One of the most common approaches I receive as a business mentor in the Jerusalem area is people asking me how I can help them to grow their business. Their face is covered with the words: “Please show me the magic formula, and now”.

On reflection, it was not by chance that the home page of my website features the word ‘growth” very prominently. When handling new clients, this may sound presumptuous, but I often know in advance where the solution lies. Let me expand.

Mentoring sometimes takes a while to reach the heart of key issues. There is a certain process to undergo, as the coach learns the business and begins to unravel the ancient cobwebs of how the organisation was established and is now operating. However, sooner or later, he is faced with the client’s near inevitable question: Who should I bring in to strengthen the sales / marketing team?

Obviously, there are many externalities that will contribute to the final answer. However, and at the risk of over-generalising, I repeatedly find myself coming up with the same response. One of the key players in promoting the enterprise is the owner / founder / CEO themselves, but they just do not appreciate this deeply enough.

Why do I say that? In an era where the consumer suffers from an overload of information, to appear as genuine is one of the key tactics to defeat or go around the filtering system we all have. And the most practical way to appear genuine is to use the passion that most owners and founders tend to possess. They are the best sales people of their own product or service.

However, something very interesting often happens at this point of the mentoring. You can predict that the client in front of you will physically pull away from the discussion. It is at that moment that they realise that they have to do something not in their assumed comfort zone and also that their is no better candidate. A double whammy!

You see the reason why these CEOS have approached me to help them grow the business is that they have been too preoccupied with other tasks. They have not spent enough time on the key area where their added value is most significant – selling and talking to potential clients and being most passionate about what they care for.

And it is this juncture that the business really begins to turn around.