Carl J. Cox 4:50

So I love how you came up with these templates that you mentioned and and that is such a hard part of anything right is knowing where to go. I start, you know, how do I put something in a specific framework? So tell me about a couple, the first 123 templates that really started resonating with people on the outside world. They’re like, I need this template, like, what’s your what’s your most heavily downloaded template that you have?

Simon Severino 5:18

The top three templates. And by the way, everybody, they are open source, everybody can download them at strategysprints.com/tools, top one downloading, how do I onboard and manage the performance of new people. So that we call it the job scorecard. Page. One of the spreadsheet is how you define the role and the metrics. And page two is the monthly template to monthly review performance from both perspectives. That’s how to onboard people and how to manage them. And you don’t need an eight hour workshop to do that, you just download this template, you will crush it, you don’t need to study 19 hour years of psychology in the template is everything you need. The second one is how do I niche down. So if I get compared too much to others, and if I have to discuss prices, which is horrible to discuss prices, discuss benefits, but if people start discussing prices with you, then you you’re not you don’t have a good positioning. So you have to improve your positioning niche down even more to be less comparable, swim away from your competition. And for that we use the equalizer. It’s a spreadsheet that helps you do a competitive analysis in 30 minutes, and at the end, it says you should cut costs here, you should reduce costs here, you should double down the investments that you saved on this part here and invest more in this because this makes you unique, and now you have your niche. And and the third one, well, position three, we have a lot of templates on position three. But I would say one is definitely the time Finder. How do you currently allocate your time? And what should you delegate next? What should you systemize cut delegate?

Carl J. Cox 7:14

Love it. Love it. Do you? I was noticing on your website you talked about saving CEOs time? Where do you see is the most common thing that a traditional CEO is for lack of a better term wasting their time on that’s not adding value.

Simon Severino 7:34

Oh, let me tell you about a phone call today. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs starting an accelerator. Two guys starting it together. Launch was a couple of weeks ago big press think now discussing with me how to scale that thing. And I go Okay, tell me how how do you plan to divide? Who’s who’s doing product? Who’s doing sales? What are you doing tomorrow? And, and they go oh, yeah, so I will create the videos and I will edit the videos and wait a moment. You are creating an accelerator and you will be editing the videos? Yes, sure. That’s, that’s my one of my superpowers. I I’m a YouTube specialist. And as Okay, how many hours do you plan to edit videos? Well, that’s a full time job. And that’s how you grow a company. So as you can see, these are smart people. very accomplished people, their last company went really well. But in this one, they are caught in the hectic of doing stuff just because they are good at it. And this is number one distraction is doing what you’re good at versus doing what grows your business. If you slow down for a second and just write down the tasks of tomorrow, and then double check them by their leverage by their impact, then you will find some of these that you should delegate. And the simple question is, which of these tasks will bring $50 per hour, which one 500 and which 150 1000. And then you go through them. And then you do more of the high leverage. And so day by day, you start hiring and delegating the low leverage tasks. And week after week, we have also a weekly a weekly template how to design your week accordingly. So it’s it’s the ideal week template. And this is how you design your week to be more and more made of high leverage tasks instead of low leverage tasks.

Carl J. Cox 9:48

As an excellent such an important it was interesting I you’ve probably heard of Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect the author of that he talks about some similar concepts Making sure that you’re focusing your and your time on anything that’s below what you should be trying to earn per hour as either as an organization or person, you should not be doing right you should be trying to drive in to have your the whole Pareto principle, right is focusing on the things that have the greatest impact. But you mentioned something that’s super hard. You mentioned that somebody who knows how to do YouTube, right, and he’s gonna be the best in the world, and better than anybody can hire to do it. How do you get him to feel comfortable and knows that he has to let it go, and he can’t micromanage that process? You know, is it the is the dollar value contribute what’s going to help them realize that is in the company’s best interest to not no longer do the YouTube videos as an example?

