coffee to anyone! Prior to that, Starbucks sold coffee beans. Agile thinking allowed them to identify a new opportunity, when they noticed how customers enjoyed sampling their coffee beans in-store.

Starbucks’ focus remained the same: to build a successful coffee business. However, their approach changed.

Instagram used to be a check-in app

Instagram started life in 2010 as a check-in app called Burbn. The developers decided their app was too similar to Foursquare, so they pivoted. All their efforts were switched to the photo-sharing component of the Burbn app. Instagram was born.

Their agile thinking allowed them to identify an opportunity for a filter based photo-sharing app. They ran with it. And just 2 years later, the app was acquired by Facebook for approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares.

The founder’s focus remained the same: to build a successful app. However, their approach changed.

I could have used examples from Suzuki, which used to manufacture weaving looms. Or Nintendo, which has previously sold instant rice, vacuum cleaners and even offered a taxi service. And I could have mentioned how Twitter was born from the ashes of a podcast sharing app called Odeo.

But that almost misses the point.

The point is that it’s not only billion dollar companies that use a focused and agile approach. There are businesses of all sizes, achieving breakthrough results from the exact same strategy.

Including mine.

How I use focus and agility

I started my business working as a marketing consultant, who visited clients at their premises or at my offices in London. When I relocated to a tiny village in the countryside in 2002, I quickly decided I didn’t want to waste hours every day travelling. So, twenty years ago I switched to working remotely. Initially I used phones, then switched to VoIP, Skype video and now Zoom.

Not only did this mean zero time wasted on travel, it also cut my overhead by around 98%! Plus, it opened up the whole world to my services. For the past two decades I’ve worked globally, in over 50 countries, (as well as every state in the United States).

My focus remained the same: to build a successful marketing business. However, my approach changed.

As we emerge from the worst of this horrible virus, one thing’s for sure. Success will continue to reward those with the strength to remain focused, combined with the agility to adapt to the new opportunities.

If you’re interested in learning how to rise to the top and become the best service provider in your niche, read on. I think you’ll find this extremely useful.

What follows is based on studious notes I have taken, in conversations with top people in multiple industries.

It’s also been the foundation of my own success, spanning almost 30 years.

Let’s dive right in.

What stops people becoming the best in their niche?

The short answer is this: They don’t know what they don’t know. So they carry on, accidentally restricting their potential.

I’ve found that pretty-much every service provider will tell you they are committed to being as valuable to their clients as possible. These service providers work hard and strive to keep their clients happy.

The challenge is that their framework for what constitutes being as valuable to their clients as possible, is missing an essential component. And their success is severely limited as a direct result.

Allow me to explain exactly what’s missing. Plus, how you can get it right and absolutely thrive in any market, in any economy; year after, year after, year.

What’s missing?

The top people in any profession only become the best, because they work in a different way to their counterparts. It makes perfect, logical sense.

You can’t be the same — and also be the best. You have to choose!

In my experience of working with, and observing, many of the world’s most successful service providers (both companies and individuals), there’s one piece of the framework they operate from that gives them a massively powerful advantage.

Specifically, I’m referring to a single mindset difference, regarding what it takes to become the best service provider.

A difference that their counterparts aren’t even looking for, because they wrongly think they already have it covered!

You decide to become the best service provider

It starts with that big and bold decision. The decision to become the number one person for your market to turn to, when they need guidance, support, assistance or trusted feedback relating to your specialist area. It’s a very powerful, primary commercial goal to aspire to.

Not a certain income level.

Not a certain lifestyle.

Because, when you achieve the primary goal of becoming the best service provider, the number one choice for the market you serve, all the other rewards follow. And they follow abundantly.

Next, you need to weave this primary goal into everything you and your business does. Whilst service providers always promise to put the needs of their client first, this is almost always done within narrow guidelines. Those who become the best service provider in their marketplace go way beyond that.

Here are a few examples.

The best service providers are TRULY there for their clients

Not simply when there’s a transaction for them to benefit from. Not when the calendar reminds them it’s time for a predictable catch-up email, or an often awkward catch-up call.

That kind of ‘being there’ is utterly superficial.

The best service providers let clients know that they’re accessible when the client needs them. They let them know that they’re eager to help and can be relied upon.

Moreover, they make their availability very clear.

They actively encourage, and warmly welcome, their clients to get in touch.

