Leading with Strategy: Simon’s Insights for Business Success and Growth

Leading with Strategy: Simon’s Insights for Business Success and Growth

Sean: So I’m wondering, Simon and this is relevant to our listeners who are wondering about how to scale up as well as you did.

And I love your story by the way. How long did it take you to realize that you needed to lead and be two steps ahead of fulfillment to be able to do that? And finally, tell the first client who inquired with you that I’m not going to be your coach, this person’s going to be your coach.

Did it take you two years, three years, five years? And what does the process look like? Did you apply all of the principles from your StrategySprints book for you to be able to achieve this at a level where your time is now completely separate from your income?

Simon: It took me around four years because I didn’t have the full process. I had to build the process and parts were working because, you know, there are hundreds of years of strategy and strategic decision and strategic process.

So I was building on to something that was working, but there was nothing for a digital company, a digital agency, that I was running. So I had to build a new version of that. That’s why it took me four years.

And those four years were informed by another 16 years of being in the trenches in the arena. The good thing is, now that I wrote them down, now we are sharing them with our clients. So an agency, a B2B business, a consultancy that’s printing with us.

It takes them just three months because they have 274 blueprints, swipe copies, plug and play ready all the checklists. And many, many of those are in the book strategy sprints. And all 274 of them are at Sprint University.

When somebody gets coached by us, they get immediate access 24/7 to all 274 blueprints. That’s why it takes them now just three months, because you know, if you have to invent a yoga Ashtanga primary series, it will take you 2000 years.

But if you go to a yoga teacher, they have the process right there. It takes you two months.

Sean: My goodness. So from four years, you distill that to 90 days. Can you tell us what the process looks like now?

I mean, four years is a long time. That’s a significant amount of your life. And you are telling me that not only have you distilled that to 90 days to three months, but any other companies can now apply this no matter what. That’s a miracle.

Simon: Not every company, only B2B high ticket companies, so agencies, consultancies, B2B software companies. But all of them. Yes. And how does it work?

So it’s three months, month one, we have to free up 10 to 14 hours per week of your time because you are too much in the weeds. You remember you are looking at the single trees, not at the garden.

So we have to pull you out of the details and free up 10 to 14 hours per week so that you can work on the whole garden working on the business. So in this first month, we will map out with you the six elements.

What is your process right now for awareness, interest, engagement, closing, delivering, and retaining? We will map it out with you and we will help you delegate, automate, and systemize single parts. We will probably improve your offer, making it more simple, and more repeatable. For example, we offer to double your revenue for 90 days.

It’s very simple. It’s very clear. Do you know what you get? You either want it or you don’t want it. pretty simple. Most offers are too complicated and have too many price points. So we have to simplify your offer to be that simple.

Like I can cut your costs for cloud computing by 15% in six months. That’s a good offer. Okay. Got it. And you will have higher energy at 2 p.m. every day for 21 days. Boom. That’s a good offer. So we have to improve the offer and then go and map out the business and map out the six elements. How do you do it right now?

Then we pull out you, we free up 10 to 14 hours by delegating systematically, and delegating can be done to a software super quick, super cheap super cool, or two people also fine. So we have a ton of technology helping us.

Super super cheap super super quick, which I love. And there are amazing people on the planet and they are all eager to work right now and many of them are amazing to have on your team. So it’s a good moment to be building businesses.

The second month now we have mapped it out and you have 10 to 14 hours now. A couple of those hours you will spend with your friends, with your family, with your kids, with sports, so that you have a life again, because entrepreneurship sucks. It sucks your time so much. First, you will have no more workouts, friends, etc.

More time in nature. As part of that, we will work with you now on the form, fit, and function of your sales system, and the form, fit, and function of your marketing systems. So now that we have it mapped out, we will now improve single parts, specifically the sales.

We will increase by 25% your conversion rate by 25%, on the frequency of your sales. That’s by reducing sales time by 25%. And the third thing, we will increase by 25% your price for your main offer by improving the positioning and de-risking the decision for your clients, we will help you come up with a better positioning and better offer and de-risk the decision for the client.

For example, with testimonials or with guarantees, we will find a way to make it less risky for them to start working with you. And when they start, then they want more. So these are the things that we do in month two, improve sales by increasing the 25%, conversion rate by 25%, the frequency of your sales, and by 25% the price that you charge for the same offer.

When we have increased those three things by 25%, now your revenue per month has increased by 99% because those things compound that’s month 2. Month Three is all about marketing.

Now we are having fun because now you have a machine, you have more cash flow, you are happy, and you also have more time. So you look better, and you are more fun to be around. Now the energy is high. You’re getting more clients. They feel good. So now we are ready to scale.

