Have you ever wondered what sets successful business leaders apart from the rest? It’s not just luck or pure genius – they have a secret weapon: a business coach. And that business coach makes them work on strategic topics that make a real difference, with very simple coaching technics.
You know how things work. Business success isn’t just about crunching numbers or having a killer product. It’s also a matter of having the right mindset, strategies, and support. And when it comes to that, we have realized that the best way for a business to grow and scale is to focus simultaneously on four complementary points.
– Business Development: Boosting growth with targeted strategies
– Team Support: Giving your team the boost it deserves
– Client Service: Doing what it takes to improve client relationships
– Internal Organization for Scalability & Profitability: Creating a system that thrives from within
Those topics sound pretty basic. That’s correct, and they are the basics.
Still, for many businesses, these topics are minor because they are handled separately from each other, based on whatever emergencies arise and must be tackled first.
The key to giving your business the chance it deserves, is to take these as a whole and start thinking more broadly. No need to worry. We’re here to help!
Stake #1: Business Development – Targeted Strategies for the Win
The first stake is obvious: business development. That’s the fuel you need to keep the engine running. But how to be strategic about it? Here are a few ideas we constantly leverage with our businesses and teams.
Building a visionary focus. Imagine trying to build a house without a blueprint. That’s what running a business without a clear vision is like – a chaotic mess.
The good news is that a business coach can help you crystalize your vision with your team and build future developments around that vision. It’s like seeing your future through a magnifying glass, and the impact of that (on the business and the team) is phenomenal.
Setting actionable roadmaps. Once you have a vision, it’s essential to think about action and operations. To make things work, it becomes relevant to make your top management and mid-management work on implementation, which is easily done with the right business coaching tools (such as a scorecard and company organigram, for instance). There is nothing difficult here; this is a routine exercise for us.
Grabbing the low-hanging fruits (and opportunities). Speaking of actionable roadmaps, another stake is to leverage your strengths and existing opportunities instead of reinventing the wheel. This implies identifying what you are good at and what could be done next, but most teams fail to act on this because the key insights they need are usually hidden in a blind spot.
At Impactified, we train our business coaches to provide their clients with a very operational and income-generating SWOT (which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) – far from the typical business school SWOT that won’t make you a dime. Think about it: What opportunities are you not leveraging?
Value proposition, pitch, positioning, and all that. Remember the value proposition, the secret sauce that makes customers choose you. You can’t have a strong positioning without a value proposition, which means selling is difficult. Sales are tough; people have a hard time pitching or converting prospects into clients. Business development is stuck.
Again, value proposition and positioning are key elements at the core of what business coaches do. They’ll help you cook up one that’s irresistible. Plus, they’ll teach you ninja sales strategies and guide you through creating a blue ocean strategy to stand out in the crowd.
Stake #2: Team Support – Boosting Your Squad
The second stake is also obvious: team support. You want to work on that in parallel to business development because the former cannot progress without the latter. Problem, most businesses fail to address both topics in a coordinated way.
Your team is the backbone of your business. Still, managing it effectively can feel like herding cats. Communication is not easy; people talk to each other but don’t necessarily understand each other and fail to coordinate their actions. Worse, teams often tell us that communication between them and the top is broken. Hence, messages don’t get through.
An Impactified business coach typically acts as a translator here. We bring behavioral management techniques into the discussion and help team members to interact more efficiently. Think of it as a way to put oil on the wheels.
Your team never has enough time. People usually work with to-do lists, but that’s little to no productive because what matters is not to get things done. It is to get results efficiently by working smart. A business coach can teach you and your teams the art of time management – saving three months of routine work per year is totally doable.
Everyone can be a manager, but not every manager is a leader. That’s too bad because a key to growth hacking is to rely on leaders. As it turns out, our role as business coaches is often to turn your managers into leaders through leadership training so your team works well and thrives.
Brainstorming and creative thinking solve never-ending issues in a matter of hours. Finally, teams often get stuck because something is wrong with a process internally. They look for solutions, but thinking outside the box is easier said than done, especially when everyone in the room is stuck in the same box!
So, when it comes to brainstorming, a business coach will sprinkle some brainstorming magic to make ideas flow like a waterfall. We play with Post-its, pens, and markers (not to forget candies), and the results we obtain are stunning. Wow! and Aha! moments ahead!
Your business is only as strong as your team. In fact, it’s often said that a business is the sum of its people, which means that your business should also be equipped with a strong culture and a sharp employer branding strategy.
Your business coach knows this, and they’re not just focused on your personal development as a business leader; they extend their guidance to your team as well.
Stake #3: Client Service – The Secret to Loyal Customers
What is the point of thinking about business development and team focus if the client is left aside? None. No point at all!
Your clients are your business’s lifeline, and keeping them happy is key. To do that, you need to start from the start and tailor an offering that matches their needs and, even more importantly, their wants.
Again, your positioning must be sharp, which implies going through a thorough market analysis and benchmarking your offering against the competition. That includes sharpening your business model based on your cost structure and finding the sweet spot when it comes to pricing strategy.
Your sales funnel needs to be built strategically. That implies thinking in terms of client acquisition and, of course, in terms of client retention – you would be surprised to see how many businesses ignore the very concept of the lifetime value of the client.
And, of course, your customer journey must be absolutely crystal clear! That implies going through very significant work, but again, an Impactified business coach will be at best to support that.
Stake #4: Internal Organization – Building a Strong Foundation (300 words)
Finally, your strategic thinking must have an internal organization component. Ever heard the phrase “A well-oiled machine”? Your business should be one, and business coaching will help you create an efficient internal structure that runs like clockwork.
Decision-making is ultra-important and should be organized as a process. Hence, your coach will advise you on forming a board to make decision-making smoother than butter. Discussions could also focus on building the top management and mid-management structures and on turning managers into leaders, as mentioned previously.
Your finances are also crucial because they are a core component of your capacity to resist stressful situations. We’ll therefore be in a position to sprinkle some financial wisdom, helping you manage cash flow, plan for the future, and even think about your exit strategy and valuation. Cha-ching!
Conclusion? There is some hidden potential out there, but you have to seize it.
Business takes strategic thinking and a lot of preparation. To get results, you have to keep the key stakes under consideration at all times: business development, team support, client focus, and organization scalability.
An Impactified business coach is equipped to support your efforts on each of these points, and hiring one is like giving your business a turbo boost!
Don’t miss out on the chance to supercharge your business. Reach out to a business coach near you and watch your business soar to new heights. And remember, the journey is as exciting as the destination!