Looking after their clients is never too much trouble and their clients know this. The best service providers are always keenly interested in the client, and what matters to the client. So, it’s only natural they want to be there for the client in a meaningful way.

The best service providers say ‘no’!

If they think that their services are not ideal for the needs or wants of a prospective client, or the prospect is unsuitable for any other reason, they’ll refuse to take them on. The best service providers know they can only remain the best, if the quality of their service is consistently outstanding. You can’t possibly achieve that level of service excellence, when you’re working with clients who are a bad fit.

The best service providers also say no, if they believe something their client has asked for is not what the client needs, even if the client is happy to pay for it.

Part of earning the trust of a client and developing a reputation for excellence, is to retain a ‘them’ focus.

It’s never about the provider.

It’s always about the client and what’s best for the client.

The top service providers will explain why the client doesn’t need (whatever) and suggest a better way forward.

The best service providers fill the empty space

The vast majority of service providers connect with their clients at certain times. Maybe when they’re on a project with them, or when the client is due to renew.

However, the intervals in-between are occupied with empty space. Silence.

The best service providers maintain contact in the spaces between those interactions. They’re a consistent, reliable contributor to their client’s best interests.

For example.

• They share useful information with their clients.
• They connect their clients with contacts.
• They let their clients know about interesting opportunities.
• They invite clients to relevant events.
• They proactively look for ways to be of massive value in every way possible.

In doing so, they become part of the glue that holds their client’s business together.

FTA: Foremost Trusted Advisor

When sharing this approach with clients, I refer to it as the FTA (Foremost Trusted Advisor) Strategy. I then help those who aspire to be the FTA in their niche; locally, nationally, or globally, to put their strategy together. The ideas mentioned here are added to, refined, tailored to their specific service and goals. Then, I weave it into an overall business development strategy.

In many cases, their existing marketing strategy can be replaced entirely. Their new FTA approach is so strong, that it becomes their biggest marketing asset.

Unparalleled levels of client retention and client referrals are compounded with a level of service, which their competitors can’t even hope to match. It’s the most robust business model on the planet.

How powerful is this model?

Simply telling prospective clients how their services work, becomes a highly compelling reason to hire them. No sales pitches are required. The FTA approach is what EVERY, high quality prospective client wants.

I’ve used the FTA strategy since starting my business in the mid 1990’s. In that time, I’ve never sold my services to anyone, though thousands have hired me. I’ve always had great clients and always thrived, regardless of the economy.

I hope this brief look at the subject has given you a few ideas and maybe some inspiration. I’m telling you, it’s the perfect way to build a very profitable, extremely enjoyable business, which rewards you in every way possible.

Today, I’m going to share an extremely powerful business idea with you, along with an amazing technique to help you grow your business exponentially in 2022 and beyond. This information could be exactly what you and your business needs, so please take the few minutes required to read it.

Let’s go.

Every business owner experiences highs and lows. Seasons of success and seasons of frustration. Especially since the start of the pandemic.

Here’s something we know for sure: As you face the opportunities ahead of you, your overall results are determined by how you navigate these ups and downs.

When times are good

When things are going great it’s easy to feel confident, calm and assured. And with those positive feelings guiding your decision making, you perform at a far higher level.

You also inspire confidence in others and find it easier to motivate them to hire you, buy from you or recommend you.

You’re on a roll.

But when times are tough

It’s harder to feel confident when times are tough. You’re no longer on a roll. Your focus naturally switches to the problems in front of you. You consider the worst case scenarios and how you would cope. A negative cycle is created and stays in play, until you regain control of your mindset.

Usually, this mindset shift is the result of an external factor.

As from today, you don’t need to wait for that to happen. As from today, you’re in control!

Today, I’d like to show you how I intentionally, deliberately and VERY quickly get my mindset back on track. It’s a technique that you are able to use and because it’s based on facts that you know are 100% true, your mind is fully able to accept it.

It’s based around your past experiences.

Consider the following 5 facts for a moment.

1. You are just one email away from a great client enquiry. Just as you were the last time it happened.
2. You are just one idea away from a life-changing breakthrough. Just as you were the last time it happened.
3. You are just one phone call away from converting an enquiry into your most valuable client ever. Just as you were the last time it happened.
4. You are just one decision away from an amazing opportunity. Just as you were the last time it happened.
5. You are just one conversation away from your largest ever order. Just as you were the last time it happened.

NONE of those are Pollyanna thoughts or wishful thinking.

They’re facts.

