“It shouldn’t be this darned hard to grow my business!”
This pretty much sums up the frustration many entrepreneurs feel regarding their companies. Sure, they might have some success, but things eventually start to hit a plateau or slow down.
Entrepreneurs often turn to competitors to see what they’re doing, hoping this brings answers. Or, they get hooked on some new growth hack or marketing system peddled around online.
The truth is, if you already have traffic, if you already have leads, if you already have sales, then you have everything needed to grow your business. The key now is using momentum to your advantage.
Momentum is a powerful, universal force. It impacts your business immensely when harnessed correctly. For entrepreneurs, it is the single biggest source of untapped profits that nobody talks about.
Would you like to know more about sustainable and robust business growth for your brand? Check out this related article, “The Predictable Profits Guide To Growing Your Business.”
Growing a Business is Like Coaxing a Flame From an Ember
We can illustrate the power of momentum with this quick analogy:
Imagine for a moment that you’re in the wilderness camping, and you want to start a fire. The old-fashioned way is to rub two sticks together as fast as possible.
Creating a fire in this manner is no easy feat. In fact, after a few minutes of vigorous rubbing, you’ll feel your muscles start burning.
Eventually, though, you’ll see a little smoke and a small red ember at the bottom of the stick.
Now, all it takes is a few breaths on that ember to create a blazing inferno.
You just need to slowly coax that fire by first adding dry leaves around the ember. Once the leaves catch fire, you add little twigs… then small branches… then bigger branches…
Before you know it, you have a big, powerful fire.
See, the point is, the most energy you spend is on getting that ember going.
That little red ember represents momentum. And momentum is all about stoking the flames that are already burning inside of your business.
Remember: when you build a fire, you don’t keep on creating embers – that’s a huge waste of energy! Instead, you tend the ember you have… adding fuel until the fire is blazing.
Why Momentum is the Key to Exceptional Business Growth
Exceptional businesses don’t just rely on getting new clients. They also keep their existing clients happy. This means providing superior service and products.
You see, once you have clients, it’s easier to find more, as well as close larger deals and keep your existing clients coming back.
This is momentum at work. It’s why you have an easier time going from $100,000 to $1 million in revenue or from $1 million to $2 million than from zero to your first $100,000.
The more momentum, the easier and faster the sales. Whether you have five or 5,000 clients, you have that little red ember (i.e., momentum). All it takes now is one idea to improve what you’re doing.
Working with momentum is just like adding fuel to a fire. Momentum is the easiest, fastest, and most efficient way to achieve exceptional growth.
The Biggest Reason Why Many Startups and Businesses Fail
The one thing that kills the potential for so many businesses is overlooking little red embers.
The biggest reason startups fail — and we’ve been involved with many over the years — is they lack momentum.
We often see this pattern among entrepreneurs and business owners who jump from one strategy or the latest new fad to the next without realizing they already have the potential to create a blazing fire.
And so what happens is they start one lead-generation strategy, get a little bit of momentum or none at all, and then jump to the next strategy. They just keep repeating this process.
So they might have that little red ember, but they don’t coax it any further. Instead, they start with a different pair of sticks and begin the painstaking task of rubbing again.
So if you feel stuck or wonder why you’re not growing fast enough, you don’t have a strategy problem. What you have is a momentum problem.
How to Find Momentum in Your Business
Whenever your business feels stuck or when you feel like you’ve hit a growth plateau, find those little red embers and then add fuel.
Ask Yourself: What’s Working Right Now in My Business?
Examples of your quick and easy wins might include:
- All the ways you bring traffic to your business — whether it’s via your website, customers calling your office, foot traffic, and so on.
- All the ways people hear about your business — whether it’s by word-of-mouth and referrals, organic search, social media activity, etc.
- Your advertising efforts — whether in print, online, or even outdoor.
- Your search engine marketing efforts (both SEO and paid ads) include which keywords work best, which website pages do well, or which campaigns generate the most leads.
- Guest posting, media appearances, speaking events, or mentions in various publications.
- Business from trade shows or other similar events.
