Little hinges swing big doors

“Little hinges swing big doors.”

This was a quote I read the other day by W. Clement Stone, the American Billionaire, and philanthropist.

When I look for business strategies, I love discovering quotes like these. Succinct, simple metaphors that are easy to remember, and powerful in practice.

Stone’s metaphor here begs the question: “What small actions can I take that have exponential results on the “thing” I’m trying to achieve?”

I bring this up for a very specific reason.

I frequently see Consultants and Agency owners who struggle to maintain sustainable growth on a regular basis. When we start digging into their business process and strategies, it usually boils down to one core issue: they're unaware of the actual problems in their business, and therefore do not know the proper solutions to focus on.

If you’re a regular reader and have seen some of my own metaphors, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say they’re diluting their energies on surface level symptoms. (In other words, they’re pulling the wrong levers/hinges).

Sound familiar?

Maybe in your own business you’ve plateaued at a certain revenue point, and no matter what you do you can't break past it.

If so, it may be that you're problem aware and not solution aware.

What I mean is, you might have inefficiencies in your business and you think it’s for X reason when it’s actually Y.

I’ll be honest, it is very challenging to accept that something you think is a problem is, in reality, a symptom of a deeper problem that you can’t yet see. But we want to avoid solving the wrong problems. It takes practice, a willingness to dive deeper into issues, and to challenge your point of view.

If you’re putting customers through a broken machine, building a sustainable business is at best…wishful thinking. You want to avoid wasting time solving problems that aren’t actually problems.

Here’s a common example - you may be thinking you have a lead problem if you’re not making sales, right?

WRONG!

Oftentimes, (from my experience) it’s a conversion problem, an offer problem, or possibly even a trust problem.

Let’s use the “conversion” problem as an example today.

Let’s say your assumed lead problem is actually a symptom of the real problem, which is that your conversions suck.

What’s easier, improving your conversion rate by 5% or increasing your leads or sales by 20%?

One of the most effective growth strategies you can focus on within your service business is simply, gradually improving your conversion rate over time with the same number of leads you currently have. Now if you have no leads, obviously you should be focusing on that. But let’s assume you at least have a steady flow of leads, and traffic coming in.

This is a great example of a “little hinge, swinging a big door” in your business. Finding these little hinges is where an outside pair of eyes like mine can help.

It's by far the largest lever you can pull right now.

Optimizing for volume is a temporary fix and band-aid over the real issue of simply converting more of what you already have.

Begin to optimize what you’ve already got instead of craving “more.”- a lesson I’ve had to learn many times over.

Here are some ideas on how to convert “more” of the people that you already have in your funnel into paying customers:

Let’s break those down.

Identify better leads. The quality-over-quantity rule works great here. Consider minimizing your funnel and identifying qualified leads to start targeting. Track what leads them to your website and how they interact with it to pick “the ones.” To focus on.

Actually Nurture your leads. It could be beneficial if you just spend some one-on-one time with customers who are interested in purchasing. They could be unsure what product would fit their needs best, and here is your opportunity to answer their questions. Make sure you also have some sort of follow-up nurture email automation in place that can share insights, educate, and delight. I recommend using a tool like Beehiiv, which is one of the best email newsletter platforms I have used to date.

Close Gaps. No sales process closes 100%. There are always areas to improve to shorten your sales cycle and increase your percentage of leads that actually say yes. Ensure you have a predictable process, scripts, and create consistency to find what is working and what isn’t. Check out Tiger Blood if you want to bring in a sales wizard to audit your sales flow.

Find what sells. You need to track how the content you put out there is performing and resonating to understand what exactly helps you sell. There are plenty of tracking tools like UTMs and pixels to determine which material leads to the final transaction. Create a process-driven goal of posting, emailing, and sharing your “thing” each day.

Experiment with your Call-to-actions (CTAs). Content is extremely important because it attracts customers and makes them stay on your website. However, without a good CTA it is just text on a dead page. Take the time to improve your CTA copy and get creative with it. You want to hold your prospects' hand and guide them to exactly where you want them to go.

A question to ask: “What do I need to do to close the GAP of the current conversion rate and where do I actually want to be?”

26% is a magic number I use. How can I increase my conversion rate by just 26% this month? (This can be applied to all metrics in your business).

Once the GAP is defined, create an actionable plan, then focus on making solid daily progress each day toward that goal. Know and understand the gap.

But only focus and obsess on the daily gain and progress you make. That is what you can control and build upon.

That’s all for today–

Tyler