Selling for YouCo is the most important way to utilize your time. One of the dangers of building a business is that others will try to steal your thunder. It’s no one’s fault, it is just what we all do. You have likely heard it, “hey Tom, when you are in front of your client (of 10 seconds) ask them if they need...”. Now, I am a huge fan of leveraging others to help a group of businesses become more successful. But it has to follow a sequence.

First, look out for you, not in the selfish, limited belief, mindset. But more importantly, you need to establish yourself, your products, and your results as what is needed to grow your client. Once you establish trust with them, build on it by bringing in the rest of your team as needed. You may have some strategic alliances that will help close more deals for you along the way, it is good to leverage those.

The danger I am talking about are in the quick ways to make money. We live in a time of Affiliate marketing, commission sales, multi-level product companies, and internet sales. It is easy to get drawn into the hype of sales funnels, course creation, social media ads, and shiny dollar signs. And, there is a time and place for each of those.

If your business is less than 5 years old, you should not promote anyone else’s products. Solve your clients needs by making introductions as needed, but do not dilute your brand by talking specifics of anything other than YouCo. It will create confusion around what you do and will DRASTICALLY slow down your growth.

Here are the five steps that must happen so you can grow YouCo:

Be Clear on Your Purpose

This may sound cliché. But once you know what your purpose is, getting out of bed in the morning gets easier. Working hard gets easier. Talking to clients gets easier. There are hundreds of examples of what a purpose is around the internet. Here is a simple framework for you to define yours (Fill in the Blanks):

My Definite Purpose in Life is to Help: _____________ (Who You Help)

By Providing: _____________________ (Your Good &/or Service)

To: __________________________ (Your Goal Number) People

Here is mine:

I am on a journey to help 1,000,000 solo-preneurs, free lancers, and small business owners create the business of their dreams, control their own economies, and build the relationships they crave by showing them how to Utilize Their Time to Amplify Their Businesses and Lives using the 960 Method

If you are not clear on how to define your purpose, I have a training module on this subject. Knowing your purpose is one of the key pillars of the 960 Method. It is so important for your success that I would suggest truly digging into this before you make your next sale.

Be Clear on Your Product

Now that you know what you are supposed to do for the world, how do you do it? What result are you supposed to make sure everyone of your clients obtains? Whatever it is, be clear and concise with your definition. If you speak about your product to 100 people and each of them hears 100 different soundbites about your product, you are not clear on what your product is.

Your message needs to be simple to understand. My good friend Allan Bayer likes to say, “confused people don’t buy from you”. Ask yourself, “do I truly know what I sell?” Work to distill it down to a sentence or two. The clearer, more concise you can be with this point will make your sales cycle more effective.

Be Clear on Your Brand

Rich Kozak of RichBrands defines a brand as “a perception”. This means that as you promote your company in the marketplace, how your language, promotions, explanations, logo, products, and results are interpreted is what your brand is. Your brand shows up in every conversation, every LinkedIn post, every referral to another person.

Being giving and generous can be part of your brand, and that is ok. But what you do not want is to dilute the power of your brand by promoting other people’s companies and products BEFORE you establish what your brand does for people. By all means, if you ‘have a guy’ that can solve a problem for a client, use the team approach to land them, but don’t cross sell to them until your brand is well defined and established.

Be Clear on Who Your Audience is

This is a ‘Utilize Your Time’ accelerator tip. You can send your messages out to everyone and try to help them all. But it will make your voice hoarse. You may develop laryngitis and lose your voice all together. But if you pinpoint your exact audience in a way that your message lands exactly where and how it needs to, you become a thoroughbred in your marketplace. You become the solution to a specific problem, and you become known for that.

Insert your SPECIALTY

You want to be the product specialist in your field. If you are the best of the best, you stand out. Once you stand out, you can be recognized and be the thought leader in your field. This is a far more effective use of your time than trying to reach everyone with all of your messages, all the time... You have a target audience for your results – speak to them as the leader of your tribe.

Be Clear on Your Message

How many products do you remember from your childhood because of the ad language or the music in their jingle? How many products are memorable to you now because of their message? How do you talk about your products? Are you making a mark? Are you being memorable? Are you being confusing?

Personally, I spent so much time trying to find my footing on a gravel cliff that my brand was diluted for years. When I dialed in my expertise and focused on how to Utilize Your Time, then my messaging got easier to understand. Hearing me became easier. Sharing my message became more efficient. It became easier to identify my target audience.

Be clear. Be concise. Be specific. Yes, you can solve forty-eight million different things for your clients, but they are hiring you to solve one or two. Once YouCo is set up and running effectively, you have an established brand, you are clear on what you represent, then you can find other products that complement your business. For instance, if you are an amazing coach that helps people utilize their time so they can maximize their minutes, you are not going to try to also sell commercial cleaning services. They are incongruent. It will create confusion for your brand, and confused customers do not buy.

Later you can add additional ways to make money.