Facts you know to be true, based on what you have already experienced.

These real world opportunities and many, many others can happen for you at any time.

This is really important

The key is NOT to just wait for things to happen!

You can greatly increase the speed and frequency of these opportunities, when you focus on the steps required to MAKE them happen, rather than focus on what you fear.

Here’s how I did it.

• When I came up with this idea, over 20 years ago, I needed to regularly remind myself of those 5 facts.
• So, I wrote them down and kept them visible. On my white board, in my notebooks, on sticky notes, everywhere.
• I read them and reread them.
• My mind quickly accepted them, because each one is provably 100% true.
• After a while, I didn’t need to intentionally remind myself. My mindset automatically worked from that spectacularly effective perspective.
• I found myself, by default, working with confidence to achieve the breakthrough I needed.
• It’s been that way ever since and given me a wonderful quality of life and a thriving business.

And that’s what I want for you my friend.

I want you to give yourself the best possible advantage to absolutely thrive in 2022. I want you to succeed more than you’ve ever succeeded before.

And I want you to achieve beyond anything you’ve ever achieved before.

It’s hard to overstate the commercial importance of engagement.

Engagement is the sensation we experience, when someone connects with us in a positive way. It creates a bond between us and them. It fosters trust and forms an extremely resilient foundation on which to build a relationship.

And it’s of immense value to you and your business.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Rather than create powerful engagement and connection with their clients, customers or prospects, many business owners accidentally destroy engagement. And they do it multiple times every day.

For example.

• They send us impersonal auto reply emails; rather than reply in person when they’re available.
• When we call them, we get a call tree (those automated messages with multiple options).
• Their social media accounts primarily broadcast famous quotes and sales pitches, but very little inter-personal communication. No dialogue. Just monologue.
• And of course, the only time we hear from most prospective vendors is when they’re trying to sell us something… rather than staying in touch with us with useful information, so we know where to go when we actually need them.

The list of engagement-destroying tactics is vast. And it’s expanding daily, as business owners rely increasingly on technology, to handle human interaction.

Choosing our bias

It seems we have a choice to make as business owners.

• We can either develop a bias for engagement, which fosters connection, loyalty, relationships and trust.
• Or we can develop a bias for the impersonal approach.

We can choose to go narrow and deep or wide and shallow. To build meaningful connections with engaged prospective clients or push surface level, automated interactions to strangers.

True, the impersonal approach is cheap and quick. That’s why it’s so popular. But that cheapness needs to be looked at in context.

If we think it’s expensive to take time and engage with our clients and prospective clients, we often haven’t fully considered the cost of being disengaged.

After all, if we choose to disengage from our marketplace, the very lifeblood of our business, we set an extremely low ceiling on our potential.

In a nutshell: Whenever possible, try to engage. No, it isn’t always possible. But when it is, and it often is, see it as an opportunity to build a deeper engagement.

As we approach another uncertain year, here are a couple of essential areas I recommend you focus on. They’re from a talk I gave to business owners, which the group found extremely useful.

Here they are, in no particular order.

Move with the changes ahead

Crisis precedes change. We’ve all seen changes as a result of the pandemic. People have changed. Priorities have changed. Habits have changed. Outlooks have changed.

Whilst it’s not possible to know what will change in 2022, we can still be ready for it.

How?

I was in business during the last recession and also during the 2000 Stock Market crash.

The most valuable lesson I learned, was the importance of dancing with the certainty of uncertainty: Developing a willingness to adapt as required, in a hard to predict landscape.

It’s easy to slip into a fixed or semi-fixed way of doing things, but it hampers innovation and growth. This is especially the case in business. Even more so in times of change, when our fixed ideas are no longer appropriate for the tasks at hand. I used this approach with my clients this year and 3 of them achieved their best financial year ever, despite 2 of those 3 being in industries that were very negatively impacted by the pandemic.

There will be outstanding opportunities next year for business owners with the flexibility to adapt. So make it a key focus in your 2022 business planning.

Build a better, not bigger, contact network

We all saw how valuable, or otherwise, our contacts were this year. Thanks to Linkedin and similar services, anyone with enough spare time can build a huge network of contacts. However, the value of a network is in the calibre and quality of the people you’re connected with, not the size of your network.

The general advice I give business owners is to go narrow and deep. Not wide and shallow. For example.

