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Practice Management > Building Your Business

The only 2 rules you need to know to be successful in business

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There are many rules to business. There are many things you’re told you need to be doing if you want to be successful.

But despite all the complexity about getting business right, there are really only two rules — two philosophies really — that dictate success.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling.

It doesn’t matter what you’re planning to do. It doesn’t matter where you’re at or the industry you are in.

Massive success is rooted in these two rules.

1. Be incredibly easy to do business with.

Ubiquity is the new exclusivity. Helpfulness is the best strategy for driving awareness.

In today’s app-driven sales economy, it’s easy to force prospective customers into a funnel where they have to fill out a form, download a white paper or make a dozen frantic visits to your website before your technology scores them high enough for you to want to care to get to know them.

No wonder you’re not successful driving new revenue. You’re not flexible enough to meet people where they are.

No one wants to feel like an idiot to have to do business with you. More importantly — no one wants to have to do work to give you their money.

They want you there to help them and support them and give them guidance. And when you’re not easy to do business with it just adds to the frustration and chaos they already feel.

So abandon the strategies where you hide your contact information on your website. Make it incredibly easy for people to cancel your service or product if they’re not happy. Ditch all the complex contracts.

Be everywhere your prospective clients will be looking. Be there with a smile and a helpful hand instead of a gimmicky sales pitch and awkward marketing process.

2. Be so good they come back for more.

Obsess about ways to provide surprise and delight to your customers.

Think about all the frustrating things in your industry that you could remedy, even in small ways.

Deliver service with a smile, even when you’re stressed out and anxious. Put a plan in place to follow up on the promises you make.

A simple productivity platform or to-do app can help you stay scheduled and focused on delivering on your best intentions.

There is nothing particularly genius about doing what you say. But it makes all the difference in the world to your customer.

And it has a massive impact on your growth. Your customers want to believe in you. They want to give you a second chance when you screw up.

All you have to do is be willing to try. Apologize when you get it wrong. And keep trying to get it right.

These are the rules

No amount of sales automation or witty marketing satire can trump the impact you create when you execute these two rules.

Being awesome isn’t an accident. Changing the world doesn’t happen by chance.

It takes focusing on the details. It requires you playing the game by a different set of rules.

These are those rules.

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