business owner’s guide to revenue acceleration...business owner’s guide to revenue acceleration...

To schedule your BUSINESS GROWTH AUDIT, where you find the hidden profits within your business, email [email protected]

Business Owner’s Guide to Revenue Acceleration

Read this guide and you’ll discover:

13 Principles to Grow Your Business

The Top Ten Business Growth Mistakes their Owners Make

Ethical and Unethical Sales Pitches

The importance of value and price.

100% no-risk guarantee.

4 steps to a happy, healthy relationship with your consultant

Provided as an Educational service by

The Leithart Group, LLC Revenue Acceleration Experts

[email protected]

Twenty Mile Stand, OH 45140 USA

mailto:[email protected]


Dear Business Owner,

Finding strategies and methods to grow your business isn’t easy. Why? Because you’re bombarded with

misleading advertising, confusing claims and simply bad information. From super-low ‘loss leader’

marketing approaches to unqualified individuals and near-worthless methods – How do you ever find a

qualified, competent, Professional Business Growth Specialist? You start by reading this Consumer’s

Guide. In this fact-filled booklet, you’ll discover THIRTEEN timeless principles to build your business own,

TEN business growth mistakes many business owners make, SEVEN questions to ask any consultant

before hiring one to grow your business, ethical and unethical sales practices by consultants, as well as

how to have a happy, healthy relationship with your advisor.

We wrote this guide to help you better understand business growth. Now, with this information, you

can make an informed, intelligent decision. You are invited to email me at [email protected]. We’ve

dedicated our business to educating business owners. We’ll be happy to help you in every way.

Cordially,

Ted Leithart


Theodore (Ted) Leithart

……is the owner of The Leithart Group, LLC. He has been in the Business Growth Consulting Industry for

several years. He has been mentored by the best business growth advisers the top business magazines

and journals laud and cheer - and isn’t that what you really want – results.

Ted has a Masters in Business Administration from Xavier University and taught Marketing Strategy to

would-be entrepreneurs at the post-graduate level.

Ted has dedicated his business to helping business owners get the highest return from investment in

their business. Peter Drucker said “Since a business has only one function, to attract and retain a

customer, a business only has two assets – Marketing and Innovation. Everything else is an expense.”

The Leithart Group is focused solely on enhancing the assets within your business.

The Leithart Group welcomes your inquiries and will gladly answer your questions by conference call or

in-person.

Theodore J Leithart

Twenty Mile Stand, OH 45140 USA

[email protected]



13 BUSINESS GROWTH MISTAKES MOST BUSINESS OWNERS MAKE

MISTAKE 1: Being an Advertising Victim.

A successful, growing business consistently spends a pre-determined marketing and advertising budget

every month.

Thirdly, you should know the various results you realize by your different ads. Finally, if you want to grow,

you need to spend a minor amount of your marketing dollars testing new ads so he is constantly improving

the ROI on his marketing dollars.

You see, most business owners market themselves based on an advertising sales rep or agency telling you

that you need to advertise because…you need to advertise. And they want to sell you "institutional"

advertising instead of "direct response" advertising.

Institutional advertising is where you can't measure your results. They tell you that when someone is ready

for your particular product business service, they will now think of you and pick you to do business with. If

you fall victim to this, you will have difficulty growing your business as it only results in name recognition,

not in more sales.

And there is a HUGE difference between name recognition and becoming wealthy.

What you want to do and ONLY do is emotional direct response advertising. That's advertising where every

dollar you spend is measurable and accountable.

A direct response advertisement connects with its intended customer by discussing a problem a prospect

has he or she does not want, then offering a solution. This is followed by reasons on why the offered

solution is a great alternative. Lastly, an offer on how to purchase or obtain additional information is

provided.

The Leithart Group has a 5-minute score sheet to evaluate your current marketing. It is a part of the

BUSINESS GROWTH AUDIT mentioned elsewhere in this guide.

