Biggest Mistakes Scaling to $1M and Beyond – E2

There are plenty of mistakes you can make while scaling your service business while scaling to your first million and beyond. But what’s the single biggest mistake that threatens to stall your growth? Chances are, if you’re having trouble growing, you’re making it.

Episode 75: The Biggest Mistakes Scaling to $1M and Beyond

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• Whether you realize it or not, there’s a distinct landscape we operate in as service businesses. Consumers and clients are used to instant gratification and benefitting from price competition and more choices than ever. Naturally, they expect you to play that game in B2B services as well. But the question is, should you?
• How do you stay ahead of the curve and avoid commoditization? You must have quantifiable results rather than just a process. When you show that they stand to lose more if they don’t hire you, you can attract higher level clients who are happy to pay your fees.
• Many sellers in the marketplace aren’t interested in whether their clients are successful; they care about selling more, more, more – the commodity trap. In order to scale the right way, you should be mindful of whether your clients are succeeding, and if they aren’t, fixing that problem. That way you can stand by your work and prove the quality with a high success rate. In fact, you should be screening your clients and take only those who you can help succeed.
• One very important question to ask yourself is what it takes for you and your client to ‘knock it out of the park.’ Then, identify what potential problem would prevent you from doing that with a client. Mandi explains why your benchmark shouldn’t be your average. It should be your very best client case studies. You want to build your processes, marketing, team – basically everything – around that benchmark. More importantly, you should only accept clients who fit the benchmark, with whom you’re certain you can win.
•   When you’ve identified your winning benchmark, you can almost guarantee success – and you should. When you have quantifiable results to draw in clients you can win with, you are in a position to take on some risk yourself, and Mandi reveals how. She also gives you a list of questions to answer honestly to see if you’re where you need to be in your business.
• One of the most helpful thing Mandi has with her own business is the Client Success Map, and with it, she can demonstrate not just the value of her services, but the value of results and outcomes for her clients. She shares what she puts in her Success Map and how you can make something similar for your clients.
• Talking about your process, awards, number of clients, etc., is no longer effective. Consumers are more savvy and they see through this quickly. Instead, you should be showing outcomes and how you deliver solid results through client case studies. The clients you want are willing to pay more when they feel certain you can get them the same results. And THAT will keep you ahead of the commodity curve.

Resources

The 7 Biggest Mistakes You Are Making Scaling Your Service Business