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What you’ll learn in this episode:
In today’s episode, we explore the essential strategies to boost growth in a business, specifically for multiple six- and seven-figure earners. Our approach is not just focused on making more money in your business, or optimizing your offers in isolation, but focusing more importantly on optimizing your business and offers in a way that doesn’t overtax your team and highlights three main pillars that can propel growth to new heights.
After working with hundreds of clients, we have found that there are three main areas that really supercharge your growth, and that are essential for allowing your business to run smoothly and efficiently, while giving it room to scale as you continue to grow. These three areas that we focus on today are around personalizing the customer experience, incorporating process automation and efficiency into your business, and making data-driven decisions based on what’s working in your business.
By the end of this episode, you will be able to see areas of opportunity in your own business to tighten up your business in these areas so that your can achieve growth with higher ROI and create a more fulfilling experience for both you and your clients.
Here’s a glance at this episode:
- Uncover how to enhance and personalize the customer experience to build trust and loyalty with your clients and customers.
- Learn to automate repetitive tasks to increase efficiency and free up human resources.
- Discover how leveraging technology, including AI, can enhance your customer journey and your decision-making
- Be able to Focus on what works best in the business, make decisions based on data within the business, and do more of it to boost growth!
Mentioned in this episode:
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Canyon Ranch Fall 2023 Retreat
Jessica Miller
[0:00] Hello, everyone and welcome back to the podcast. I’m excited to talk to you this week about boosting the growth in your business. One of the things I’m passionate about talking to people about, especially working with my clients on, is finding those opportunities to create more to really propel growth in your business without doing a lot of extra work or extra effort.
Jessica Miller
[0:24] I believe that in order to stay fresh, and to be able to continue to grow, you need to find ways to optimize your business in a way that doesn’t take a tremendous amount of energy and time and doesn’t tax your teams to the extent that people get burnt out. And there’s a point of diminishing returns essentially. So today, I want to talk about how seven figure earners can boost their business growth through some very targeted channels, and targeted opportunities that are sitting right in front of you, that you can actually dial in and dial up so that you can create growth in your business in an easy way. And not just growth in your business in an easy way that sort of spikes and then goes away, but also how you can create this growth through creating repeatable assets and leveraging technology and using some of the things that are hot on the scene now like AI and different, you know, modalities that make touching your clients, customizing those experiences, and getting them result so much easier.
Jessica Miller
[1:34] So most recently, I have talked to my clients, we’re in summertime right now record recording this podcast, and people have different things that are pulling at them. So one of the things that becomes a very important commodity, although I would argue it’s an important part of our business all the time, is time, is the amount of time we have to dedicate to our business, the time that we have. And what we want to do with that summer tends to pull us away from our business in some ways, whether our, you know, schedule changes, because of our families or, you know, different priorities, whether we just want to be on the beach, whether we’re taking time off, whether the you know, the market shifting, there’s all different pieces. And so, right now, what I’ve been talking to my clients about is how can they spend less time, especially spend less of their time, and spend less of their team’s time, that human capital, doing the things that they don’t need to be doing that are kind of repetitive and mundane? And you know that they don’t need to be doing and dial up other ways for those things to happen? Also, how do they dial in some of the experiences that people have with their business in order to catapult them into a faster growth phase?
Jessica Miller
[2:49] So how do they do this in a way that’s going to make their business grow easily. And so there are a few buckets that I think are really important. When we think about people who have an established business, they have an offer that has been producing results. And so, it’s, there’s proof of concept there, right? It’s selling, the offer is doing well, the business is dialed in, and they’re looking for that infusion of growth. They’re looking to maybe get off that plateau, or make that curve a little bit steeper, maybe things are slowing down. And how do they do that without inputting a lot more effort and resources? So here are the three buckets that I have found that are the most, I would say, the most powerful when it comes to fueling that business growth. And I’m going to dig into each one of them. But at the highest level, looking at how to leverage different systems or different tactics to, one: create a more personalized customer experience so that you’re really dialing in that experience with your customers. Two: using any sort of process automation or increasing efficiencies around, you know, repetitive tasks, or any anything that you could automate or make more efficient. And then three: making decisions based on the data that you have in your business.
Jessica Miller
[4:10] So with all of those three buckets, when you start to focus in and optimize around those things, you see a boost in your business growth. And so I want to walk through and touch on each one of these pieces, and tell you what I am seeing and what I think is most important when you think about each of these buckets, and how really tightening those up, or optimizing them, or thinking about them different, differently or leveraging different technology, or whatever I could go on and on, helps to boost your business growth in a way that is powerful, but doesn’t require a ton of physical effort or time.