MISTAKE 2: Lack Diversification in Your Marketing

Most businesses depend on one way to advertise in. If the economy changes, customer tastes change, a

new way to communicate evolves (from mail to on-line communication, or the competing businesses in your

community begin to market to your customers, your marketing and advertising may not be as effective as it

was.


By depending on one way to market your business, you may have lost possibly over 50% of your sales. On

the other hand, if you are using a dozen or so ways to drive customers to your business, if one or two

strategies begin to falter or they completely fail, you still have 10-11 ways of driving business into your

Business.

MISTAKE 3: Doing Everything Yourself.

You should realize you cannot do everything yourself – you don’t have the time, the energy or the resources

to do everything. As a result, you need a salespeople. Your salespeople should be trained and retrained

continually on the sales process as well as his products and services.

MISTAKE 4: NOT having every process and strategy mapped out in a guide or journal.

You should know your sales process, including his lead or prospect generating and conversion process. You

should also know ‘loss leaders’ or ‘first buy’ offers attract the most customers.

MISTAKE 5: NOT knowing the second easiest customer to sell

The answer is Referrals. Unfortunately, most business owners believe that if they treat their customers’

great and give them great service and products, their customers will refer their friends to them. This is

WRONG.

This "Lack of a Referral Program” is a HUGE marketing mistake.

The last thing that anyone is thinking when they are finished doing business with you is: "whom can I send to

these nice people so that they can get some more customers?" Your customers will not refer others to you

on a regular, consistent basis because they are occupied with their lives. There are dozens of referral

strategies available that you can easily implement into your business to drive referrals to you on a consistent

basis.


MISTAKE 6: If referrals are the second easiest customer to sell, Who is the third?

After existing customers and referrals, the easiest customers to sell are your “lost customers.” These are

customers who have left you and have not returned. Most business owners totally ignore the customers

that have NOT done business with them in several months.

The Leithart Group can help you with your “Customer Reactivation" system. Just schedule a BUSINESS

GROWTH AUDIT to strategize how to effectively attract your lost customers.

Ted knows what other activities his customer base is participating in when they are considering his products

and/or services.

MISTAKE 7: NOT communicating with your Present Customers Frequently Enough

I just told you that referrals and lost customers are the 2nd and 3rd easiest customers to get money from.

Your present customers are the first. The best way to accomplish this is to simply increase the frequency of

your contacts with them.

If you think you are mailing or calling your customers too often, you're probably wrong! Here are the facts of

a survey conducted by DIRECT Magazine in 1999: "The proper frequency to contact your customers is every

20-days." Perhaps even worse, for every month that you do not connect your customer, you lose your

relationship with 10% of them.

I have friends who connect with their best customers 15 times a year through a Direct Mail piece. One

extreme is a multi-million dollar business that connects with their best customers 2 times per day – every

business day of the year (without losing customers).

I know of another business with a few thousand customers who connect with their customer base on a daily

basis. The daily goal is to sell $7500 in products and services to their customer base on a DAILY basis. By the

way – they do not lose ANY of their customers.

There’s magic in increased frequency when you have a story to tell that interests your customers and

prospects.

MISTAKE 8: NOT Having Your Entire Marketing system planned out


You should have your “force multiplier” mapped out. What do you do first to attract a customer. If they buy,

what’s the first back-end offering. If they don’t buy immediately, what drip campaign do you put them into.

And so forth …

MISTAKE 9: Not using all the proprietary information you have

You should be using everything at your disposal to make your business different from your competitors,

from information to patents to patents pending to future products or services to be introduced in the

future. You need to have a timeline of when these new items will be introduced.

MISTAKE 10: Not Collecting Customer Data every time they visit your Business

How many times does a customer do business with you and you are not able to continue to communicate

with him/ her because you do NOT know how to contact her/ him?

The real gold in any business is in the customer list. It is much easier to get an existing customer to return to

you than it is to get a new customer to do business with you. In addition, returning customers spend twice

as much upon their return as your new customer will spend on their first purchase with you. What would

happen to your businesses if you had to constantly rely on selling new customers instead of existing ones?