• IF MY NETWORK has 10000 people, BUT they lack influence or hardly know me, it will have a commercial value of close to zero.
• IF YOUR NETWORK has 10 people, BUT they are highly influential, know you and are motivated to help you, it will have a massive commercial value to you.

Here’s an exercise to help you get it right. Draw up a list of the 30 most influential people in your marketplace. These people could include high quality prospective clients or maybe influential introducers; (introducers are people who can recommend you to lots of clients or buyers). Then, put a plan together that will allow you to earn their attention. This targeted approach takes time, but the rewards are enormous, and it should be a part of your planning for 2022.

With a more flexible approach to the unknowns of the next 12 months, and with lots of highly valuable new contacts, you will dramatically increase your potential for the year ahead.

Workaholics are never really workaholics.

It’s not work, which the so-called workaholic is addicted to. Instead, they’re hooked on the feelings that come from doing something they love. That passion and joy is what inspires them all day, every day.

When you do something you love, it’s natural to want to keep doing it.

• It’s why Nile Rodgers still creates and performs.
• It’s why Arnold Schwarzenegger is still making movies.
• It’s why Bill Gates is still making a difference.

Nile was 69 in September. Bill is 66 and Arnie is 74. None of them need the money. What they do need, is the pleasure associated with their “work”.

Conversely, someone who finds their work frustrating, boring or stressful, pays to go on vacation… to get away from work! They spend a tiny amount of time each year, doing what they truly want to do. They have the equation completely the wrong way round.

No one is ever a workaholic

If you get paid for doing what you love, you may be a passion-aholic. You could be a joy-aholic or even a pleasure-aholic. But you’re not a workaholic. No one is addicted to working just for the sake of work.

• Work without meaning is a way to pay the bills.
• Work without meaning is stressful.
• Work without meaning saps your energy.
• Work without meaning leaves you doing things you don’t want to do, for the majority of your life. That’s just wrong!

If work feels like work for too many days in a row, take action. Transform your business from something you work in, to something that fills you with joy, passion and pleasure.

Can you do it?

Yes. Of course you can.

How do I know?

I know, because since 1995 I’ve helped business owners worldwide make this happen and I experience it in my own life, every day. Every. Single. Day.

Marketing seminars are worse than useless.

Before I explain why, we need to acknowledge the following basic truths.

• The marketing strategies and tactics that work best for a private school looking for students, differ wildly from the strategies that work for a chain of strip joints.
• And the effective strip joint strategies are very different from the strategies required by an oven cleaning franchise.
• And the perfect oven cleaning franchise strategies, are totally different from those required by a tech start-up… or a long-established family law firm…. or a record label… you get the idea.

General, non specific marketing seminars deliberately ignore this fact.

They provide strategies and tactics that are intentionally designed NOT to be specific to anyone attending, based on the most general, of general advice. They’re designed to sell as many places on the seminar as possible. It’s a cookie cutter approach. The exact opposite of what’s required.

Different industries and professions need radically different advice. Business owners need marketing strategies that are, at the very least, specific to their industry.

But even industry specific strategies aren’t that much better. They’re marginally less terrible, that’s all.

The danger of general marketing advice

General marketing advice is what the majority of businesses in any sector already use. It’s freely available on websites, podcasts, webinars, Facebook, Linkedin and Youtube, etc. It’s available from well-intentioned industry bodies and institutes. It’s available in those For Dummies books. Which is why the marketing of most businesses, in the same sector, looks so amazingly similar.

Here’s what we see.

• They provide a very similar sounding range of services.
• They use very similar marketing promises.
• They offer very similar guarantees.
• They charge very similar prices.
• They target very similar prospective clients.
• And they suffer with the pain of very similar results, with (at best), a very similar slice of their marketplace.

The last thing they need is even more, general marketing advice; wrapped up as a so-called marketing seminar.

It’s worse than useless. It’s toxic.

Toxic?

Yes. Because as you can see, it makes your business less visible, less relevant and less attractive. It gives a prospective customer or client absolutely no meaningful reason whatsoever to notice you, contact you, hire you (or buy from you)… rather than hire a look-a-like competitor.

What’s needed is the exact opposite.

You need a strategy that will work for your specific business, based on your specific resources and designed to achieve your specific business growth targets.

That’s unavailable on any general marketing seminar.

Image: Harnoor Dhaliwal

It’s impossible to completely eliminate risk from your business. But you can have the best of both worlds, with low risk and maximum potential.

Let’s start by looking at risk and why you can’t (and shouldn’t) totally eliminate it from your business.

