In providing simple, effective and strategic frameworks for my clients, especially those that run small businesses, I always make sure to include the Five Ones.
“What’s that, 51s?”. No, my friend. Five (5) Ones (1s).
This strategy is easy to use and apply to any business that wants to grow and that doesn’t necessarily have a lot of products or services that they offer. These businesses generally do one thing, or one of several things and don’t offer too many solutions.
Places like agencies, content production companies, even an apple farmer – they all specialise in one thing.
But, Shiny Pennies Are So Shiny, Though.
Making use of Clay Collins’ strategy of the 5 Ones, helps business owners give themselves, their business, their team and marketing a focused and clear path to take when putting out a product or service that they specialise in.
Most of the 1-15 man businesses don’t deal with a large variety of clients and don’t supply a huge selection of products, or services. So, it’s important to find ways to gather the energy and intent to identify and market the product or service that they offer, in order to squeeze the best out of it for their customer or client.
It sounds easy enough to start implementing, but I tend to find that numerous clients that I end up coaching will fall into a wicked trap – one that I like to call ‘the shiny penny’.
A shiny penny, simply put, is a distraction from the intended goal and purpose behind what the business provides its customer; put it this way, you have a direction, a destination that you’re heading towards and along the way you stumble upon a shiny penny. This shiny penny arrests your attention and takes it prisoner to the newness and potential that it offers.
You’re now distracted and your focus is on the penny, instead of the intended destination.
This tends to happen to business owners when they become enamoured by what seem like new, sexy and innovative ideas along the way, but that push them off-course the predetermined direction of their business.
Often justifying shiny pennies, business owners claim that “it’s complementary to my business and we can do it quite easily, just hire one more person,” without being aware of the fact that it’s a different service, or a different kind of business altogether and requires a different kind of client.
The 5 Ones is a framework to remain on the path, without being distracted by the silly need to chase all the shiny pennies that are out there.
So, What Are These 5 Ones?
They are simple enough to understand and digest, with enough room to re-evaluate and realign them when necessary. They follow each other and each one should be thought about and implemented one after the other, for better results.
- Start with One Client Avatar or a perfect client that you want to be focusing your time and energy on that will embrace your solution, product or service; they are the ideal customer that you want to be focusing on for the next period of time. Answer the questions: which industry do they belong to and what are the problems in that industry that we can assist with?; what is their geographical location and what demographic are they a part of?; what product or service do they want from you and how much of it should we supply?; how much and how often would they spend money with you?; where could you advertise to gain maximum exposure and are they traditionally or digitally inclined?
Remember to apply the 1:9:90 rule and figure out where that perfect client sits in the bigger picture – who is the primary audience member? Are they just lurking in the 90% and are happy with finding new solutions without really looking too far?; or are they in the 9% that will spread your brand, products and services, because they understand its value and importance; and if they’re the 1% that can influence the masses, how do you make them happy and appreciate your offering enough to start a snowball effect?
- The second One, is One Solution that’s considered unique and that you can deliver with ease. It should solve the perfect client’s problem through your primary product or signature service and should differentiate you from your competition and should be double-niched to make it as unique as possible. Your USP becomes extremely important in this phase, as you need to convince clients to buy from you and with immediate effect; outline what makes your offering important and the unique problem that you are solving for the client; create a list of why your offering is better than what the opposition offers and why the client will adopt it; make it clear how you’ll impress and intrigue clients and provide a promise to deliver.
You want one product to sell to this one target; you don’t want five products, you don’t want ten, you don’t want 15; you want ONE amazing and unforgettable product.
- The third One, One Marketing Channel speaks to staying clear of the shiny pennies and too many responsibilities – pick one platform or channel that you can become an expert on and that you know your client spends time around. You need to make a decision and decide whether or not you’re a B2B or a B2C business and once you’ve decided who you’re selling to, you need to make the decision whether you want to go ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’. Direct is generally the simplest approach, because it allows the vendor to sell to the customer directly.
Some great examples of these marketing channels include: social media, public speaking, affiliate marketing, public relations and email marketing (to name a few).
- The fourth One, One Conversion Method relates to the way that you take the interested party that sees you on the marketing channel to a sales funnel and provide the necessary conversation to convert and get them to spend money on you. You should start looking at how to take them off the marketing platform and turn them into a client or customer. Finding ways to transform them from interested to committed and to start buying from you. There’s a variety of conversion methods out there and some of them include: e-commerce, virtual or physical sales meetings, webinars and freemium models (offering free, but charged additional features, services and goods).
- The fifth One, One Year is the period of time that you need to apply this strategy in order to start assessing and evaluating the level of success that this method is achieving. It’s recommended to take a firm direction for up to a year and make slight tweaks and changes in the strategy where it’s needed. Keep in mind the importance of the impact your strategy will face when coming into contact with the enemy and that adaptability is critical, when needed. Constantly revise and revisit the method to get the absolute best out of using it.
I will reiterate the fact that no strategy is completely bulletproof and will bring about the exact results you’re looking for; so in picking the 5 Ones, always measure and re-evaluate it. Make changes and realign it if it isn’t working for you in any particular way.
To further your understanding of this strategy and its implementation, I recommend:
One Person (Me);
One Coach (Me);
One Meeting (With Me);
One Amazing Business Owner (You);
One Contact Method (Phone, or Email – with, guess who? Me!).
You’ll find no better combo!
Phone: +2783 253 3339
Email: brent@spillly.com
And PLEASE, for the love of Coffee, don’t chase shiny pennies!