Everyone Wants Revenue Growth, But Most Don't Know How To Actually Do It....

I work with dozens of small and medium-size companies and all of them have one thing in common - they want to be bigger. Greater revenue and profit levels is the number one goal of most businesses. Yet, many senior leaders don't know the realities of how to make that happen. Smaller companies tend to rely on personal contacts, referrals, website leads, WOM, and local networking to attract new business. Large companies with a sales force tend to rely on an impassioned sales team to bring in the business. None of these things are inherently wrong; in fact, each of these activities is important in their own way.

However, sustained and aggressive sales growth embodies much more attention by senior leaders to a wide variety of activities. 

Here are 10 areas for consideration:

1. How is your company positioned in the marketplace? Are you "alive" in social media circles? How do you measure your presence in the market? Do people believe in your basic market message? Do they trust your promises?

2. What is the scope of the problem(s) your product or service addresses? Does your messaging effectively communicate that? What are people saying about your business in the marketplace? Are you competitive?

3. How do you recruit salespeople? Do you pay any attention to the 80/20 "rule" that says 80% of sales are the result of the efforts of 20% of the sales team? What is the "signature" of a top sales rep? How much is DNA and how much is learned from training and experience?

4. How do you compensate your sales team members? Caps? Realistic quota's? A creative reward and recognition system? What rewards truly motivate? Do you even know what effectively motivates members of your sales team?

5. How do you know if a particular sales team member is failing? How long is reasonable to expect results? What is your communications process for monitoring progress with individual members of the sales team?

6. What, from a marketing perspective, do you do to generate leads for the sales team? How often, what is the rhythm, what works and what does not? Is your market presence active, alive, and evolving with the times?

7. What kind of lead follow up system do you have in place? How is it measured? What do you do with accounts that have gone silent? Do you even look at accounts that have stopped purchasing from you? How do you land new business? Is this an area of constant review and evaluation?

8. How much listening to customers and prospective customers does your company engage in? Are you aware of weaknesses in your product or service offering? What methods do you use regularly to test your assumptions about the value of your product or service in the marketplace.

9. How much time do senior company leaders spend in market facing activities versus internal-facing activities? Do they really know what is going on in the market they are trying to serve? Are senior leaders screened out from those realities? Do you realize the CEO can be, and often is, the most powerful sales tool available? Are you constantly trying new things?

10. What core values and culture represent you and your company? Would you fire someone who violated your core values? Is your culture one of openness, trust, respect, with a bias towards action, and a strong sense of mission? Or do you simply put up signs that are ignored a month later?

These (and more) are areas every CEO, entrepreneur, and business leader must live with each day. Systems and processes have to be in place around and within these areas to produce a Company that is scalable, sustainable, and predictable. Done well, these 10 areas will lead to that goal of every business leader: a company that thrives, is a great place to work, and leaves behind a noble legacy to society and those whose lives have been touched along the way.

PCT