I Can’t Fail These Tests—and Neither Can You!
Business is all about growth and evolution. Entrepreneurs know that to achieve long-term success and growth, they need to push boundaries and experiment, while staying true to their vision for their company.
That’s why it’s so important to develop “tests” that will help you make business decisions, tweak product and service offerings, and better serve your clients. I’m doing it. Should you too?
My vision for my company revolves around helping clients (individuals and organizations) truly understand their values, what drives them, and what success means to them—and in crafting plans that help them build a future based on these integral elements. To help my clients achieve these outcomes, I facilitate conversations and planning processes (my tools) that help them explore and discover their best path to success. These statements encompass my personal and business “WHY.”
There are thousands of ways that I could package my services to meet the needs of my clients and achieve my WHY. As I explore how I can grow and evolve my business, I’m asking a lot of questions:
Which offerings are most appealing to my clients, and to each target group of clients?
How can I better communicate: the services I offer to clients, the benefits of the work I do with clients, and the outcomes clients achieve as a result of our work together?
How can I package the products and services I offer clients most effectively? What new tools do I need to add to my toolbox?
What can I add to further enhance the outcomes my clients achieve?
How can I connect with the clients who will benefit most from my unique approach and services?
These questions are the basis of my experiments. And by asking these questions, I’m exploring experiments like:
balancing well-accepted services (strategic planning) with new approaches (SOAR versus SWOT planning models);
testing Option A (long-term mastermind group) versus Option B (short term, specific, outcome-based masterminds, i.e. “complete your marketing plan”);
testing new tools and approaches (i.e. conversational intelligence) to enhance what I already do (facilitation of conversations).
By looking at the work I’m doing—and the shifts I’m making—as experiments to improve my product and service offerings, I’ve shifted my mindset.
No longer am I “failing” to achieve my desired outcomes; now I’m testing things out, learning and revising, stretching and walking the edge of what will succeed. I’m pushing the boundaries to fine-tune and provide my clients with the best possible options. In the end, I’ll have a menu of services and packages that resonate with my clients. This will result in improved outcomes for them, and improved sales for me.
What hypothesis are you experimenting with? What are the questions you are asking yourself as you strive to grow and evolve your business? Share your thoughts in the comments below.