So why do you, as a business owner, not collect your customer data? This is a bad business decision, pure

and simple. You must collect the necessary information which allows you to continue to market to your

most valuable asset—YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS.

When an acquaintance of mine sold their business a couple of years ago, they had collected the name,

address, phone number, e-mail address, and had accumulated a complete purchase history on over 84% of

their customers. This was a database of 86,400 customers. She could have simply marketed to her existing

customers and continue to grow her business for years if she hadn’t sold out.

You must continue to communicate with your past clients as well as suppliers and/or customers and work to

leverage these relationships in ways that continually provide more value to your clients, suppliers and

customers.


MISTAKE 11: NOT Knowing Your Uniqueness in the Marketplace

You must know why your business is unique in the marketplace, to the point your prospects realize they

would be stupid to do business with others. Along with his, you know how your competitors each position

themselves so you can leverage this in your favor.

MISTAKE 12: NOT knowing the Lifetime Value of a Customer

Calculate the total spent on marketing and advertising in a fiscal year for the past three years (M).

Find the number of new customers you attracted in each of the past three years (NC).

Dividing M/NC yields, on average, how much you spent to attract ONE new customer.

NOW calculate the following:

What’s the Average sale price of all the items you sold in the past year (AVGPRICE).

What’s the average number of times a typical customer visited your store over the past year (AVGTIMES)

How many years does the average customer purchase from you (YRS)

Calculating AVGPRICE x AVGTIMES x YRS = the average total revenue you receive for each new customer you

attract (R )

Find your gross profit margin (GPM) by subtracting: Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold)/Revenue

R x GPM = Gross Profits made off of the average new customer

MISTAKE 13: NOT Knowing Your Ability to Grow

You should know what capacity your business has to increase its sales (If your sales increased by 100%,

300%, 1000%, and 5000% over the next twelve months, would your business be able to handle it).

MISTAKE 14: Contentment


At some point you will have to exit your business – either by retiring, dying, or your health fails. So you need

to have goals and work to achieve them, but you also should know when it’s time to be content with what

you have been blessed with. Along with this, You should know the answer to the question: What if your

business does not grow beyond what level it is now.

MISTAKE 15: Believing your customers are too sophisticated for direct response

marketing techniques.

Without testing, believing your customers are too sophisticated for direct response marketing techniques

could be detrimental to your business’ health.

A very successful direct mail pieces from a few years ago was a 5-piece handwritten letter on yellow legal

paper. This went to professionals who were the business’ best customers – lawyers, doctors, judges,

presidents of multi-million dollar companies, and the response was phenomenal.

There’s obviously more to this than just writing a 5- page handwritten letter on yellow legal paper, including

many proven direct response techniques.

The moral is you need to continually test new marketing strategies as well as establish baselines for your

marketing efforts all the time.

MISTAKE 16: "Working 'In' Your Business Instead Of 'On' Your Business"

This addresses one of the biggest problems that I hear from business owners, which is - I'M TOO BUSY. I'm

too busy to do any marketing because

I'm the best worker here

I need to serve my customers personally

I need to parent staff.

The solution to this business growth mistake is to: STOP SEEING YOURSELF AS AN OWNER OF YOUR

PARTICULAR CATEGORY OF MERCHANDISE, BUT AS A MARKETER OF A BUSINESS THAT SELLS YOUR

CATEGORY OF MERCHANDISE –


MISTAKE 17: NOT Realizing the Overall Importance of Marketing

The marketer in any competitive environment, in any market will be the one who achieves financial

freedom. That is because the real money in any business is in the marketing, not in actually doing all the

tasks within the business.

Setting aside time to work “on” your business instead of “in” your business will become the most profitable

time that you spend during your entire career. And by all means, make the time to learn marketing or find

someone to outsource your marketing to.

