The S3 Strategy

The S3 Strategy. This is the formula for success in business and in life, and it’s kind of my combined take of two different concepts that I’ve learned over the years, one that was graciously given to me by a past client of mine and one that I learned from the book “The Closers” by Ben Gay III. 

The two concepts are “Sum Tertius” from the Closers book and “Work With Not For”, which comes from an interview I did with Breeze and Patrick, past clients of Taylored Weddings.

The S3 Strategy is Success is in Serving, not Selling. The amount of money in your bank account is directly proportional to the amount of value that you bring to the table for somebody else. Believe it or not, many people don’t define success by strictly monetary ways. They define it by how many people they helped to get better. That’s the way to a positive life full of connections. If you don’t like the number in your bank account then your job is to find more ways to help more people. So the key is how can you help people? That’s Serve, and we’ll explore that first.

To serve people is to help people.

People always say to me I don’t know where to start to help people. I don’t know what to do. I want you to think about that and then really think who do you want to serve? Who are the people you WANT to work with, not for? Get specific here, not generic. Google them. Google who they are. Google where they work. Google where they live. Find out what their social media channels are. Google is your friend. Now, look at what their challenges are. What are they struggling with?

As a small business entrepreneur, I’m sure you wear a couple of different hats. Your potential client has similar struggles. They are busy just like you and I. Too busy to do the work. Empathize with them. You must make it easy for them to do business with you. That’s the serve part of the equation. If you have expertise in that area then you can help that ideal client of yours. You become a resource; you become someone of value to them.

Let’s look at the NOT selling aspect. Do you like to be sold? Nah, I didn’t think so. How would you rather be treated? You want to be helped, you want to be shared information with, you don’t want to make a mistake, you want better than what you have in life. What can make your client’s life better? What do you know that they don’t?

Recently I saw an opportunity to help fellow entrepreneurs with their sales process by offering my full sales process for sale on my website.

I went back through, tweaked some things, had my amazing and my Microsoft Office Queen wife Michelle set things up for me to begin to offer it to others. The difference in what I did vs. what others do is I saw an opportunity. I wanted to help. I heard too many people complaining of a lack of process, or not getting return phone calls and emails. So I shared a solution, one that worked for me. Others bought it and have been singing its praises. That makes me feel good, and gives me SUCCESS because I served someone, I didn’t sell them. How can you serve your clients better and have more success without feeling like you are selling to them? The steps are outlined above. Put the S3 Strategy to work for you.