David Avrin - How to Build and Position Your Business (F0118)

Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for. Their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And don't miss our one minute exit coach tip of the day on exitcoachradio.com. And now here's your host, the exit coach Bill Black. Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm very excited about our next guest, and let me ask you a question, business owners. Do you think that uh everything that we've talked about makes sense that you have to plan well in advance to get ready for your exit now when you're positioning your business for sale, one of those areas you have to focus on is marketing and branding and building and positioning your business. for growth or acquisition in your marketing and branding, and our next guest is David Avrin. He's a consultant and a keynote speaker on marketing and branding. So we're going to talk about that, how you can build and position your business for growth or acquisition. David, thank you very much for joining us and welcome to the show. thrilled to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. My pleasure. You're in, you're in Castle Rock, Colorado, one of my favorite of the world, just south of Denver. I mean, I'm based here in Castle Rock, but I'm, I'm all over the world all the time. I actually just got back from Barcelona, Spain on Friday, was presenting out there, and in the last 30 days I've been in Glasgow, Scotland, and Amsterdam and Maui. So I'm based in Castlerock, but my home is all over the world. If it wasn't for the travel, it'd probably be a lot of, you know, you're in some great places. It sounds like a fantastic, you know, I know that's what I tell people, I say, you know, I love where I go. It's the going there and the coming back. That's really hard. Travel, you know, travel is difficult, but of course when you get there you have a valuable message for people. So groups like Visage International and other business owner type groups want to hear about this topic because it's so important and especially as you're positioning for growth or acquisition. So how did you get started? What's your background? How'd you get started as a visibility coach? Sure, my background was actually in marketing and branding. I had a marketing firm for some years. I worked with a lot of Larger organizations and a lot of not for profits and um and then start being asked more and more to come and present. I I would teach a college course or I'd be presenting on, on marketing back in the day, and they've started calling it branding about 20 years ago and uh which sort of encompasses a lot of the different disciplines of advertising and public relations and advertising and specialties and all of these things as well and it's sort of this catch-all term of branding. And and had some great opportunities to, I've written some books and now I travel the country and travel the world with a, I think a very important message and I love being on this show because It's not just for people building early stage businesses. It's absolutely crucial and vital for people who are looking to exit their businesses as well. I was listening to the last gentleman from the B2B CFO and everything he said absolutely spot on in terms of the numbers and the preparation, and I think it dovetails very nicely into what it is that I do, which is at the end of the day for somebody who's looking to purchase the business, looking for a strategic acquisition maybe, or even a financial acquisition. They'll look at the numbers hard, but they're also going to step back and say, is this a business that is imminently marketable? Is it differentiated sufficiently in the marketplace that it's attractive to them? The numbers are crucial, but at the end of the day, is this a business I can build? Is this a business where there's some competitive advantages? And that's what I talk about. That's what I teach, is how to create and ferret out and communicate competitive advantage. Well, especially in the good points, especially in the financial buyer and the entrepreneurial buyer, they're looking for, well, I guess everything, the strategic, they're looking for are we proud of this business and what it's accomplished and its reputation in the marketplace, and that gets created by their. Marketing and branding on a day to day basis, doesn't it? Absolutely. Well, you know what they're always going to look at the last, you know, 23 years, but they want to look at the next 5 to 10 years as well, or maybe they ultimately have an exit strategy. Where does this business stand in a competitive marketplace? We're in a very interesting time in history, like no other time in human history. For the first time ever, everybody's good. Everybody's, everybody's good. Competition is unbelievable, coming out of very challenging economic times, and some industries were really affected even more than others, those that weren't strategic. Those that didn't make smart decisions form synergistic partnerships or strategic alliances and smart with cash, those businesses didn't, didn't survive or they've been reduced to such an extent that they're no longer a realistic competitor for most. What's left, here's my definition of the new normal. The new normal is a marketplace populated by great companies. They're smart. Smart. They're lean. They've already made the hard decisions. They've made the hard and painful cuts. And so what's left is a marketplace populated by great companies. Everybody's good, and I'll play the part of the prospective customer. I have so many choices, and all of the choices are good. I guarantee most people listening right now to this call, their business could disappear from the face of the earth today and despite some very sad family members and to be sure, the marketplace wouldn't