MISTAKE 18: Lack of 'Shameless’ Self Promotion

One thing that I have discovered, in speaking to hundreds of business owners is that everyone thinks their

particular business is different. Well, you're probably right. Every one of you has something different or

special about your business. But the mistake you are making is keeping it a secret.

You have a great opportunity to promote yourself and your business and the best part is that you can do it

for the cost of a “first class” stamp (possibly less in our Internet, social media filled society). That’s right –

learn how to write a simple 1-page press release and send it out in a #10 envelope. Your local papers and

media are hungry for your story. But they can't run it unless you give it to them. Making the mistake that

they will seek you out is simply - a mistake. In fact, over 80% of all local news stories are a result of a simple

press release.


7 QUESTIONS TO ASK ANY CONSULTANT BEFORE HIRING ONE

1. What is their warranty or Guarantee? Do they even have one?

There are many coaches, counselors, advisors and experts in the marketplace these days. Unfortunately,

there is no credential or accreditation a business advisor needs to go into business. The one thing that

truly matters is the return you receive on your investment of blood, sweat and tears (and money) in

your business.

That’s why the Leithart Group, LLC prefers to work on a performance basis. By doing so, there’s no

downside on your part – you only participate in the positive results.

This is in comparison to some coaching programs who “cannot desire your success more than you do.”

2. Are they open to having at least a portion of their compensation be based on

contingency or on performance?

The Leithart Group, LLC prefers to be compensated on performance. However, seeking Ferrari-like

performance out of a business which is not engineered to perform in this way (or ready to perform this

way) would be an exercise in futility to both the business owner and us.

Should this be the case, you will be notified by the end of our first meeting. In such cases, we will offer

guidance which will quickly improve your business – but we do not offer these services on a

performance basis.

3. Are they giving you ANY indication of the strategies they intend to incorporate into

your business to grow it?

The Leithart Group, LLC is happy to divulge what strategies will be incorporated. However, just because

you are exposed to a methodology does not make you an expert. Keep in mind we are not in business to

donate our expertise to others – just as you are not in business to give away your products and services.

Success does not result from trying something once. From undergraduate studies to medical school to

residency and internship to specialized training takes over a decade. Rather than trying something you

hear about in one conversation and expecting great success, utilizing someone else’s years of study,

insight and success is the quickest way to achieve success.

4. Are they assisting you in increasing your happiness and abundance?


We are in business to build relationships with business owners who consider us as their dear, valued,

blessed, trusted friends and advisors.

5. Are they going to assist you in leveraging your existing costs and overhead or are

they requiring you to use additional overhead to build your business?

The Leithart Group, LLC is all about leverage. Rather than adding to your overhead, we are the people at

risk. With our performance based system, you only realize the growth of your business, not the risk

associated with most business coaching systems.

6. Will they provide references?

Go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedleithart/and scroll down to the Recommendations section

7. When is now a good time to change your business into a Cash Machine?

This is a perfect time to begin to turn your business into a cash machine that works for you, rather than

you having a highly compensated job with unending hours.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedleithart/


ETHICAL AND UNETHICAL WAYS CONSULTANTS CLOSE THE SALE

Without sales, businesses die. This unvarnished truth drives consultants and advisors to work hard at

securing sales. Unfortunately, the drive to sell often leads a consultant to use unethical sales techniques

to bolster short-term numbers. Ethical sales techniques produce enduring and profitable relationships

with you, while unethical sales techniques damage relationships.

Unethical Technique – Excessive Fine Print

A consultant may bury guarantee limitations, performance guarantees and other information that might

undermine your confidence within the fine print. You will only discover this information when

something goes wrong and you want a refund, either partial or in full. They then inform you that your

request is not covered, not possible, or requires an excessive fee to accommodate. While this technique

may lead to a few short-term sales, this method of acquiring business will ruin a consultant's reputation

over time.

Unethical Technique – Bait and Switch

This is a classic unethical technique: the bait and switch promises you one thing and offers them

something different at the store or on delivery.

