How to Insure the Next Step You Take is the Right One – In Just 7 Minutes with Bill Prater

Resources/Links:

• Want more FREE tips and tools on how you can be confident about your next step? Click here: Getbillsgift.com

Summary

Have you been working hard on your business but feel like nothing’s working to make it grow? Want to know how you can ensure that the step you’ll take is actually the right one?

It’s not always about taking the opportunities, but rather, being strategic about the next step you’ll take. You definitely don’t want to waste your energy on actions that won’t work– so how can you ensure that the next step you take is the right one?

Bill Prater is the Founder and CEO of Business Mastery and the Creator of Scaleology. Bill earned his reputation as America’s Business Alchemist by helping business owners and entrepreneurs break free of inertia and accelerate into the future they dream of.

Dive into how you can master your business, focus on the right strategies, and ensure that your next step will be a success through the help of Bill!

Check out these episode highlights:

• 02:24 – Bill’s ideal client: The ideal client is an entrepreneur or small business owner that’s focusing on providing services to companies that sell business-to-business or B2B.
• 02:42 – The problem he helps solve: So, the primary problem that I help people solve is to get out of, if you will, running their business from an opportunistic standpoint, and instead convert that into being more strategic about the steps they’re taking day-to-day.
• 03:26 – The symptoms of the problem: There are several, but let me give you kind of what I find to be the top three. And that would be that number one, they find that whatever they do, from a marketing or sales or a staffing standpoint, they don’t seem to move the needle.
• 04:47 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Bill: The most prevalent one is being, let’s use the word seduced or romanced, by some sort of a sales message they get either by going to a webinar, for example, or reading an ad in Ink Magazine or something, and they’ll say, “Gee, that really sounds like the solution to my problem!”
• 07:30 – Bill’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Well, one of my philosophies is to focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many. Now, an exercise that I do every single day, and I’d like to recommend that our listener, Tom, do this. And that is every day, either at the end of the day or the first thing in the morning, is to just think, “As a result of everything I did yesterday, am I closer to or further from my long-term vision?”
• 08:17 – Bill’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want more FREE tips and tools on how you can be confident about your next step? Click here: Getbillsgift.com
• 09:11- Q: Bill, how in the world can you deal with such a diverse group of clients? A: And the answer is because, at the highest level, everything is the same.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many.” -Bill Prater Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m joined today by Bill Prater. Bill, good day from Down Under. Sir, where are you hanging out?

Bill Prater 00:18
Phoenix, Arizona, Tom.

Tom Poland 00:20
And the question on everyone’s lips is how do you get your frickin hair so perfect every single morning? It’s even better than mine!

Bill Prater 00:26
Well, I use a razor. You just use clippers.

Tom Poland 00:30
Yes. Well, my wife uses the clippers.

Bill Prater 00:33
Ah!

Tom Poland 00:33
Yeah, my hairdresser lost a client the day he just decided to get some clippers and shear my hair off completely. I think my wife could do that. Phoenix, Arizona, do you golf?

Bill Prater 00:47
I golf. I live on a golf course. It’s gorgeous!

Tom Poland 00:51
Amazing!

Bill Prater 0:51
And yeah, absolutely.

Tom Poland 00:53
Because it’s kind of like Phoenix is almost the Gulf and capital of the US, I think.

Bill Prater 00:57
Well, actually I live on three golf courses.

Tom Poland 00:59
Where else in the US can you live on three golf courses? All right. So, folks, we’ll get off sports and hairstyles and back to Bill and his expertise. He is the founder and CEO of Business Mastery, which is a fabulous community that may- perhaps more on that later. He’s also the creator of Scaleology. He earned his reputation as America’s Business Alchemist by helping business owners and entrepreneurs break free from inertia and accelerate into the future they dream of. Bill’s got very specific intellectual property around scaling businesses. And I know a lot of people say they have but Bill has got a well-developed intellectual property of methodology around this. How many years you’ve been helping people grow businesses, Bill?

Bill Prater 01:47
Well, you’re in the- from a consulting standpoint, the answer is 23. But prior to that, I used to raise money for people I own an investment banking firm.

Tom Poland 01:57
Right, so you’re on the periphery on the edges of the heart of financing, for probably, well, another 20 years on top of that. But 23 years specifically focused as a consultant, coach, and mentor. Thanks for being here. Your expertise, I’m sure, is going to prove to be valuable to a lot of our listeners. The title today, folks, is, “How to Make Sure Your Next Step is the Right Step”. Bill, our seven minutes start now. Question number one, who is your ideal client?

Bill Prater 02:24
The ideal client, Tom, is an entrepreneur or small business owner that’s focusing on providing services to companies that sell business-to-business or B2B.

Tom Poland 02:36
Right. So, the people that are selling services to the B2B companies. Tell us about the problem you solve, that’s question two.

Bill Prater 02:42
So, the primary problem that I help people solve is to get out of, if you will, running their business from an opportunistic standpoint, and instead convert that into being more strategic about the steps they’re taking day-to-day. And so, the problem really is helping people avoid a bunch of missteps, mistakes, and going down the wrong path far too often.

