Most business owners know their business is capable of more. More revenue, more profit, more growth, more free time, but they’re stuck. John Marshall of Results Driven call’s it being stuck in the entrepreneur treadmill. They want to get off and stay off, but they can’t on their own.
That’s why John created results-driven. Results Driven is a five-part framework developed to help entrepreneurs finally achieve the results they deserve. The outcome for entrepreneurs is having more confidence in their abilities so they feel empowered to take control of their future. They start to see tangible benefits like increased profit, increased revenue increased overall ability because they’re being transformed into a better version of themselves. They’re starting to see what they’re capable of. John has worked with clients in more than 30 different industries over the last 15 years and gives them all a framework to follow to create success. The framework is based on five key areas necessary for business growth. The first is an innovative tool called what’s your number. This allows the business owner to score the health of their business on a score to 100. Suddenly they learn how healthy, unhealthy or underperforming their businesses is, on a scale of 1-100 based on six key areas.
They complete this quiz and they get their score and based on that, they know what areas need improvement. The second part of the framework is helping them plan something they may have never done before. A strategic commitment plan. It has three parts. The strategy part is what they need to do for the next three years. It forces them to examine their core value proposition, their core uniqueness, and core ideal customers. The next part is the commitment part of the plan. What they need to do for the next year. This includes identifying their goals, measurable goals, what their marketing plan is, what kind of scorecard they need to create, what obstacles they’re going to face in the year, etc. A third element of the plan is identifying what their number one goal is, and what’s needed to meet it in the next 60 or 90 days.
Then the next part of the framework is success strategies or continuing education. There are 12 strategies, so they’re always learning and growing and developing and that’s what highly successful entrepreneurs want and need. It’s what keeps the stickiness or the glue in the results-driven framework and includes ongoing coaching and mentoring. Every two to three weeks John sits down with his clients and has a one-to-one scheduled phone call for 45 minutes to an hour that is just focused on them and their business and what is needed to be done together based on their plan to help them get greater results.
I sit down with John to get a better understanding of the outcomes he is getting with his clients.
Can you describe the difference you see your program is making in the lives of those you help?
The difference is dramatic. It’s significant because they’re suddenly seeing what their business is finally capable of and what they’re finally capable of. They’re getting the help that they need from a proven system. I started to see over time their increased confidence which is a critical component to business growth. They now know what they need to start doing, stop doing, and continuing doing to be successful. They’ve got a plan. They’ve taken the movie that’s in their head, that plays literally every day and through the day and put it on paper. They’ve documented the steps and I help them to work on that plan step by step. So they take the right steps in the right order to get the right results.
What are the myths or misconceptions in your industry that clients have before working with you?
It’s always one of two things. Many times they’ve had a bad experience with a consultant or consulting firm or a business coach. Often it’s because many people label themselves as a coach and frankly they’re not qualified to be that. They try to do their best, but they don’t have the skills, the experience, the wisdom, the processes to really help. So if anybody’s ever had a coach previously and hasn’t had results it’s because they’ve chosen the wrong coach. So that’s a fear. The other fear I see is in their decision to get started with results-driven. As soon as they do get started; however, they say one of two things. Number one, I wish I’d started sooner because I’m getting terrific results. Or two, I wish I’d heard of you sooner because I really needed help on my business and now you’re delivering on that. Part of our philosophy at results-driven is to be visible, to get ourselves aligned with the business owners in all these different industries that need help and say, wow, there’s something out there called results-driven. I want to be part of this because I want success and I want somebody to help me step by step to get there.
How do you help them overcome misconceptions and fears?
Business owners will often hire us because they’ve been thinking about getting help for the last six or nine months and they’ll say, you know, I’m looking for some advice. They will usually come with their own preconceived notions from books they may have read, podcasts they’ve listened to, YouTube videos watched, etc but what they want now is somebody to help them with their specific business challenges, locally, one-on-one. They have the mindset of, you know, I’m ready for this. If they’re not quite ready or seem hesitant I’ll have a conversation with them on the phone or in-person and run some numbers, do a return on investment analysis and see if it would be a good fit. It’s important that I know what they are trying to accomplish and what their motivation level is before accepting them as a client because my objective from day one is to make sure that we drive enough new revenue and more importantly, profits back into their business so the investment in the program is at least cost-neutral, or better yet, a three times, four times, five times 10 times return. I’ve had many clients follow up with me, one as recently as two weeks ago, “John, I can’t believe how beneficial this has been. I’ve paid for your services in increased profit for the next 10 years. That’s how helpful you’ve been to myself and my team and my business”.
