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Once a business coach has helped a leadership team define goals and priorities and create a clear vision for the future, they next look at all of the possible obstacles that could prevent the business from being successful in their efforts to achieve those goals. Even the most successful organizations have “issues” from time to time: those problems or obstacles that could prevent future growth and development and limit your overall success. The key is to identify your potential problems and by bringing them out into the open by placing them on an Issues List.

In today’s fast paced world, it’s important for business owners and leadership teams to always be a few steps ahead of the game. Even though a great deal can change in a business over three years, business coaches recommend taking the time to create a vivid picture of what your business will look like the business in three years. Why? A 3-Year Picture helps leadership teams accomplish the following:

When business owners are just starting out, typically any customer that pays is considered a good one. However, as time goes on and you work to further develop the business, those customers may not be your ideal customer anymore. Perhaps they aren’t as profitable as they used to be or have started making unreasonable demands on the business. There comes a time when every small business can use some help, ideally with the help of business coaching, to refine the target market for the business. Defining your target market can help streamline sales and marketing efforts. By making “The List”, a master list of prospects that outlines exactly who your target customers are, your leadership team can work to send out a consistent, compelling message that will win those profile prospects over to becoming long-term customers or clients.

When putting together a marketing strategy, business coaches and leadership teams will often take a deep dive into how the business operates and interacts with customers in order to develop a guarantee they will stand behind. From a business standpoint, a guarantee is your opportunity to pinpoint an industry wide problem and solve it. It can also be thought of as a pledge, commitment, or a promise. When customers know they can count on you for specific services the way they expect them, it will put their minds at ease and help you cultivate more business while developing a positive public image.

One of the first steps in business coaching is to determine the Three Uniques of a business, or the top three differentiators that make one business better than the competition. Leadership teams often skip this step when they are just starting out, only to find themselves struggling to truly define their vision and values down the road. Competing in too many sectors, markets, services or product lines isn’t an effective way to get ahead. Business coaches teach leadership teams to avoid trying to be all things to all people, instead showing them how to develop a strategic focus that puts the business on the right path for success.