- Activity via your email newsletters or other nurturing campaigns.
- Squeeze pages that bring in the highest returns, sales team members who perform consistently well, or retargeting efforts that deliver solid results.
Newton’s First Law Also Applies to Business Growth
Newton’s first law of motion – sometimes referred to as the law of inertia – states that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion (with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force).
So when you start an activity such as trying to get new customers or building a new strategy from scratch, because you have no prior success with that method, you have no momentum.
How Can I Turn Up The Momentum in My Business?
Example #1: Email Marketing
According to MailChimp, the average email open rate is around 21.5%. This means that for every 1,000 people on your list, 785 people don’t see your email. So if you’re selling people a product or a service via email, 78.5% of your audience never even sees your message.
According to the same study, only around 2.7% of people who open emails click links in your message. This means that out of every 1,000 people who open your email, only 27 get to your sales page.
This is a momentum problem most people overlook. They think the secret to success in e-commerce is just growing your list.
Of course, this can work. However, at Predictable Profits, we prefer to ask, how can we get more out of everything we already do?”
For instance, with your existing email database, go to Facebook, and upload it as a CSV file. Doing this creates a custom audience and tells Facebook you only want people on your email list to see your advertisement.
This little technique alone increases momentum because more people who miss your offer can now see it. Plus, those who open your email also see your ad, increasing your brand awareness, which can boost conversions.
Of course, Facebook is just one of many momentum sources. You can continue to stoke that fire by making other adjustments to reach more people on your list.
Example #2: Outbound Marketing
Chet Holmes, one of the greatest salespeople to ever live, credits pigheaded discipline and determination as the single greatest secret to success. Yet most salespeople drop the ball too early when it comes to following up.
According to one study, 70% of salespeople give up after a single email. This can be for various reasons, from not wanting to seem pushy to forgetting to follow up. Only 19% send a second email.
That’s lots of missed opportunities.
This is where pigheaded determination comes into play. If you don’t receive a reply to your first email, you have a 21% chance of getting a response by simply sending a second one.
Still no reply? Keep sending. There’s still a 25% chance that you will eventually hear back from the recipient.
Example #3: Upsells, Downsells, Cross-Sells, and Other Promotions
An easy way to encourage more business from your existing clients is through upsells, downsells, cross-sells, and point-of-sale promotions.
You see this with Amazon and other successful companies. Because up to 65% of people will buy more from you when given the option.
This offer can be greater service or faster support. Or perhaps you provide more convenience, an elevated experience, or a greater result,
- “Would you like fries with that?” McDonald’s gets its highest profit margins from french fries and soft drinks. (Big Macs are just a marketing tool to sell more fries and drinks.)
- Amazon attributes 35% of its total revenue to cross-selling to its customers.
- By offering people a couple more inches of legroom as an upgrade, JetBlue added $190 million in revenue back in 2014.
Even simple adjustments to your product pages can encourage order bumps that add great momentum to your business.
Explore more proven tactics you can use when doing upsells, downsells, cross-sells, and other promotions. Read: “How to Upsell: 5 Tactics to Boost Your Customer Lifetime Value.”
Breakthroughs Happen Outside Your Industry
Sometimes, the answer to growing your company can be found right in front of you — you just have to know where to look.
When it comes to finding out what’s working and creating rapid growth, there’s no better place to start than with the big names in tech. Companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Netflix revolutionized their respective industries and continue to set the standard for innovation and growth.
So, if you’re looking for clues on taking your business to the next level, it pays to study these companies.
Check out this related piece, “How to Value a Business: A Guide for Small Business Owners.”
Conclusion: Momentum is Key to Growing Your Business Quickly
When you can find momentum and build off it, you can achieve exceptional growth.
You have many options for using momentum to your advantage. But no matter what approach you take, remember that breakthroughs happen outside your industry. So look there first to learn and grow.
Of course, we’re always here to help you. Predictable Profits is a team of business growth experts who have helped companies like yours achieve industry breakthroughs.
If you need help getting started or finding those little red embers in your business to boost your growth, contact us today to schedule a free growth strategy session!
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