Tom Poland 03:09
Right. So, let’s go then to symptoms. Questions three, six minutes left. If someone’s listening to this, how would they know they should be finding out more about what you do? What’s going on in their life, or their business that kind of gives them a heads up and go, “Yeah, I’ve got those symptoms. I need help with that”?

Bill Prater 03:26
There are several, but let me give you kind of what I find to be the top three. And that would be that number one, they find that whatever they do, from a marketing or sales or a staffing standpoint, they don’t seem to move the needle. That wherever they are, whether it be 500,000 of annual revenue or 500 million annual revenue, it seems to be stuck at that point on and on. So that’s kind of number one. Number two, they find that they’re personally drawn into doing every single thing in the business. Now, if you’re a solopreneur, you expect it every single day and you hope one day I’ll get out of that. But if you’ve got a team of five or six managers and you’re still getting sucked into the day-to-day, then you know something’s wrong. So that’s number two. And then number three, is that you realize that for some reason or another, you finally understand that no one really is ever going to buy your business because you personally are too important to do it.

Tom Poland 04:32
Well, that’s an expensive system. That’s a painful symptom. Let’s go to mistakes that people- so four and a half minutes left. What would you say are some of the common mistakes that some of your best clients made before they found out about your solution?

Bill Prater 04:47
So, Tom, the most prevalent one is being, let’s use the word seduced or romanced, by some sort of a sales message they get either by going to a webinar, for example, or reading an ad in Ink Magazine or something, and they’ll say, “Gee, that really sounds like the solution to my problem!” And so, the mistake they make is, they go and invest their time and treasure in it, only to find out, it may be a fantastic solution, but it’s the wrong timing for them. So that’s the most frequent problem. And then all the manifestations from that all the frustration that comes out of it, getting mad at themselves for not being more insightful and strategic, and so forth.

Tom Poland 05:35
So, is that like, putting the solution, you know, not understanding the context of the problem, and just finding something that sounds like a good solution, but they haven’t defined the problem? Is it rushing into something that’s tactical before they figure out the strategy? A couple of questions in there, but what would you say?

Bill Prater 05:52
Well, actually, it’s really a lot of both of them. So, they know this, most business owners, and entrepreneurs, know the symptoms. So, for the symptoms, we went through, and, you know, many people see. Well, the symptom is they’re working too hard. They’re involved in too many day-to-day activities. If they’ve tried to sell their business, they end up either not getting any buyers, or the offers they get are too small. So, they know that’s the symptom, but what they don’t understand is that the solution is the way they’re going about, if you will, running their business from a very high level. It’s interesting that the tendency of people when they’re trying to solve a problem, Tom, is to dive into the problem and dig deep. In fact, you can hear those like drill down. No! The best solutions arrive when you are able to, what I call it, chunk up, get higher and higher and get a bigger perspective, then will the symptoms go away and you start seeing little flares, little fires are going on. And those are the problems.

Tom Poland 07:07
Yeah, and a lot of us have experienced that when we’ve been buried in business. And we’ve gone away for two weeks on holiday. And we come back and we, suddenly, be able to see the big picture, because we haven’t been drilling down, we’ve been having a break. So, let’s go to question five, only two minutes left, so I better hurry up. One top tip, it’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it might give people a bit of a start.

Bill Prater 07:30
Well, one of my philosophies is to focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many. Now, an exercise that I do every single day, and I’d like to recommend that our listener, Tom, do this. And that is every day, either at the end of the day or the first thing in the morning, is to just think, “As a result of everything I did yesterday, am I closer to or further from my long-term vision?” The answer is binary – yes or no. Don’t dwell on what in the world happened. But the next thing is most important. What’s one thing I can do tomorrow, one vital single thing, that moves the needle the farther way down the road? That’s the daily exercise.

Tom Poland 08:16
Every single day. Thank you for that! Folks, worth rewinding and writing that one down, if you haven’t already captured it. 45 seconds left. Question six is one valuable free resource we can direct people to. I’m going to give this to, folks, and you can explain to them, Bill. www.ceoa.circle.so. So ceoa.circle.so. Bill, what are folks going to find when they get there?

Bill Prater 08:17
Now, let me even make it simpler for people, Tom. Getbillsgift.com.

Tom Poland 08:35
Great, getbillsgift.com. And what are they going to find there?

Bill Prater 08:57
Well, what you’re going to find there is a free membership, for as long as you like it, in the business master community, which is my signature program.

Tom Poland 09:07
And question seven, what’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Bill Prater 09:11
Well, a lot of people have asked me, “Bill, how in the world can you deal with such a diverse group of clients?” And the answer is because, at the highest level, everything is the same.

Tom Poland 09:24
So true. Bill Prater, thank you so much for your time and your wisdom, and your insights. Cheers!

Bill Prater 9:30
You’re very welcome, Tom. I’m happy to be in your program.

Tom Poland 09:34
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.