Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

Mike Michalowicz is the author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan, Profit First and Surge, and the founder of Profit First Professionals, an organization designed to support accountants and other financial professionals differentiating themselves in the market. Mike is an entrepreneur at heart and loves sharing his knowledge and experience with the masses. In today’s episode, Mike and I chat about his new book Surge and how to leverage the market for consumer demand. “How do you time the market?” - The question that prompted two-year of research for his new book Surge. Mike discovered that there is no magic bullet, but there is a way to improve the odds of success dramatically. Mike wrote Surge from his own business experience achieving atypically fast growth from applying and refining the methods outlined in his book. His newest company is still in the learning phase, and Mike plans to write addendums to Surge throughout the process. Tune in to hear more about how Mike used Surge to drive his own businesses to success.   What is Surge? Surge is a five-step process for identifying trends in the marketplace.  While most entrepreneurs look at market trends and try to hit while the market is hot, this process positions a business in front of the momentum of the market to capture it.  With a different set of metrics, a proactive entrepreneur can use gain new perspective on the market and “catch the surge” to a profitable growing business.   What does the acronym SURGE mean? Surge is not about prediction, it is about early measurement. • Separate: Separate a small test community; Choose a core group and within that group, choose a very particular niche. • Unify: In this core group, identify the movement they are making and unify around it. • Rally: Ask “What is that one service or product offering that rallies the group to you as a solution?” • Gather: Gather intelligence! As you move along with the market, constantly evaluate what’s working and amplify and expand that, then ditch what isn’t working. • Expand: Take the model that is working for your core group and start delivering that offering consistently and to an expanded group. When a business “catches the Surge” marketing starts taking care of itself.  Instead of promoting, there is a movement in the market with people asking for referrals or seeking the company out aggressively. Instead of arguing about trends, try them and measure them. Maybe you’ll be the next person to “catch the Surge! Interview Links: www.mikemichalowicz.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach.  We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Sean Evans is the founder of STEP Consulting in Toronto. He is a Certified Gazelles International Coach, a Certified Topgrading Coach, and holds an MBA from London Business School in the United Kingdom. Sean helps companies get out of the weeds and assists them to focus more on building their businesses.   What is Topgrading? Topgrading is a methodology created by Bradford Smart. It is the standard of hiring, coaching, and retaining top talent. You want to fill every position within your company with ‘A’ players. Companies need to know what a candidate is about, so they need to dive deep into their history.   What's the process in recruiting talent? The number one thing a company wants to do is create a specific job description; this is a typical hiring problem in most companies. There are four areas of a job scorecard: describing the company with excitement, creating a job mission, accurate accountability that can be measured, and a list of key competencies. The best way to find the best people is to recruit from your networks.   What can managers do on their own to find the best candidates for the job? You need to read Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep A Players by Brad & Geoff Smart and Who: The A Method of Hiring by Geoff and Randy Street.   What is a higher level step in the hiring practices? Companies shouldn’t rely on behavioral-based interviews, which is a hypothetical situational analysis. Businesses should rely on evidence-based interviewing. Topgrading is hiring based on the fact that someone's past behavior is going to be highly indicative of their future conduct.   What is TORC? TORC stands for Threat of a Reference Check. Companies should not rely on the references the candidate provides. You need to pick out a manager on their resume, ask them if it would be ok to speak to that manager and if they say yes, great. If they say no, then that is a red flag. The candidate will know that you are going to be fact checking everything they are saying about that position. They have to tell the truth because you are going to check on it.     Interview Links:  Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep A Players by Brad & Geoff Smart Who: The A Method of Hiring by Geoff and Randy Street http://www.topgrading.com http://stepconsulting.ca   More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach.  We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

 Robert (Bob) Bloom is the authority on customer centric growth. He is the author of The Inside Advantage and The New Experts. Bob was the US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide. He got his start as an entrepreneur, took his company national and then sold it. Bob has developed strategies for companies like BMW, L’Oreal, Nestlé, and even helped to launch Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, Juicy Juice, and many others. In today’s episode, Bob and I talk about strategy and finding your own inside advantage. There is a secret that so many business leaders are missing. Most people start with a strategy, but it is one that is in their minds and may not be contemporary at the moment. Secondly, the most important thing that a strategy has to have is consensus internally; with all of your staff, whether you have three people or hundreds. If everybody doesn’t agree that you are going in the right direction, it doesn’t matter because you will never get there. The other thing that is absolutely critical is differentiation. In this day and time, if you don’t differentiate your brand, your company, or your services, you will not make it. The competition out there is mushy; everybody is doing the same thing.   There are 4 steps in the Growth Discovery Process Who is your core customer? You must start with the first element. Customers are human beings; you can't talk to a statistic. You must talk to this human being and understand his/her company or personal needs from that standpoint. When you do that, you understand your ‘Who’. Get inside that person’s head and heart. Look at your customer as if that person was right in the room with you.    What does your core customer want, need and desire?  You want to look inside your business. What does your core customer want, need, and desire? You have a WHO and WHAT. What do you do inside your business? What is the uncommon offering that your business will own and leverage?   How is the persuasive strategy that will convince your core customer to buy your uncommon offering versus all competitive offerings? You need to persuade or convince your customer that you are really going to do what you say you are going to do. You need to develop an approach to convince your customer to buy from you and not your competitor.   Own it! Is the series of imaginative acts that will celebrate your uncommon offering and make it well known to your core customer. You want your brand or company to stand for it! You have to own what you say you are going to own. OWN YOUR WHAT!!! It has to be yours and yours alone in 15 words or less. Simple! Consistent, Committed and Clear.  Check out the podcast to find out more in-depth about how Bob took these strategies into the big businesses mentioned in the introduction.   Interview Links: http://www.bobbloom.biz https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bloom-578b9822 More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach.  We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).