Bob Kademian ActionCOACH Business Coach helps business owners take their game to the next level.

I met Bob through Michele Corona and Rich Hart when they were seeking out help in growing their biusiness.

Here is out interview

Hi, I’m Richard Marti from A Passion for connection and we are chatting today with Bob Kademian from ActionCOACH. Hi Bob and thank you for taking your time to chat with us today.

“Hi Rich how are you”

I am doing fantastic this morning, how are you doing?

“Great thanks”

I am interested in learning more about your work with ActionCOACH and how you help businesses, why don’t you tell us a little about that.

“Sure, What I do at ActionCOACH Business Coach is help business owners take their game to the next level. There are a lot of business that are great at what they do, but not necessarily great in all areas of running their business, and thats where I help them.”

Bob helps them in areas like sales Marketing planning finance team and team building, budgeting, etc. Regardless of what business they are in.

Bob finds what areas that are strengths and weaknesses in a business to help train them to strengthen their business. There are cases where businesses want to go to an even higher level and that is when he will bring in experts in various fields.

Most business that Bob works with are under 1 Million dollars, some in the 5 to 6 million dollar range in sales when they start working with Him.

What do you see when working with small business as the biggest overall challenge ?

“With people who did not come from a career in sales, it is actually selling and in a lot of cases it is marketing. Creating the leads in the first place then being able to close those leads and create sales. For most it is easier to just do what they do and service existing clients then it is to go out and find new ones.”

Why not share with us some success stories in how your services have helped them?

“Sure, One company, a mortgage company that had flat sales, we focused on one strategy which was just getting back in touch with people who had been their clients in the past. Their sales went up, I want to say, 75% and they became a million dollar company in that year. Sometimes it was the client who took out another loan, other times by contacting past customers mentioned them to somebody else who became new clients.
A Second company, a home theater company it was exactly a 100% increase in sales.
Home Shows. They had never done one. We had a goal of 200 Leads they came out with 325 leads out of which 100 were qualified Great results especially their first time out. That was just one area, we refined their mail programs, we changed their default schedule,we got them to focus ON their business. That is one thing I do with everybody. I get them to spent more time working on their business and less time in their business.

I have another that is just starting. It is a side business. A website to give you info on merit based scholarships. He has expanded it to need based scholarships. In the beginning sales were very slow. We Changed the model from selling subscriptions to students and families to advertising to Colleges as a result overnight sales have really increased and we just made the change a few weeks ago. He could become a million dollar company either this year or next.”

That’s interesting because with the three different companies you took three different approaches.
The first you concentrated on relationships with past clients and helped nurture those.
The second you identified ways to get new leads.
The Third, you more clearly defined the target client that could produce more connections to the end users.
Three different approaches to the same problem, increasing sales.

“Just like a Dr the most important thing is the diagnosis. Even though the Diagnosis may be the same sometimes the treatment may be different. ”

How do people go about working with you on a project?

“I have various programs depending on the needs of the business, the amount of time the owner wants to put in, where they are, where they want to be and how fast they want to get there.

1. We have a monthly mentoring program where I work with them once a week. It works like a gym membership we meet once a week, we may talk between meetings. I don’t focus on the clock but on helping you reach your business goals..
2. Others cant afford to do that yet they will buy a block of time where I work on the clock.

The process I go through, if there is someone with an interest, I talk with them about 15 to 20 mins first. If we decide that we would like to proceed , we have them fill out a questionnaire and I meet with them from 60 to 90 mins and they tend to be amazed at how clear a picture I can have of their business. In some cases I get them to realize things they didnt even thought they have owned them for 6, 8 ,10 years.
At the end of that I give them some options and we go forward from there. ”

That brings up another point, a trap that Small business owners can fall into. They know their business very well, and they get into routines. Then it is difficult for them to see things from the outside at the 30,000 foot level with clean eyes. You seem to bring that outside perspective.

“One of the strengths is that I bring a trained outside perspective. There have been times that we can identify a strength that they can leverage and areas where you may need to focus. It is not always a weakness ”

That brings to mind your mortgage broker client who networked through his existing client base.

“People who have a business that has been around a while underestimate the power of their existing customer base. Some will say well people buy from us every couple of years. Yes, but the question is how often do you keep in touch with them? Because the more you keep in touch with them the more business you will get from them or referrals they will give you.”

That just opened me up to put a plug in for the social media stuff. Social media is a fantastic way meet potential clients and advocates, and to maintain and nurture the relationships you already have instead of going out there to hit the pavement.

“I had one guy, a financial advisor, who increased his business by 40%. He would set up 5 appointments each week. 1 out of 5 would give him a referral for a new client and 1 out of 5 would invest more money with him. He did this for a year and the end he had 40% growth and in the end he hit his number.”

How can people get in touch with you?

“My website http://www.bizcoachbob.com
I am located at the Milford Financial Center, 50 Cherry Street, Milford, CT
My phone number is 203.701.0993

Is there a charge for the initial call?

“The initial contact and talk is free, after that we decide together the best way to move forward. ”

Thank you Bob for taking the time to chat with us today about how to grow through coaching.