Jessica Miller
[4:47] Okay, so number one is around personalization and the customer experience. We live in a world right now where, you know, there’s tons of noise, right? There’s so much going on. And we’re kind of getting bombarded with these messages all the time. Not kind of, we are getting bombarded by these messages all the time. Gone are the days when general marketing is going to work with your audience. The more that we can personalize and customize the experience by which we are touching to either our potential clients, or our existing clients, the more powerful and the more people will want to consume what it is that we are offering. So when we think about ways that we can craft our experience, our customer experience, or our business, to really be intentional and dialed in and personal, and dare I say, intimate with our customers, the more powerful that will be. And the more growth it will create in our business, the more sales we will make, the deeper the relationships will be, all of those pieces will get dialed up. The way that we do that now, especially leveraging technology, is we have different mediums that allow us to touch our clients both more frequently. But I would say on the next level of that, touching them in a way that they’re in the driver’s seat that is convenient for them, that is available for them.
Jessica Miller
[6:17] Some of the most powerful tools that I have seen recently, especially on the technology side, is utilizing things like chat bots, or, you know, FAQ documents or things on your website that allow people to get information. It’s using different automation sequences, like texting automation sequences and things like that. It’s leveraging AI where people can have conversations and the technology can really read and respond to what people are asking. All of those types of modalities make the customer experience more personal because they are dialed into what that person is experiencing, where they want to go. And the problem and the experience that your potential customers or your actual paying customers have, and they’re meeting them in that moment of time, in a way that becomes super powerful.
Jessica Miller
[7:22] When we think about technology and the way that technology can learn and leverage different behaviors for customers, and they can use that to inform future iterations of your programs, or give you information about your customers, it starts to become a very, very powerful tool. And the beautiful thing about the information that comes back from that is that you can use it in your coaching, in your business, in whatever it is that you do. But also, you can use it in the technology that you create to help create more value for your clients down the road. So it’s really that level of personalization, it’s that customer experience, it’s that high attention to detail that I think is one of the things that boosts growth. For businesses that are established, that are doing, you know, a lot of volume, it allows you to touch your clients in a personal and customized way that can, you know, allow you to touch a lot of people at one time on their terms.
Jessica Miller
[8:28] When you get to the level of growth that you’re at. You can’t touch all of those people individually, right? It becomes a point of you know, it’s not sustainable. And so this is a way that you can do that in a very powerful way to boost growth and boost that customer experience. I want to say as a side note, it is crucial that this is done very well. So when I say things like chatbots, or when they say things about leveraging AI, or any of the tech that goes along with that, you want to be really mindful, and you want it to be super high quality. No one ever wants to feel like they’re just getting these random generated, you know, commentary from some disconnected piece of technology that doesn’t feel good. What you want to do is you want to leverage the technology and leverage some of these personalized experiences in a way that enhances your clients or your customers experiences.
Jessica Miller
[9:23] So it’s knowing that client is putting things in front of them that’s going to help them, it’s taking out that need for them to try harder to get the answers that they want or reach, you know, a conclusion that they want. I don’t know about you, but when I’m, you know, lying in my bed at 11pm at night, and maybe I’m looking for something online or I come across, you know a company that I think I want to explore, I don’t want to wait till six o’clock in the morning or eight o’clock in the morning when someone, a human being is going to be there to give me an answer to something that I’m thinking about in that moment at 11. I would rather have some piece of technology be able to give that to me because, again, it’s, it’s sort of low value, that interaction does not need to be super sophisticated, and then also be able to really personalize my experience so that when I actually do need a human being, it can get me to where I want to go in a very streamlined fashion. And I actually believe I am more taken care of because I’ve gotten what I’ve wanted. And that experience has been super personalized, and customized, and automated, and then I get the people when I need them. To me that is super high quality and super high value, and I believe the more that you can do that in a way that meets your customers where they are, they will feel trust with your brand, they will feel supported, and your business will grow because they will be moved through to that sale in a very cohesive way that will feel good for everybody. So that’s the first piece.
Jessica Miller
[10:55] The second part is in the process automation and efficiency. So anything that is repetitive or time consuming, like anything where you can streamline business processes, so that you can really, you know, audit, use automation, you can increase efficiency, you can take away that clunkiness of being, you know, having somebody in your business, whether that’s like, you know, customer support, data entry, even onboarding for clients, that’s a big piece of the puzzle that I’ve been talking to my clients on about, and that I have automated in my business. And we’re actually going through a process of moving to a different system to really, you know, leverage that automation on the back end so that people can come in, and then as they’re doing different tasks, like maybe they get the contract, and then they need the payment gateway, and then they’re gonna get access to a portal or whatever that is, it’s all automated, they don’t have to wait for me to manually go in there and do something or somebody on my team to do that. And again, if they want to buy something from me at midnight, they get pushed right into that automation. And that process goes off in a very efficient way. The experience that I have as the consumer goes way up because that instant gratification, you know, right after you buy and you want the thing and you want some sort of engagement, you want that to be automated, and that can pull, you know, all the way through to your business in a variety of different processes from, you know, your, your inventory to data entry to customer support, I mean, the possibilities are endless.