For example, a grocery store promises to sell porterhouse steaks at half the regular price. You arrive at

the store to hear “sold out,” except the store never stocked the advertised porterhouses at all, or only

has a few available that are gone quickly. Instead, the store offers you a more expensive brand it hopes

you will purchase instead.

Unethical Technique – Misrepresentation

Here are a few examples:

A consultant may misrepresent their capabilities to secure the sale.

A consultant might misrepresent the actual costs of their services and the implementation of the same

or offer a discounted promotional price as though it were their standard monthly retainer.

A consultant may suggest you can expect the business will grow more quickly than your company can

possibly install the new methods.


Ethical Technique – Transparent Pricing

An ethical person does not try to hide the actual costs of the product or service.

If you are offered a promotional price, you should be told when he price goes up and by how much.

If the consulting services perform as well as they claim, transparent pricing shouldn’t damage sales as

long as you both perform per the agreement.

Ethical Technique – Factual Comparisons

When asked, a consultant should be able to provide a comparison of his services versus a competitor’s

service. Securing your business often requires convincing you that the new service can outperform the

old service.

An ethical consultant should not criticize competitor’s services.

Ethical Technique – Honesty

All ethical sales techniques derive from basic honesty, whether about the product capabilities, the

timetable for upgrades or the parameters of customer service.

Assuming responsibility for mistakes or problems, rather than passing the blame on to a third-party, can

help cement your belief in a consultant.

Honest consultants avoid high-pressure techniques, as high-pressure techniques often create short-term

sales at the cost of good customer relations.


THE IMPORTANCE OF PRICE VERSUS VALUE

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

That’s why the Leithart Group, LLC prefers to work on a performance basis – because the only “price”

you pay is based on the results generating additional profits for your business.

Isn’t this like receiving a 100% NO-RISK GUARANTEE?

FOUR STEPS TO A HAPPY RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BUSINESS

GROWTH ADVISOR

If you’re thinking about bringing a consultant into your business, we encourage you to follow these four

steps:

Make a commitment to yourself to get your business to a place where it is Simple, Massively

Profitable and Fun. The longer you stay in the position you are in, the more likely your business will no

longer be in business.

List your objectives. Do you want a minimal increase in business or do you want to substantially

grow your business? Can your business have the capacity to grow substantially over the next few

months?

Do you want to work with an honest, reputable consultant – or are you willing to risk working with the

consultant that offers you the lowest price – knowing they might not be in business tomorrow?

Ask questions. The way you learn about a consultant is to ask specific questions and listen carefully to

the answers. Elsewhere in this guide you have 7 questions to ask ANY Consultant before hiring one for

your business.

Once you’re satisfied that you’re working with an honest, competent professional, invite him into

your business to determine the scope of work, resulting in a quotation.

By following these four steps, you’ll gain all the information you need to make an informed, intelligent

decision. If you want a quick, inexpensive consultant, many companies you can find in a Google search

can help you. Or you can read the 2 million pieces of data on business growth found for free on the

Internet, sort the good insights from the meaningless and do the job yourself.

But if you want your business to Accelerate Its Revenue (and Profits) fast, possibly faster than you can

imagine over the next few months, then we invite you to call us. We’ll be happy to answer your

questions – or come into your business and determine how to install these fast, simple to implement

profit generators - , email us at [email protected]


THANKS AGAIN!

……for reviewing our new BUSINESS OWNERS’ GUIDE TO REVENUE ACCELERATION.

I hope you found this information helpful. –If you have questions or comments, or you’d like to

determine how to Accelerate Your Revenue – please email us at [email protected] and we will be

pleased to forward the BUSINESS GROWTH AUDIT at your request.

We’ve dedicated our business to consumer education and service.

We’ll be pleased to help you in every way.

We look forward to your call.

Thanks and Thrive Easily & Delightfully (TED)!

Ted Leithart

The Leithart Group, LLC

REVENUE ACCELERATION EXPERTS


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