Get Out of the Box to Pinpoint Your Limiting Factors

By Stephen Palmer - Apr 26 , 2011

Some factor, or a variety of factors, are holding your business back. You’re hitting a ceiling.

The problem is, you can’t see these limiting factors.

You’re stuck in the “box” of your business. You see all the wonderful reasons why customers should buy from you.

Unless you can get out of the box, you’ll never pinpoint your limiting factor. And you can’t overcome your limiting factor(s) until you identify it/them.

Consider these examples of limiting factors:

• Competition. Are your competitors good? Do you have a lot of them? Perhaps you need to radically differentiate.
• Population. Perhaps you’ve simply gained all the business you can in your current location. Time to expand to a new location?
• Poor systems. Maybe your systems are too slow and outdated. Time to improve?
• Answering the wrong questions. Advertising fails when you answer questions nobody’s asking. Find out what your customer’s actually care about and speak to their felt needs.
• Hidden, un-leveraged assets. Many businesses conceal gems, the power of which they’re not even aware of. Revolutionary messages that aren’t being shared in a powerful way. Time for a M.E.S.S. analysis?
• Niche markets. Perhaps your offering simply isn’t mass-marketable and you need to either 1) find better ways to reach your target market, and/or 2) expand your offering to appeal to a broader customer base.

My friend Garrett Gunderson tells the story of driving with his friend on the freeway. He started to merge into the right lane and his friend shouted, “Watch out!” There was a car that he didn’t see in his blind spot.

Perhaps you need someone in the passenger seat shouting “Watch out!” in your business?

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.