Simon Severino 10:51

So my coaches, the certified strategist brings coaches, they are great at asking questions, they will ask these people. Alright, how many clients do you want to onboard this year? And then from there, they will they will work back and and then they will ask, okay, so this month, this week, okay, seven days a week? What are the activities that will lead to seven this week? And then he will list out what the activities are? And then the coach will ask, How likely is it with these activities that you will lend seven clients? And so we do it, let’s like Socrates, we try to help them find their their time suckers. And to find out because the best thing is when they go, Oh, I should do less of this. Because then you have the highest execution probability. And worst case, the coach will say, Hmm, am I allowed to give you some feedback here, you will never reach seven clients if you do this, this week. So think about the high growth activities, joint ventures, sales conversations, improving the sales script, improving the mix of own media, paid media and third party media. And so think about of the growth activities, and the other activities and what your mix should be, so that you will achieve these goals. Otherwise, you will not achieve the goals. So let’s look at the activities and change the activities accordingly.

Carl J. Cox 12:31

I love it. So one of the things you mentioned, you haven’t on your website is you want to double revenue in 90 days. That’s an audacious goal. And I love it. I love I’ve loved goals where you’re, you know, hey, we’re going to be able to who now does that matter whether $100,000 company, a $500,000 company, a $3 million company is a $10 million company, they helped me you know, because scale obviously, is a big difference, as you mentioned, like earlier talking with the startup. Where does that play true? You know, I mean, because that’s a significant promise, so to speak, that that somebody is gonna be doubling your revenue? Or is there a certain client type of clients that you regularly work with that you typically working with startups.

Simon Severino 13:15

We work with established small companies, small companies that are around for a couple years, and they have already market validation, not only product validation, but also market validation. And it’s not that hard to double your revenue, if you are around 17 years, like we are in in many countries in many industries, then you will see immediately the low hanging fruits, and these are the 274 templates. So one thing is we take away from them all the burden of thinking, what should I fix next? What should I do, that’s taken off from them, because this print really is a landscape that is formed for them by the coach, they just go through to this today’s task and do the task, next week’s task and do the task. So it’s like karate training. It’s it’s an environment that helps you learn fast. Then the second thing is that there are three leverage points that are in every business and that are usually under used. conversion rate from current leads, we get that up by 25%. With better sales script, people usually don’t have a sales script, we help them create a good sales script that everybody uses. And now they will convert 25% more from just from their current conversations that they already had no marketing. Just people right now who are on your website, they want something for you, how can you convert them better 25% and part of it is follow up and part of it is the sales script. We get this recordings of their sales colleagues this, that’s how deep we go. in implementing, we get to their their sales recordings, and we give them feedback. Look, this is when you went too early into features, you should stay at benefits, this is where you have to shut up and let them steer in the moment. This is where you jumped too early to the solution. So really the nitty gritty. So first lever 25%, higher conversion of current leads. Second lever, we will raise their price by on average 25% in this 90 days, because we will work on their positioning, they have usually not positioned well, they are too comparable. So we will help them meet a bit more down, then there is no comparison, we package the whole thing better, we install the NPS, they will have their clients tell them what’s really working and what’s really broken, they will improve with every week, we raise their price, because now the product is better and it’s better positioned. So 25%, higher price. Third lever is the sales time the frequency of the buy 25% faster frequency, you can intensify the relationship, we work with high ticket b2b sales companies. So you have eight to 14 contact points with a client before they buy. Now, traditionally, you need a year to get to 14 contact points. But with a very good email funnel, and this is what we implement with our clients, you can do it in 12 days. So we shorten the sales cycle from very long to 12 days. And then the next thing is also on the frequency that you can get much more effective with a real upselling and cross selling system that most companies do not have it, it happens spontaneously, but not very systematically. So we install a very systematic way of upselling cross selling. And these are the three levers 25% in customer conversion in price and in frequency, and you have a plus 99% in revenue. Which is not even the most important thing because I don’t care about revenue, I want best profits. But revenue is what everybody is going for. And that’s why we communicate about the revenue but really revenues nothing if you don’t have a nice profit margin. So what we of course, then do is improving the operation so that more of the revenue stays in house.