Think about it: Even if your results are fine right now, and you decide to just carry on with whatever you’re doing, you’re at enormous risk.

Really?

Yes, really!

You risk losing clients (or customers) to your agile competitors, who continuously seek to improve and target your client base with compelling offers. Sure, small and medium sized business are the most vulnerable, but even massive brands can be wiped out by the just carry on attitude. Remember; Blockbuster Video, Toys R Us, My Space, Palm Inc?

The question is, how do we get the best of both worlds; less risk and massively more potential?

I’m glad you asked.

Mastering the risk / potential balance

In seeking to eliminate risk, you also block yourself from every great opportunity. That’s because every genuine opportunity for your business comes with an element of risk.

So, no risk = no progress.

Therefore, rather than regard risk as something to avoid, consider the potential pluses as well as the potential minuses. Research the positives as well as the negatives.

And challenge your beliefs!

Challenging your beliefs is critically important, as one of the biggest barriers to your success are your inaccurate preconceptions. This is a perfect example. And I see equally damaging thinking with business owners all the time.

A well-balanced approach to risk and opportunity is behind every successful business. It reduces your exposure to risk, whilst simultaneously allowing you to fully benefit from the genuine opportunities your business must have, in order to grow.

I hope you found this useful. More importantly, I hope you do something with it.

Image: Medienstuermer

Some people are excellent communicators. The way they deliver words is compelling and their ability to motivate those they speak with is exceptional.

Which is usually great. If the person sharing ideas with us is a subject expert, we gain mightily from their guidance.

The challenge comes when they speak with great authority, on things they know nothing about. When they voice an opinion as if it were a fact. When they’re as compelling as ever, yet they motivate us to do something that’s absolutely wrong.

I was thinking about this earlier, when I received an email from a reader. I thought you might find it useful, so here’s what happened.

When things go wrong

My reader recently had a legal issue with a web designer, regarding a site they’d developed for her business. She wanted some advice on what to do and spoke with a business adviser, who had previously helped her with (great) general business advice. My reader took his advice and sent an email to the web developer, using the wording her business adviser suggested.

Nothing happened.

So she spoke with a lawyer to see if she could “get things moving”.

The lawyer read the email and sadly, the email content has ruined any chance of her getting the resolution she hoped for.

This is from my reader’s email, published with her permission:

“In the past, his advice has always been excellent. That’s why I called him. […] He speaks with great authority, on things I know very little about. I now know he also speaks with great authority, on things he knows nothing about“.

Note: I made a similar mistake myself (2 actually), when I started in business. I wrote about it here.

Obviously, we need to remind ourselves to only take advice from people with relevant experience / qualifications. It’s also a good idea to consider who we currently rely on for advice, and whether their advice is working for us or not. Daily, I see the damage caused when business owners take bad marketing advice from general business advisers and generic online courses.

Yes, expert advice will come with a fee attached. However, that fee is usually way lower than the price we pay for taking bad advice.

There’s an old saying that assures us, if we want better answers we need to ask better questions. Good quality questions cause us to think differently and often give us extremely useful answers, insights and ideas.

With this in mind, I’ve compiled some questions, which I hope will help you to identify opportunities to help your business thrive.

In no particular order.

1. What lessons can I learn from the most successful person I know… and conversely, what can I learn from the mistakes of the least successful people I know?
2. What’s the biggest challenge currently facing my clients (or customers) and how can I help them overcome it?
3. What’s the biggest challenge currently facing my marketplace and how can I help them overcome it?
4. How can I make my services meaningfully different?
5. Am I regularly using the 6 Idea Trick?
6. What is currently the weakest point in my marketing and how can I improve it?
7. How many non-essential fields can I remove from my contact forms, in order to increase the number of enquiries I get?
8. If I charged 300% more for my services, what extra value would I be able to deliver to my clients… and why don’t I build this as a new, highly profitable, premium version of my services?
9. Who let the dogs out? (Okay, just checking to see if you’re still reading along with me).
10. What’s the best thing about my services and how clearly do I communicate this compelling advantage to prospective clients?
11. How might it benefit my clients and prospects, if I slightly adjust my business hours so they’re a little different from others in my industry, and better suited to the needs of the clients I serve?
12. Is my face also the public face of my business or do I / we mainly operate behind a logo… and if the latter, why?
13. Who are the top 5 people I need to connect with and what’s my strategy to make this happen?

Let me know how you get on.