miss them, and I don't mean that to be disrespectful. It's just to acknowledge the fact that there are so many choices and they're all good choices. So instead of looking at your marketing and your basic messages of quality and commitment and caring and trust and great people, which everybody says we have to make a compelling case that not that we're just a great choice, but that we're a better choice than all of the other great choices. And that's the significant shift, I think, in the marketplace that everybody really has to face. It just wasn't true 30 years ago. You could get away with varying levels of quality. if somebody wasn't happy. Well, you know what, we're not going to please everyone. Now today, everybody has access to instant feedback, and they can tell everybody immediately on Yelp, on TripAdvisor, on Angie's List. And and everything else, so the tolerance for underperformance in the marketplace is nonexistent anymore. And so being really, really today, being really, really good at what you do, that's the entry fee and it's never been like that before. Very interesting the transparency of of your reputation. Oh yeah. Yeah, and, and, and social media has created, especially in the business to consumer marketplace, you can live or die by that kind of stuff these days and of course everybody's, everybody seems to be interested in in things like the net promoter score which is are your customers raving fans or are they dissenters because uh that that is what's going. Drive your business into the future these days. So it's very important. What else has changed? I mean, social media has changed a lot. What else has changed dramatically from your perspective? Sure, we can talk about social media as well, but I think that the biggest significant change, and this is sort of the core of my message as I travel the world speaking to business owners and entrepreneurs and others, is there has been a profound shift. And the shift has taken place over the last, I think, 2030 years, and the shift is from, it's not from agricultural to industrial or from analog to digital, certainly profound, but there has been a remarkable shift from selling to buying, and I'll explain in yesteryear we would walk into an appliance store and some teenager would, you know, tell us about some new range or this newfangled microwave oven, or we'd walk into a car dealership. And we'd walk around the car and we'd get inside and play with the knobs, and then we would motion the salesperson over and we'd say, so tell us about this car. We don't do that anymore. We don't need to do that anymore. We nobody needs to sell us anything. It doesn't mean that there's not a role for a salesperson. I just think the role has changed, um. We go in, we buy things because the sale already happened in our mind. That's part of the branding process. It's part of just our unbelievable access to information online, otherwise instantaneous. It's why companies like Best Buy and others are literally on the verge of bankruptcy because we treat them like a show. Room because we, we still need to touch it and we look at it and then we go online and we, you know, in our pocket and we pull out our phone and we buy it cheaper somewhere else, um, but the marketplace has become a grocery store and you walk down the aisles of the grocery store and nobody sells you anything, right? You go through and you buy things because the sale already happened in your mind. It doesn't mean there's not a strong role for marketing and all of that, but it, it's just sort of the, the, the recognition that the choices are, are boundless and um we don't need to be sold anymore. We need to have enough access to information online and otherwise so that that you at least are a finalist in that final decision. And then there's other issues, of course, proximity and price and everything else, but Your website has to be spectacular. Your online reviews. I love the idea when you talk about net promoter score. I think it's crucial because you, knowledge is power, right? We need to know what's going on in the marketplace, how people perceive us, so we can make those modifications along the line. Very, very, very important, great insights. I mean, you're right, when I think about it, we have turned into a grocery store kind of a mentality. Of the sale's been made. We've either learned about the product or we learn on the fly very quickly too. Is our information gathering at a peak now? Do you think it's going to get even more interactive as far as our experiences with social media and technology? Oh, I think it can, but I think there's there's people and other speakers and prognosticators and authors who really look at. Social media, excuse me, as the holy grail. I think it's just another tool. It's people say, you know, you know, you've got to be on this. You've got to gather some. It's, you look at your core audience. What do they read? What do they watch? Where do they recreate and congregate and just make sure you are where they are. The social media has been sort of touted as the holy grail. I think it's important some industries more than others. But it's not as much about the tactic as it is the strategy. The tactic is, here's different ways to reach people. The strategy is more important, which is what are we saying to them? How are we, are we saying the same basic things we talk about our honesty, our integrity, our trust, trust, our great people. We're really passionate about what we do, and they fall on deaf ears cause everybody says it, whether it's traditional marketing or social media, which is a part of it. Here's my mantra. If you want people to be interested, you have to be interesting. And I think it's a profound way of looking. It's not about being having a blog. It's not about being on social media. It's about being interesting