Jessica Miller
[12:33] But again, when you really dial in that automation, you make that process efficient. The back end of your business as well, the things that people don’t see, those processes and those automations and efficiencies, everything becomes a better experience, and your business will grow more easily. And when the customer experience is better, and even when the experience of your team is better, it all, right, it’s all connected. And so the growth that comes from that place is really, really, really powerful.
Jessica Miller
[13:05] And then third is this concept of data driven decision making. So in a business that is thriving the way seven figure earners such as you are thriving, you want to be making decisions going forward based on things that you’ve done and the data that you have. Now, I know the concept of you know, making data-based decisions is something we’ve all heard, and we embrace it, but I cannot tell you how many gaps that I find in people’s businesses. When I am working with them as a growth consultant or a coach that we miss. We just miss. And we’re making a lot of decisions, but we’re not making them based on the data. We’re not looking at where our best opportunities are, we’re not going back and leveraging all of this information, and all of the behaviors and all of the things that have worked for us before or even not worked to make the decision going forward. And we want to analyze not only the decisions in our business, which I think is actually one of the biggest areas of growth that people miss because we’re constantly looking outside of our business. Like what is the marketplace doing? And what are they saying about the possible recessions? And what are all those things we’re constantly looking at out there? Which is beneficial, but we also want to be looking at our business. What is happening in our house here? And what are the things that we can learn from that? And how do we leverage those things to make choices going forward?
Jessica Miller
[14:38] So that might look like what is working in our business really well. What was going on in our business when that thing was really working, right? If you look back over the last 12 months at your best month, and let’s pretend it was like January of this year. Okay, great. What was I doing during that month? What was contributing to that month being the best month? Who were the people that were buying it? What were they buying? What, how are they feeling? Like all of those pieces that inform those decisions going forward, when you start to make choices based on your data, and you start to leverage the things that are working really, really well, then you can grow easily. And just dialing those things up, can really boost your business. Going and seeing where your best opportunities are, and then dialing those up, can make a huge change in your business. And even if you’re moving the needle, 10%, just do the math for yourself, right? It’s huge.
Jessica Miller
[15:33] If you’re a million-dollar business, and you move the needle 10%, we’re talking about an extra $100,000. These are major, right major, major amounts. So looking at those things, and making decisions based on the data is huge. On a grander scale, if we look at things like AI and some of the technology that we can leverage, it’s looking at these large datasets, and looking through the lens of the AI technology, and helping drive decisions based on the analysis of these things over time. So, like, predictive analytics, and you know, AI driven algorithms and things like that, that help identify patterns and trends that we have in our business, and potential opportunities and risks that are coming, allow you to make better decisions. And I think those are the areas where you can really again, embrace the technology, and use it to enhance your customer experience.
Jessica Miller
[16:28] At the end of the day, there’s so many tools in your toolbox, we want to use them to the best of our ability. And how do we do that, while we then also protect our, I believe protect our human capital, protect our energy, the energy of our team, so we can deploy those humans to the things that we really need them to be touching, and not bogging them down and trying to do something like analyze huge datasets when we don’t need to do that, or, you know, do a repetitive task, or whatever. So really, you know, using that technology to make those things happen, will grow your business. And it will make those results a lot faster for you because you can get that information more quickly.
Jessica Miller
[17:08] So going back to just summarize. If you want to boost your business growth, you really have to find the areas in your business where you can leverage, you know, the things that are working, leverage the technology, and really dial into those buckets that are going to move the needle the most for you from the perspective of growing your business. I believe they were in these three buckets, and what I’ve been hearing the most talking to my clients and helping them with.
Jessica Miller
[17:40] Number one is really personalizing the customer experience. How do you really make the experience with your potential clients and your paying customers an intimate personal experience? How do you dial in and touch them in a way that increases trust, loyalty, and gets them the information that they want, when they need it? And how do you make that a very personal process? In what ways can you also leverage the technology to do that? As I mentioned, different, you know, technology assets, like, you know, a chatbot, or an FAQ, or a way to connect with information, or even purchase things in a simple way, makes the value for that customer so much more powerful. And the world is moving toward the consumer making the choices on their own terms. So the more that we can really touch them, the more people feel like we care about them, and they’re really gravitating towards that, versus a general, you know, marketing message of sort of faceless, you know, computer interaction, they don’t want that. So anything that can make that experience really powerful.
