The ABC’s of Growing Your Business A ctivate, B e Willing to make difficult decisions and C ommunicate Your Value Amy Smalarz, PhD President, Founder of Strategic Market Insight 7 May 2014

Which one are you? Delicate and fragile? Thriving!Over grown and not sure which end is up? OR Which one do you want to be?

A ctivate and Achieve Your Goals Where can you grow? What skills do you want to develop or enhance?  The S-curve represents your trajectory  Avoid plateaus as the friction will eventually stop you  Identify your trajectory  Identify where your “Leap” will be Plateau = Leap

B e willing to make tough but necessary decisions  Be willing to prune your client base – Keep your great clients and steer others in more appropriate directions  You are choosing them as much as they are choosing you  What is your philosophy and work with people who have a similar philosophy  Who is your Ideal Buyer/Client?  What is important to them?  What questions are they asking?  What do you think they need?

Once you have Identified your Ideal Client…..  Do things that thrill and excite you and that thrill and excitement will be seen by the client  Listen to your current clients, ask them questions and converse with key people to find out where you can help  Transfer this knowledge into reaching out to new clients o “I recently spoke with John Smith and I understand there are some challenges you are facing with your vendor selection this quarter…”  When a potential buyer asks questions, do not be defensive. Appreciate that questions or requests of clarifications are demonstrating their interest. An example:  Question: “Why do you consider yourself an expert?”  Response: “I don’t consider myself an expert, my clients do” OR (if you have experience as a provider and a user) ”I’m one of the few people who has seen it from both sides of the desk.”  Make your Value Proposition as dramatic as possible: I help you improve patients’ lives.  You want the Buyer or Client to ask: What does that mean? How do you do that?

C ommunicate with targeted audiences You have:  Identified your trajectory and “Leap”  Identified your ideal client (and kept the ideal and re-directed others) Now you need to:  Differentiate and translate your value  Each person/company has different needs and you need to make your business relevant and useful to your ideal clients

Moving from Competitive to Breakthrough Which stage are you today? Where do you want to be?  Competitive  You are doing what everyone else is doing  Distinguished  You are doing what only a few others are doing  Breakthrough  You are one of the only, if not THE only one doing what you are doing

Amy Smalarz, PhD Strategic Market Insight (office) (toll-free) Thank you!