on your blog. It's about being interesting on social media. I get the question all the time. How do you get something to go viral? And I, and I say jokingly, it's very complicated. Just post something online that's so interesting that someone would actually pass it on to somebody else and they go, No, really? And I say, No, really, that's it. If you want people to be interested, you need to be interesting. People think that SEO, search engine optimization. Experts will say you've got to blog every day so the spiders can find you. No, you're just training people to ignore most of what you have to say. If you want, if you want lots of followers, give them something worth following. I have a colleague named Simaal. She's very, she's brilliant, talks about social media. She has a great line. She says, Before you post something, ask yourself the question Is it more likely to be forwarded or deleted? That's a tough standard. I don't even know if I can live up to that one, but it's a great one to aspire to. And I think the overall message is there's lots of great tactics. There's a lot of dollars you can spend on social media or traditional advertising. I think the most important thing is for business owners, especially those who are looking to grow their business for transition. Um, to take a step back and look at the competitive marketplace, do a side by side comparison, spend two weeks, go and maybe assign somebody on your team, get all of the brochures and sales sheets and catalogs and website pages of your top 3 or 4 competitors, all of that, and 90% of companies do not have the promotional materials for all their competitors, which to me is crazy. Spend a couple weeks, secret shop them, pretend to be a customer, and then spread it out on a conference. Room table along with your promotional materials and your website pages, everything printed all off and walk around the table, grab a couple of members of your team and give everybody a highlighter and walk around the table playing buzzword bingo. You will be stunned. People will be stunned at how similar, if not identical, their claims are to the claims of their competitors, and largely 99% of what you say is probably true, but true does not equal compelling, and accurate does not equal persuasive. I think the biggest lesson that I look to in part with with my my book which is called It's Not Who You Know, It's Who Knows You, and my presentations that I do around the country, and you can see me on visibilitycoach.com is just that is remember you're in a competitive marketplace. You're not having a conversation with your prospective customer. You're one of 5 companies having the exact same conversation with your prospective customer. Are you standing out? Are you and for those who who struggle to Sort of look back and say what do we do differently, then maybe it's the impetus to sit down with your team and say let's add something. What can we do that nobody else is doing? How can we approach this in a way maybe that no one else has before so that we are instantly recognizable and memorable and we can own a category in people's minds, right? If I was going to say what department. Do you get the best customer service. Well, that's Nordstrom. you know, I say, what's the safest car? It's Volvo. What can you own and what do you need to do structurally to create that brand, that image in people's minds? From a transition perspective, it makes you so much more attractive to a prospective buyer, partner in a transition process. And I, and I love what your last guest, your last guests when he talked about don't keep your eye, don't take your eye off the ball while you're putting your financials together, keep growing your business. That's what this is about and I agree wholeheartedly. Yeah, and that's great points. I mean, you really want to own a space so you can show a potential buyer that. And one of my earlier guests today, we talked about the notion of there's, there's really two sale processes going on for a business owner who's approaching the age of exit. The first is they, they have to maintain what they're doing to sell their product or service to customers and be. In at that. The second is then thinking about how to package the enterprise for sale to that potential customer who is a buyer out there or buyers. And are there any specific techniques or tips you can offer for a business owner who's saying, yeah, that's what I want to know. I mean, I get how to, I think we're doing a pretty good job. We've captured a marketplace with our customers. How do we position our brand ourselves to a industry of buyers out there. Maybe it's a strategic buyer within our particular vertical. Well, I think the most important thing is they want to know can we continue on and build it in your absence, and that truly comes from processes and systems. When, when I started my business as a speaker, things were going, I'm, you know, all modesty I'm good at what I do. I'm passionate about what I do. And I delivered a great message, but I was sitting with a colleague, and he says, so I was talking about my business, and he says, you don't have a business. You've got gigs. I said, What are you talking about? I have more, more, more presentations than I've ever had. He says, Yeah, but you don't have a structure. What are you going to do next year? What are you going to do the year after that? And so we spent the time and really sat back with my staff and said, How do we take a contact and turn it into a lead and a lead into a prospect and a prospect into a client, and how do we influence every one of those steps along the sales funnel, because at the end of the day it's sales, sales, sales. You've got to have a great product on the front end, but a prospective buyer, strategic, financial, or otherwise, is going to say, is there a? in