Now, in month three, we go into marketing and whatever your favorite platform is can be YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or whatever you are rocking right now. We will pick that one and we will help you scale that. And that’s the fun part.

That’s the part that is most creative because now it’s about marketing and it’s about storytelling and authentically showing yourself and sharing more of the journey. So the third month is fun.

Sean: I Have a couple of questions regarding that one because some clients are not that easy or smooth to work with, right?

And I imagine that you mentioned earlier you have a team of coaches, so it’s not like you’re installing a C-level executive in that person’s company. You are coaching them through the process and it’s really up to them if they are going to be accepting and working on your advice or your coach’s advice.

What are some of the bottlenecks and pain points and choke points that you have experienced with some of these clients? And how do you overcome it?

Simon: We are installing much more than a C-level person. We are installing 27/4 C-level processes. That’s better than a person because that person usually does only know one part. Like if it’s a CFO person, they know only the financial processes, cash flow processes, and contracts, probably if it’s a CEO person, they know only the marketing processes.

If it’s a CTO person or a COO person, they know only the operation processes. So you will never find that executive who brings in 274 processes at once. Yeah, for sure. So it’s even better, right? And it starts immediately. You don’t have to onboard them.

They don’t have to get to know everybody. So it’s plug-and-play ready and it starts immediately. So how do you make sure that the team on the other side executes them? Well, they are highly motivated because if they execute, they make more money.

So they are motivated. Also, they have paid upfront for the sprint. If we pick them as one of the sprinters, then they have paid upfront and so they are again super motivated because they want back their bang for the buck. So that’s two things to people listening.

That’s why it’s very important that you don’t charge for time and you don’t charge for the end of the month. You charge upfront. So sprinters charge upfront for exactly this reason because otherwise, you don’t have enough energy for the project.

You don’t have enough commitment. When you say, Yeah, I’m working with you, and at the end of the month, I’m going to charge. You are losing energy commitment and with low energy and low commitment, at the end of the month, you will have low results.

And when you have low results and you send the invoice, they don’t even want to pay. That’s a very bad loop to enter. What’s a better loop to enter? Guys, you are not paying for my time. You are paying for a decrease in your costs or an increase in your sales.

We are partners in this. I make sure you have everything you need to do. You make sure you do the tasks. Are we in it? Yes or no? If they say yes, this is the price, that’s it. You don’t defend the price. You don’t give a bonus or a discount or whatever. You just say This is the price and we are in.

Simon: Now they pay upfront, it’s a high price and you will deliver high results because you are now on your toes. They are on your toes. Yes, also. But they are also on their toes, right?

Sean: Yeah.

Simon: So everybody has skin in the game. Everybody has something to lose. Reputation so everybody is in.

Now you have the highest energy that you can have in a project and the highest level of responsibility on both sides. We are both in this together and we both want to win.

Increase the chance that they execute. That’s the first part. The second part is that you give them the processes, so you give them a cookbook. If you want somebody to be ready to cook French next week. Don’t let them, you know, study three books and watch 100 videos.

Give them immediately the recipe and a five-minute video showing how to cook it. That’s why at Sprint University, the 274 modules are exactly that in five minutes. Simon is cooking in front of you and you just cook with Simon.

So I will show you how I do the content marketing strategy and the content marketing execution and am doing a video which is a screen recording of how I do it on my computer. I’m not talking about marketing theory. I’m showing you how to do it.

So you watch the five-minute video you put in half an hour, and you have your content marketing strategy. You take your sprint coach who is 24 over seven, accessible for you. It’s like. Spider-Man and the guy in the chair.

Spider-Man can call him anytime. Hey, what should I do? Should I kick the left door or the right door? And so he says, Give me a second. Kick the left door. So you have always somebody with you or Iron Man has Jarvis, right?

At that moment, you are in action, but you don’t have to think about the process. You can stay in the action. And that’s the second thing that you have to do. So the first is how you set up the energy and the commitment on both sides.

The second is that you make sure they don’t have to think about the process. They just do what they are good at and everything else is a supportive process for them. This is how my triathlon coach works with me. He does the training plan.

I just know what I have to do today. One hour, slow run. All right. I’m going to do that. I don’t have to think about the science of training. That’s his job. It’s tough enough that I have to run, so I got some exercise today.

I do it, and that’s similar to the Sprint coaching in the Strategy Sprints program. You have a task, you do half an hour, you upload it on your phone, your coach gives you work critique and then you put it on your website, You send it to your people, you launch it.

Sean: Got it. That’s amazing.