View from the Summit

One thing that crops up for them is the ability to see “trees for the forest,” in areas that don’t always apply just yet. Startup entrepreneurs can probably relate - how can you picture yourself as the CEO of a middle market business, when you’re currently just an army of one?

Well, I know some executives who could look back and trace their journey that far. Every Fortune 100 company out there began as a small business somewhere. You might remember me telling the story of how UPS got started: just two guys delivering letters on bicycles, because the post office was slow.

Anyway, “The Vision Driven Leader” encourages readers to write a “vision script.” This script contains four key elements - your team, product, sales and marketing, and impact. Your job is to write out how each one will look. You can imagine, if you’re just starting out, that it’s not easy to speak intelligently to the size and scope of your team, or your impact.

Now, we’re going to talk about a few things you could consider, to map out the growth of your business. One is belonging to an online mastermind group. Why does that matter? Well, masterminds are like your own personal board of directors. By belonging to one, you start out with a group of caring, trusted advisors who can help you think through all of this.

Consider joining one of our groups for men or women as your very first step in building the structure of a business much larger than the one you have now.

Small Business Coach: Why You Most Likely Need to Start With Sales & Marketing

Most of the time, a new business’ biggest problem is getting a solid customer base. Revenue makes your other vision categories much easier to imagine, versus being broke. So if you’re established and successful in business, you may need more work in other areas. But newer, younger businesses mostly have revenue problems.

I’ll put in a plug here for my friend Mike Michalowicz, author of “Fix This Next” and “Profit First.” When Mike released “Fix This Next” earlier this year, he created a test you can take to zero in on the problem you most urgently need to face. By extension, knowing the answer would also tell you where you need the most work on your vision.

When you write your vision for your sales and marketing, you figure out the best sources and activities you can focus on to generate cash flow in return. Hyatt provides some useful questions we’ll cover below, but the point of the exercise is to get you to think like a journalist, telling a story that hasn’t happened yet.

Journalists seek to answer the Five W’s - “Who, what, where, when and why.” The more specific you can get about those details, the easier it is to identify when you have them, and disengage when you don’t.

Suppose you’re interviewing someone to become a telephone “closer” for your big ticket items. Maybe you’re a coach or mentor, and you want to acquire more clients like I did, to migrate into leading mastermind groups online. Well, the more detail you have on “who” you want to execute your sales and marketing vision, the less difficulty you’ll have saying “no” to the wrong candidate.

In my business, for example, I have a clear vision of the process I want to follow when people show interest in The Mastermind Playbook, one of my signature products. A lot of people raise their hands if you publicly say, “I’m looking to hire phone closers.” But not everyone who applies should be considered, because there’s a distinct process I want to unfold when somebody considers the investment.

This contains a parallel truth for startup entrepreneurs. You may have a specific product that needs clear vision as well. It’s wise to give thought to who you want working in your company, and how you impact the world.

But the main thing you should do is figure out the vision for your sales and marketing. Without a steady pipeline of leads and sales conversations, it’s all a bunch of gum-flapping.

How to Create Strong Vision for Weak Areas

Over my 40 years in business, I could always measure the threshold for taking big steps toward my vision with a dollar figure. Back during my days as a general contractor for custom-built homes, I would set goals for hiring new project managers based on achieving financial goals.

I hope I don’t sound repetitive, but I want you to be aware - the vision scripts for products, teams and impact all become easier to see when you can project their price tags. If you know what it will cost to build your team to X amount of people, you know how much revenue it’ll take to get there. If you don’t, you can only engage in wishful thinking.

Once you’re there, though, the rest of the details Michael Hyatt encourages us to answer become helpful.

• TEAM

• • What kind of teammates do you want to attract? What characteristics do they have in common?

  • How do they work? What’s their work ethic like?

  • How do you attract top talent? What’s your compensation philosophy? What benefits do you offer?

  • Why are prospective employees attracted to your company? What makes people beg to join it?

  • What does your office environment look like? Why does it matter to you?

• PRODUCTS

  • What results do you create? What value do your products deliver?

  • Who do your products help?

  • How do customers feel when they use them? What’s their experience like?

  • What do production and creation look like? How do you choose what to offer?

• • What makes your products superior to competitor products?

• IMPACT

  • What are your results, and how do you measure them?

  • What financial thresholds excite you as a leader?

  • What are you, as the leader, free to do with your time and role?

  • How do you hope that growth will impact you and your team?

  • How are you viewed by peers and competitors?

     

It’s a lot to take in, especially alone. But you can bank on this: it’s much harder to figure this out after you’ve launched, than before. The time is now to assemble your own personal board of directors, and our masterminds online are a great way to do that.

To join Iron Sharpens Iron groups for men, click here.

To join groups for women, click here.