The Triangle of Success

Ever try to do three things at once?

With two toddlers at home, I find myself trying all the time.

Not sure if I succeed though.

Ever try to do three things at once – and do all three at the highest level at all hours of the day?

Even before my two toddlers – No Chance.

And yet, if you own a business, there is a “Triangle of Success” that you have to pull off at the same time, all the time and at the highest level – if you ever hope to grow it beyond the number of hours you work in a day.

I talk about it in my book:

“To make your business independent and sellable, you have to structure it so it can do three things simultaneously without relying on the owner:

• Attract new customers and sell more to existing ones.

• Service the customers and provide a superior experience.

• Consistently create and provide the products and services the customers want in the first place.

These three things I call the Triangle Of Success. To create a Triangle Of Success, you need the right staff and the right systems and processes, so that the company can run on autopilot and thrive without you.”

 

Can you do all these things at the same time and still keep your customers happy enough to boost your growth?

1. Selling and Marketing
2. Customer Service
3. Product and Service Design

Can you do all of them by yourself at top level – better than your competitors – at all hours of the day?

If the answer is yes, please let us know, because that means the “Second Coming has occurred.”

For those of you who answered no, this Triangle of Success is what will push you to start hiring or delegating more seriously – if you have not already done so.

Why?

Because a failure in any of these three legs will bring your business to a screeching halt.

If your sales and marketing fail, you will not be able to talk to enough qualified prospects and new customers to keep the business alive once existing customers leave.

Customer acquisition is one of the hardest and most expensive things to do, so don’t underestimate what would happen if this collapsed.

Also sales and marketing are not the same thing. It’s two different disciplines. Effective marketing makes selling much easier, but marketing or selling alone will not bring enough customers.

If your customer service sucks, you’ll always have a lot of customers leaving (churn).

It’s expensive to get new customers, so it’s not sustainable to keep losing customers and having to replace them.

Your business will be eaten up from the inside as customers flee.

(This is why it’s important to measure and track Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). So you can stop any exodus before it gets out of hand).

Finally, your products or service. The quality you deliver must be dynamically improved. When this is neglected, the company often falls into the trap of being obsolete and can die quite suddenly.

Like blackberry.

This means keeping your ear to what your customers, industry, and overall environment are saying. So you can stay ahead of the changes that can decimate you if you are blindsided.

As you can see, trying to grow your business while simultaneously managing all three areas is the definition of spinning on a hamster wheel.

We’ll touch on how to avoid this dilemma next time.