The “Fast Five” Framework for Rapid Business Growth

If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You have now have a ton of new marketing weapons and techniques at your disposal that you can use to grow your business. The next question you have may have is -- just where do I begin?!

In this chapter, I’m going to share with you a helpful “framework” I’ve developed and used regularly which can help you be very successful at marketing anything. Using this framework has allowed me to triple the size of one of my current businesses in just one year. I’ve found that applying a proper framework helps keep me organized, consistent, and guarantees the long-term success of my campaigns.

THE “FAST FIVE” FRAMEWORK FOR MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS

I read something interesting recently. Elon Musk was asked in an interview “what’s your advice for growing a business?”

Musk, a physics guy, replied that you point A (where you start), and point B (your goal). Everything and everyone involved in a project is like a “vector” that can apply a certain amount of force to move the business closer towards point B. Or these vectors can detract.

Some vectors exert more directional force than others.

I’ve marketed everything under the sun. More times than I can count I’ve spoken with entrepreneurs and small business owners who are trying ONE form of marketing and complaining that they aren’t getting sales.

“I followed your advice and my Instagram grew by 12,000 followers. But these are not converting to sales on my website.”

“I’ve been running Facebook ads and it was working at first but I can’t scale them.”

“My book got a lot of sales in the first two weeks and then nothing. Self publishing books just can’t earn real money.”

On and on it goes. Yet we always see evidence to the contrary. Standouts who thrive on every single platform and WIN BIG.

Moreover, complaining, kicking, or screaming at people for not buying doesn’t accomplish anything… Though that’s a topic for another time.

Second, you need to try at least FIVE things… and then be thinking about how you can multiply those things that are working by another factor of five… if you REALLY want to gain traction.

To improve our chances, and basically make it impossible to fail, I’ve developed a framework which I call “Furious Five” or “Fast Five.”

Sometime ago I read a quote by Grant Cardone: “The number 1 is the most uninteresting number of all-time. Never, ever, ever do anything just 1 time.”

He is right. He continues on to say that you need to add zeroes to really be successful. What I propose is a variation based on this principle.

How will I reach 5 people?

How will I reach 25 people?

How will I reach 125 people?

How will I reach 625 people?

How will I reach 3,125 people?

Every day, in our notepads, we should write these numbers: 5, 25, 125, 625, 3,125. Here’s an example of what this might look like:

• 5— Tell five friends about your product, or ask five clients for referrals.

• 25 Send 25 direct messages on Facebook to targeted group members (and then automate it with MassPlanner). Or email a list of 25 people using Streak.

• 125 Email a buyer list of 150 people. Or email 125 LinkedIn contacts using Streak.

• 625 Publish a post in a dozen Facebook groups. Or post to subreddits.

• 3,125 Email your newsletter. If you don’t have one, ask other people to mail to their newsletter and offer to split commissions.

This is what you do on a Monday. On Tuesday, you may add a new batch of ideas to this framework. You can also repeat the ones that work.

The reason I love to start with the small number five is because these tend to be friends / acquaintances who are generally supportive, and these interactions give us confidence and positive energy to springboard off of and market to more people.

The next step is to simply execute. Perhaps the best productivity hack of all is to stop thinking about WHAT to do, and just do. Having to make too many decisions saps us of willpower.

Why is this framework effective?

Because having this framework in place prevents us from scattering our focus all over the place. It eliminates the “shiny object syndrome.” It frees up from having to make too many decisions; we just execute the plan every single day.

• Because you never know which audiences or which efforts will perform best… until you test out all of them.

• Because some activities are good for SALES and others are good for AWARENESS. For example, Facebook group posts are amazing for getting a lot link clicks in a very short time but not so great for conversions. I use Google URL shortener on my links and track everything inside a spreadsheet.

• Because it has built-in (realistic) expectations and goals from each effort.

• Because people will often ignore our offers the first time. This helps us push past that and hit the market from multiple angles. Not every promotion we post will reach everyone, and sometimes people need to see a product or service SEVERAL times before they are ready to sign up.

• Because it’s impossible to win a race standing still. But if you push enough and start to gain some momentum, soon that momentum becomes a SURGE. A surge that is very hard to stop.

In the past, I’ve advised people to create things like a “Marketing Monday” that they devote only to marketing activities. In my book “Hack Email” I suggest performing a minimum requirement of 10 email outreach pitches per day.

But these are only baby steps. If you really want to grow your business to be seriously profitable, you should be marketing 24/7/365. Marketing is the most important business activity where growth is concerned.

As you apply these initiatives, keep these core metrics of growth in mind: increase the number of prospects, leads, clients, increase profit per transaction, increase lifetime value of each client, increase referral rate (aka viral coefficient), increase purchase frequency, and so on.

As you do so, let this framework be your guide and help you organize and direct your marketing efforts in a simple, hassle-free way.