I cannot tell you how often I hear, “My business is different!”  Yes, of course it is. As is every person, your business is different, but is it really that unique?  I thought each business was unique when I had experience with only a few companies. Then I had the pleasure of serving dozens of CEOs across myriad industries - from telecommunications to wholesale distribution, telehealth to private aviation, and law to foreign exchange - helping to grow their businesses and increase their value. Through these experiences, I learned there are commonalities that transcend industries and when properly applied, lead to success.

All businesses have common themes, and most problems have common resolutions. There are in fact a finite amount of key ingredients to successfully growing any business, just as there are a finite amount of spices in your kitchen. The unique combination, sequence, and amount of ingredients are the “secret recipe” for success in business, as they are for the right flavor of your favorite dish.

You may ask, “Well if it is that easy, why isn’t every business successful?” It is not easy!  All greatness requires grit, intuition, experience and a bit of luck. However, you can increase the likelihood of success in all cases by knowing what are your “key ingredients” – the “big levers” used to direct your team’s actions, time, investment, and resources in the right direction. A big lever may be to increase your enterprise sales pipeline or spread the word about your incredible product. Every “lever” has some well understood best practices. In a previous article,  “Growing a B2B Pipeline,” I highlighted some focus areas to drive sales. Of course, these particular “ingredients” are relevant for a company focused on enterprise sales only. If you are aiming to improve your marketing function, we discuss that “recipe” in, “How to Build Your Marketing Team.” 

So, how do you know what are the big levers? I am not going to pretend I know all the answers. Here is what I do know.  Most often, when in front of a CEO for the first time, the conversation starts with the question of how to be better, more profitable, and grow faster. In the effort to provide a better answer, first question is always, “Well, who are you trying to sell to?” The key ingredients for most “growth levers” start with knowing the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). There needs to be a deep and meaningful conversation amongst your stakeholders about the Ideal Customer Profile for the products and/or services that are being sold. Answering that question enables you to zero-in on your critical focus areas. There is no use trying to determine any strategy for growth without crystal clarity about your ICP. 

Most often they answer the ICP question with a long list of every customer type who buys their products. Unfortunately, that is not the focused guidance required. My definition of Ideal Customer Profile is the buyer/company that is most likely to buy your solution, product, or service. Those with this profile automatically enjoy your value proposition the most, are easiest to acquire, most profitable, most loyal, happiest, and will even recommend you to others.  As a result, cost of acquisition is lower, and long-term customer value is higher.  

Let me give you an example. As a father of a teenage daughter, some time ago I once found myself at Forever21 to purchase a dress for her. It was a long, painful experience that resulted in a return. Of course, the retail team was helpful, but the process was inefficient for us both. Should they have not sold to me? Of course, they should have. A business should serve anyone who would like to buy, but a business should only “sell and market” proactively (invest resources)  to those who are Ideal Customers.  

Banyan Medical Systems, a next generation care delivery platform and services company, has their ICP honed. Since they sell to healthcare facilities (a broad market), they could get lost between IT, operations, finance, clinical departments, or even get pulled into nursing homes, primary care clinics, out-patient care or even home services. Especially with telehealth being a popular theme now, “everyone” is interested, but not all are “qualified.” Banyan is not confused about who to market and sell to. Their greatest value is to full-time, hospital care nurses; thus, their ICP is a Chief Nursing Officer at an acute care hospital system. With Banyan’s solution those hospitals can become a best-place-to-work for nurses and a hospital of choice for patients. All their arrows are pointed at serving these fine professionals and their teams.  There is little waste of resources, hardly any fallout during a sales cycle, fast growth and fanatically passionate customer references coupled with an equally passionate Banyan professional team.

Knowing your business strategy for growth and value creation starts with your Ideal Customer Profile based on your unique competitive differentiation and value proposition. Extreme Ideal Customer centricity sets your tactics in motion correctly.  It determines the appropriate message, routes to market, make-up of your commercial team, fulfillment/point-of-sale action plan, organization talent needs, and much more. If there is just a 5% misalignment on the ICP and strategy, wasted time, energy and profit margin may be as high as 40%. Refine your ICP as much as you possibly can, based both on your data and aspirations. Include demographics, psychographics, corporate profiles, buying motivators and all other customer data points relative to your industry. Test it, refine it, prove it and repeat it.

Your big levers for growth – the ingredients for a successful recipe - start with your Ideal Customer Profile. Combine your expertise of your business and market with that of experienced operators and advisors from different industries to identify your big lever “growth hacks” to acquire those ideal customers. Start with knowing who you sell to, who you want to sell to, and who is actually buying from you. Focus all your resources at the right target, the ICP, as this ultimately is the key to knowing the ingredients for the best “dish” you’ve ever made.