By Eric T. Wagner, Contributor

Perched high above the Arizona desert in my hotel room — it’s another perfect day in Scottsdale, Arizona. Below I watch hundreds of entrepreneurs scurrying about as they make their way to the annual InfusionCon conference held by InfusionSoft, a maker of CRM and marketing automation software geared toward small business owners. As I watch this mass of movement; it suddenly dawns on me how similar InfusionSoft is to Apple. And yes I know — InfusionSoft does not holster the same big guns as mighty Apple. But if they keep doing the 3 things below; they are positioned to dominate their own little profitable niche in the market for many years to come. So why should you care about any of this? Because it matters not the size of your business; you too can employ the following 3 strategies to catapult your business to the next level: 1.) Teaching Sells Yes — a concept I first stumbled upon put forth by entrepreneur and Founder of Copyblogger Media, Brian Clark. Both Apple and InfusionSoft do this very well. Walk into any Apple store on any given day of the week you will find happy customers being taught by enthusiastic employees on how to use Apple products. InfusionSoft does the same through their annual InfusionCon event, InfusionSoft University, Success Coach Program and more. Do you realize how important it is to be sure your customers know how to get the most from your products or services? If you don’t have programs in place to solve this; I can pretty much guarantee you have money walking out the door of your business. The best part? When you effectively train your customers on the best use of your products and services; your business not only stops the money bag leakage, it actually creates an environment to sell more. Think about it — once a customer becomes hooked on an iPhone; they’ll be headed for the store every time a new one is released. Yes — teaching does sell. 2.) Core Values and Culture Legendary is Apple’s establishment of the “think different” culture set in place by Steve Jobs long ago. It emanates to this day through everything it does. Every product. Every idea. Every innovation. Apple has always been a rebel on a different path than the rest of the world. (Thought leader Simon Sinek talks about the reason behind Apple’s success in this classic TED talk.) CEO and Co-Founder Clate Mask of InfusionSoft has taken this concept to a whole new level. The focus on core values and the “right” culture to move the needle at InfusionSoft trickles down through everything it does. Every email it sends. Every product it releases. Every employee it hires. In a great one-on-one conversation I had yesterday with Mask (which I will write more on later); he pointed to the institution of the current core values; purpose and mission as one of the key’s to the success of InfusionSoft thus far. With revenues close to $40 million …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest