Rating on this upcoming article and podcast episode is Red. Red meaning, most small business owners will not like this gut punch article and episode because the content is 100% true.
However, a few business owners who seek to improve sales performance will appreciate facts highlighting that 95% of business owners are scared to death to talk about their company products and services. They simply will not talk to people about their companies.
I understand what the problem is and will discuss my company's observations.
Based on our recent feedback from readers and podcast listeners, about 5% of people truly want to overcome the obstacles to promoting their businesses. Another 5% are successfully adding clients.
The old school definition of a business owner was a man or woman whose main goal was to grab market share. Increasing market share means if you had 15% of all the business in 2020, the goal for 2021 increase market share to 20% or higher. This meant your competition overall lost 5% of the market to you because you increase your market share by 5%.
For some reason, this concept is totally lost by today's white-collar small business owners. Who would want to be in business to have 1% (or less) of the market where 100 competitors exist to compete for consumers buying products or services?
In fact, if a business owner has 1% of the market year after year, this really means the business owner is prime to be put out of business by anyone of the competitors deciding to step up to plate and act like a true business owner.
A true business owner, especially a white collar small business owner, gets up every day and tries to get more business than his or her competition. And with the right training and business development plan, it's so easy to meet business sales goals.
If the business owner is not making an effort to increase revenue more than the competition, then he or she is not really a business owner. This person in charge of the company...the CEO, the president, the principal, the sole proprietor...is really an order taker.
An order taker just waits for a potential customer to call and stop by the office. The order taker hardly ever thinks he or she should proactively find more customers or clients.
And, I am specifically referring to white-collar small business owners; business owners who can make $1,000, $5,000, $25,000 or more per transaction!
By white-collar small business owner, I am directly speaking of attorneys, CPAs, dentists, plastic surgeons, insurance brokers, and real estate brokers.
It is disturbing to me that white-collar small business owners spend $300,000 and higher for college degrees, graduate degrees, and specialty certifications just to do little to nothing to proactively find more clients.
Let's say a white-collar small business owner can make $10,000 on each transaction. You would think logic, motivation and financial excitement would urge business owners to identify as many clients as possible to generate as many $10,000 transactions as they can.
I think I know what the obstacle many white-collar business owners have. They have an employee mindset even after receiving these high-power degrees and certifications.
They never received business development training in their higher degree, specialty certification curriculum. So upon graduation and certification, white-collar business owners expect potential clients will come knocking on their doors and ringing their phones off the hook.
It never works that way where consumers will call an attorney, CPA, dentist, plastic surgeon, insurance broker or real estate broker so much that a sufficient number of products or services will be purchased without white-collar business owners putting in any effort.
The only way a business owner could do nothing and wait for consumers to call is if the white-collar business owner is the only company in the area selling that product or service.
In small town America, this could be the case where the one dentist is making a lot of money because this dentist is the only one in town. But wait until another dentist figures out there is only one dentist in this small town. This new dentist will think the two dentists can now see all the town's citizens.
The first dentist will be pissed because he or she just lost his or her dominance in the market. Mathematically, the first dentist just lost 50% of the market to the second dentist. It will take the second dentist some time to ramp up to the 50% market share level.
Now, picture the scenario in a big city like Atlanta or Houston. There are literally 3,000 dentists in Atlanta or Houston. A person would need to look at the total dollars spent on dental services to get an accurate assessment of how 3,000 dentists are splitting these dental expenditures.
The same holds true for attorney legal services, plastic surgery services, and CPA services.
The point is, when the majority of white-collar business owners are not proactively looking for new clients, each business owner is barely making it or just getting by to pay bills and live a modest lifestyle.
But, there is that 5% of business owners who are proactively looking for new clients. It could be that 5% of proactive white-collar business owners controlling 25% of the market. Meaning, 90% of business owners control 75% of the market.
With 90% of white-collar small business owners competing (barely) for 75% of the market, you can hopefully see what problems are probably happening. These numbers typically mean there is not enough business for the 90% and some owners quit. I've seen this exit from the industry a lot here in California (California has some unique factors which accelerate business closure). But the logic applies in every state.
White-collar small business owners must adopt proactive business development methods to gain market share.
I am sorry to say this but, if a business owner is not proactively looking for more clients, he or she is not a true business owner.
321 Biz Dev LLC can help company CEO's, principals, officers, and presidents gain more market share and be on the path to become true business owners
Interested parties can contact me, Rick Nappier, CEO, at (833) 321-3212 or Yeilyn Rodriguez, VP, Business Development Specialist (bilingual) for English or Spanish contacts, at (786) 697-3400.
321 Biz Dev LLC offers 6- to 9-hour sales system training to help white-collar salespeople improve skills and increase business development results.
Business owners can also complete a 5-minute Questionnaire by clicking the Services tab on our website. Also, click the About tab to learn about 321 Biz Dev LLC.
I hope readers enjoyed this article. Readers can click HERE to hear the podcast version.
Rick, CEO
Yeilyn, VP