Carl J. Cox 17:54

I appreciate you bringing that up. So much, especially in SAS companies, I noticed this and the companies your work with its grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, right, but you can actually grow and grow profitably. And and you know with Because ultimately, if you don’t generate positive cash flow, you’re always at the whim of your investors. And I think one of the things that’s missed a lot of times by entrepreneurs, when you raise money, that’s a liability. It’s not an asset, it is something that you owe back to those shareholders to pay back again. And if you aren’t generating cash flow, you put yourself in high risk, right, you know, of not being able to losing control your company because you’re not generating cash flow fast enough to be able to fund your operations or being able to get the right turn on investment that you’re looking for right for yourself and for future equity owners. So I love it that you think not only about the top line, but being efficient with that process. So you actually generate positive cash flow the bottom line not just EBITDA, right. Actually net I’m assuming you mean actually net income positive profits. Is that fair to say? Simon?

Simon Severino 19:03

Yeah, gross margin. It’s is the real thing and net profit, but gross margin getting that right. For example, we work with a lot of consultancies, it consultancies, management consultancies and you know, the big names, and they have huge revenues, but their profit rate, you wouldn’t believe it, it’s around 16 to 23% gross margin. Now we run a consulting company, we have a net profit, which was on average around 63.7%. and is now in right now in this month. It is at 83%. net profit 83%. So even if we had a man month in terms of revenue, that’s a very healthy proportion of what stays in home. And, and that’s one thing to really focus on when you run a business, how healthy is it? And the net profit, and the NPS and the team NPS? These are the three things that tell you how healthy your your companies, and these are the three things to really track and improve. Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s,

Carl J. Cox 20:22

those are perfect in and first of all, I loved it, how you remember that your old net profit was 63.7%, you moved it up to 83%. And I think for people who are listening today, they’re probably their jaws dropping, like, how do you do that, but you described it, you described, you develop a growth, you help maintain focus in the right things have been more cost effective, people driving the activities are driving less value, you know, to help to outsource that. And then and then do it in an efficient manner. And then you have a lot of built in templates that you’re already mentioned, you know, over 200 templates, where people are able to use existing sure you’re not recreating the wheel every single time you work with them.

Simon Severino 21:05

And we are very numeric, I know all my numbers, you can ask me all my numbers of this month, that’s the job of a CEO to know the numbers. And the first number is the profit and then the costs and revenues and the your main numbers are really important. My main marketing numbers, my main operations, numbers, my main sales numbers are always on my mind. And every seven days, we discussed them as a team. That’s the Sprint Method. Every every day, you check how you’re spending your time, every week, you get all your numbers, and learn from the numbers and execute on the numbers improve based on the numbers. And every month you check your positioning. And, and your strategy if it’s correct, or if you need to course correct. But really, every seven days, I see all the numbers. And, and and I am surprised that not everybody takes numbers seriously when you ask them, they don’t know their numbers, because then you’re taking decisions based on a house of cards. You’re flying blind. I don’t want to fly blind. I want to take decisions based on reality. And reality is our numbers right now this week. I

Carl J. Cox 22:23

love it. I absolutely love that. And clearly you said one of the things. I think often CEOs rely upon their CFO, right to guide but you’re saying no, it is it is the expectation of the CEO to know and understand these numbers. Is that fair to say?

Simon Severino 22:40

It’s the job. Our job is only vision, hiring culture. And knowing the numbers. Nothing else everything else is a distraction is micromanagement I

Carl J. Cox 22:57

love that. Okay, Sam, it’s so you I love your power. I love what you’re doing with your clients, your money. Let’s talk about the personal side a little bit if you’re okay with that. Tell me a little bit on you obviously have developed a great company. You’re making a significant difference of the companies around that. But how do you drive yourself to be more effective on a regular basis, you know, what kind of what kind of personal strategies that you do on a day to day basis that’s outside of business, to help give you the energy and the effectiveness on a regular. So I’m really curious, the same discipline of strategies that you’ve done in the business? are you applying this on your personal life as well.