place that we can continue what you've done in your absence. Now some people may have an earnout agreement. Some people, you know, might have an employment agreement, still work for a couple of years, but a lot of people want to transition out. And if your business is dependent on your activities to continue to generate the success that you've had, then And you're less attractive to a potential buyer. You've got to have processes to replicate. And then on the other part of it, which I think many people know, it also allows you the opportunity to enjoy some of your success. Can you take a couple of weeks and know that things aren't going to fall apart because you don't have to be there to micromanage what you do? At the end of the day, as they say, nothing happens until somebody sells something. And putting that process, but it's the same thing with your marketing. Do you have a clear idea of who your prospects are, what's the message that resonates, and have everything well documented so that somebody new can transition in and take the ball and run with it? Absolutely. We talk about that a lot and the fact that, you know, you really need to have that. As a matter of fact, a lot of service businesses like like what you're talking about. Uh, would do well to, to figure out, uh, uh, what kind of a product they can make out of their service, and then the best example out there is LegalZoom, which was a law firm that decided they needed to create a product that would that would be sold open their marketplace all over the world and perpetuate without uh without worrying about, you know, if you can expand your market that way it's a tremendous way to expand growth. If you look at professional service provides. as a category at the end of the day, people think they're they're buying their, their, um, you know, their law law firm services or their accounting services. You know what they're really buying is wisdom and that wisdom can be delivered in a variety of different ways, uh, whether it's books or programs or website, do it yourself or things like that, and that's just, it could be a whole other conversation certainly for us, Bill, but, uh, looking for ways to create sustainability. A once again that doesn't require your physical participation. And it's good to create a melding of the two. I, for me it's the same thing, but I love what I do. But the value of my business is contingent on me being on a stage. So we're in the process of creating a national coaching program and tapping into the expertise of marketing experts around the country and around the world to to replicate and create a system and a process that someday I can enjoy the success and go and go travel without having to work, yeah. Yeah, exactly, and that's, that's a great point, I guess before we, before we leave, tell us about your a little bit more about your book. It's not who you know. It's not, it's not who you know, it's who knows you, right? Is that how it works? That's exactly what it is. And it's, it's a twist on a sort of that well worn phrase. Everybody says it's all about who you know, and I say, of course it's not who you know, it's who knows you, and it's a on Amazon.com. Make sure you get the updated version. It's the one with the orange and white cover, so scroll down. It's on audiobook on Audible.com. It's on Kindle, and, and it's been, it's, it's done very, very well. It's a great opportunity once again an opportunity for me to share some wisdom in a different way, and it's one of the things I preach in my business, leave a tangible trail of wisdom. And if people want to learn more about me and my speaking and what I do, you can learn all about me at visibilitycoach.com. There's a preview video, some other information. I would love to talk to anyone, visibilitycoach.com. Well, it's very fascinating talking with you. I'm sure our listeners have learned a lot today, and I'd like to continue the conversation at some point because again we just, you know, we have these conversations, they go by so fast and we scratch the surface on a lot. Interesting topics. So let's get together sometime in the future, David, when you're not traveling around the world and and I'd love to talk with you again. So thanks so much for your time today. It would be a real treat. Thanks. Have a great day. All right, you too. Thank you. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back after this, so please stay tuned. You're listening to one of many shows on Exitcoachradio.com. We're interviewing advisors, authors, and thought leaders for their best tips, ideas, and precautions so you can be well planned. If you'd like to be a guest on any of our shows, go to guest.exitcoachradio.com. Exitcoachradio.com. Come listen for a minute. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio. Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for. Their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And don't miss our one minute exit coach tip of the day on exitcoachradio.com. And now here's your host, the exit coach Bill Black. Welcome back. Well, that's going to do it for our show today. Thanks very much for joining us. We had 7 incredible guests today, very interesting, wide range of topics. I want to thank Julie Tabazon for keeping everybody online and and in line and for putting everything together, and I want to remind you that we're here for you, the private business owner, our hero, to help you so that you can be well planned. Join us again next week. You're listening to Exit Coachradio.com, the information station for age 50 plus business owners, where we're interviewing top advisors for their best tips, ideas, and precautions so you can be well planned. We upload new one minute tips every day. Exitcoachradio.com. Come listen for a minute. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio.