“Cadence – A Tale of Fast Business Growth” by Pete Williams

Review

Cadence tells the story of JJ who is a triathlon coach and business owner. He was struggling to stay afloat, until a guy named Charlie hired him as his coach and helped him with his business in return. Charlie is a successful businessman who provided JJ with a strategic framework and his secrets for running a successful business.  

The way the 7 Lever Framework and each lesson are tied into the story make this book great. Pete Williams doesn´t just randomly drop tips and techniques but instead tells a story around them. This way it´s a lot easier to grasp the concept of the 7 Levers and really understand what each Lever is acting upon.

Pete Williams also keeps the story very short and to the point. He focuses on providing only the most important information to teach and apply the 7 Levers Framework. For that reason, Cadence is a quick and comfortable read.

Due to the books’ easiness to read, the story line is also easy to catch on to, and as a result it gets you hooked. I personally got really into this book and started cheering for JJ and Charlie. In the end it even got a bit emotional and I was holding back tears of joy for how the whole story turned out.

Main Takeaways

1. The 7 Levers you must operate on – The 7 Levers Framework:
   1. Suspects
   2. Prospects
   3. Conversions
   4. Average Item Price
   5. Items per Sale
   6. Transactions per Customer
   7. Margins
2. Just get a 10% Win in the 7 Levers and your profits will double!
3. Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance à it´s all about preparation. This goes for sports and business.
4. Helping Customers is not about offering them the cheapest option, it´s about helping them find exactly what they need.
5. Add some sort of additional value to any purchase. This increases the perceived value.
6. Sales isn´t about giving customers what they know they want, it´s about ensuring my customers have everything they need.
7. “I play real sports. I ain´t tryin’ to be the best at exercising.” – Kenny Powers à it´s not about how well you perform during exercise, but how well you can perform when it´s game time.

Action-Steps…

for Business-Owners:

• Identify the 7 Levers of your Business
• Apply the 7 Levers Process to each of your 7 Levers
• Add value to your products in some way.

for Everybody:

• For everything you do: Prepare!
• At your job: Help customers find exactly what they need.
• Play real sports!