Simon Severino 23:41

I would say I’m not a disciplined person, but there are some ripple effects coming from from the way we organize our business. And so of course, today in the evening, I will write down my daily flow of tomorrow. So this daily exercise, of course, I do it and I say okay, tomorrow at 530, my alarm will go off. from six to seven, I will run 10 kilometres in nature. That’s what I do. And then instead of breakfast, I will play with my two kids until eight o’clock, because that’s my priority number one first is me time that’s running. And then it’s me as a father playing with my two kids, they’re two years old and five years old. So they want a bind they want to play so that’s my priority number one. I play with them. And whatever they want to do we do it’s usually singing, dancing, Lego, whatever we do it and then eight o’clock I start working. It says in my calendar. The first hours are no meetings. There is no way to book me for meetings before afternoon, or interviews everything afternoon. In the morning it says top three top three top three until 12 o’clock. And the top trees I get from my project list. So I will basically they are prioritized, I open that and I say, Oh, these are the top trees that I have to do in the morning, then then I have lunch. And then afternoon is usually interviews, hiring. Performance Management, sees the analytics team marketing team sales team, we go through the numbers, all hands meeting, Coach meeting. And then in the evening, I have my own daily podcast. That’s the last thing in the day that I do. It’s around five o’clock of my time, I have one guest on my show that I don’t know. And I’m curious, and I talked to a stranger for one hour. And then I close off the day, by reflecting the current day, I write down the top three of tomorrow, the flow of tomorrow, I go and cook for my family, or they have cooked, and we eat. And then I have two hours, just a family time bringing them to bed. And that’s it. That’s my day. That was excellent.

Carl J. Cox 26:13

And I love it, how you you talked about a you start out, I think one of the most important things right is you got to take care of your own self before you can take care of others. You know, it’s one of those really, it appears to be selfish, but it’s critical, right? And so you get your energy out. So you just sounds like you do some type of trail running out there and be in nature, you’re living Austria. So you have this beautiful area, you get to run around in on a regular basis. But then you come back in and spend time with your family. And you know, gratulations, you got a young guy sounds like a two to five year old you’re mentioning. But the part that was maybe missed. For those who aren’t listening is you have that you don’t just spend an hour focusing on the most important things you spend your first half of your day, from a work perspective on the most important things is not till after that’s done, you take the second half and start focusing on non things. And then at the end of the day, you shut down it sounds like you’re you’re after you’ve finished your podcast, you’re back to family time, you know, refreshing family time, is that fair to say? So you have a very scheduled period. Obviously, there’s there’s fluctuations day to day. But it sounds like you have some consistency of what you do on a regular basis.

Simon Severino 27:28

Yeah, I have time blocks or activities. Because you know, running a business is really hectic, everybody wants something from you all the time. So if I don’t have these blockers, I, I work 23 hours per day, because I like the people who want to talk to me and I would get involved in in zooms the whole day. So but but my priority number one is is really my family, and then comes me and my business. So that needs to be reflected in my time blockers otherwise, we we have no chance of having this flow.

Carl J. Cox 28:10

Right. That’s right. That is that is fantastic. Well, Simon, this has been a amazing podcast, very enlightening. Very much in the business as well as the personal side, you have a big stack of books behind you. What is one or two books that you would recommend for our audience.

Simon Severino 28:29

I love the book, The Lost Art of Cosing by Anthony Iannarino. One of the best books, it’s about the 10 commitments that you want to achieve. While closing it’s the opposite of most sales books will tell you exactly you should do this and this and this and this. And he says no ever have a natural human conversation. And you have to we have to check these 10 boxes at some point. They don’t need to be perfectly in order. But you need this time commitments and and make sure you don’t you don’t jump into something before you don’t have these commitments in place. It’s a wonderful book.

Carl J. Cox 29:09

Love it. Great suggestion. So tell us how could people learn more about you and your organization?

Simon Severino 29:20

We are at strategysprints.com and we hang out in a private Facebook group. But if you say you come from Carl, I will let you in. It’s around 900 business owners. It’s a Facebook group and it’s called Entrepreneurship in Sprints This is where we talk everything sales, marketing, operations, hiring, etc. And this is where we hang out most I’m also on Instagram @strategysprints. You will find this everywhere.

Carl J. Cox 29:51

It’s tough. Well alright Simon, thank you so much. I appreciate you being on the show today. And thank you to everyone who’s listening wishing you the very best at measuring success. Thank you.

Outro 30:06

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