Jessica Miller
[18:50] Second is on the process automation and the efficiency side. Where can you leverage automation? Where can you make repetitive and time-consuming tasks, something that you don’t have to bog down your human capital in your business, including you, and you can just make that run more efficiently? You know, where can you leverage the technology to do that? Where can you know, AI enable, you know, entrepreneurs to automate some of that repetitive and time-consuming task? Where can we use just some of the automation sequences to do that? Some of these texts and interfaces are really, really powerful, you know. Anything that can automate that. And I believe this is such a gift because it will free up your human people, the human capital in your business, to do things that are actually extremely valuable and more sophisticated, and not burn them out doing the crap that they don’t need to be doing, frankly, and then make the whole experience for you very clunky.
Jessica Miller
[19:45] So where in your business can you tighten that up and kind of take that stuff off of the, off of the plate? And the beautiful thing about that is it can run in the background when you’re not even around. So again, this whole concept of, you know making things happen on the terms of your clients or your potential clients, so that they can get what they want. And it’s not going to require your, you know, input. You don’t have to be in it when that’s happening.
Jessica Miller
[20:09] And then last but not least, is data driven decision making. So in your business, you’re doing a lot of things, right? And there’s things you were not, that are, you know, maybe didn’t work out as you wanted it to. I think it’s super important to go back and look at what’s working. I really subscribe to do more of what is working, do more of what you do best, and then get rid of the stuff that’s slowing you down, or that’s clunky, you know.
Jessica Miller
[20:33] I remember when I first came across the concept of Strength Finders, and this whole concept of like, manage to your strengths. Like, don’t worry about your weaknesses, just, you know, kind of like manage those so they’re not holding you back, but really focus on your strengths. And that blew my whole world, like open. I was like, Oh, my gosh, yes. What do I do really, well, what does my company do really well? And how can we do more of this? I believe that that is kind of the, you know, encompassing, that really encompasses the idea of district data driven decision making. It’s making decisions off of the things that are working, and noticing what is not working as well. But looking at what’s working and doing more of it, identifying the gaps, and then really saying, okay, you know, if this is where I, you know, had my, again, I use the example of like, your best month, what was going on in that month? You know, what were you selling? Why was it working? Who was buying it? What was happening, sort of in the ecosystem, and then doing more of it, and incorporating it into your business and making decisions based on that. On a broader scale with the tech, you know, leveraging technology to do that. Any AI driven, you know, analysis of huge datasets or anything like that, where you can, you know, extract insight, using chap GPT, asking questions, getting educated, and using that and marrying it with your own data to make decisions going forward, priceless talk about business growth, that is where it’s at. And really making that how you do business, right, looking at what you have.
Jessica Miller
[22:08] Because like I said, we all know the concept of, you know, look at your data, but we’re not always making decisions based on that. And that’s really what we want to be doing. And we want to be, you know, identifying what’s working and looking at the trends and then making choices from there. When you do all of these things, I believe, these three areas are areas that when you really focus in on them, and you focus your energy in moving the needle in these places, you will see the biggest boost in your business, especially at the level that you’re at. There’s a bajillion levers that you can pull. But I’m here to tell you, I think these are the most powerful ones. How do you dial things in for your customers better? How do you make your business more efficient? How do you leverage your human capital? How do you make good decisions based on what is working in your business and doing more of that. You do that and you will see tremendous growth. And like I said at the level that you’re talking about, even moving the needle slightly is a huge, huge impact. And doing, and doing less and getting more is the name of the game. And so we want to be growing and boosting our business growth, with the highest ROI that we can. Which means taking what we have, and really maximizing those inputs, so that we get a lot more on the back end, and when we can do that, everything in our business feels better. And this is the golden nugget. We free up so much more time and energy and freedom. Because what ends up happening is all the stuff that isn’t contributing, it’s kind of like the fluff or it’s bogging us down, falls to the wayside. It kind of gets dialed down, or we start to see what’s really inefficient and what we need to sort of, kind of get away from, and we can start on the path to making that happen.
Jessica Miller
[23:53] And so what does that mean? It means happier customers. It means a better business flow. It means efficiency. But most importantly, it means a happier you. It means a freer you and a freer team. And all of that is the reason that we became entrepreneurs, and it is something that we should embrace. So go and take a look at those three buckets in your business and make really boosting your business growth around those three pillars your focus going forward, and I promise you, you will see returns beyond your wildest dreams. Till next week, everyone, have a beautiful week.
