How to grow Good Revenue.

Dear colleagues. Throughout my life, I've had to clean up some stuff. Smelly stuff. Stuff that others should have known better than to commit to.

To be honest, although there are loose actors out there, that's not (in my opinion) the most dangerous thing to worry about.

People, I'm talking about enthusiasm.

Or at least the need to look like we're perpetually enthusiastic about what ever we're facing.

What if we could know in advance, that a project was going to be a stinker!

What if we could have just not given that last discount that ultimately scuttled this for everyone?

If this is an issue, please read on.

Group Wisdom

Since July last year, I've built my strategy consultancy around a key idea:

Group Wisdom outperforms individual wisdom.

So far, in the customers I've engaged, I've noticed that all teams are individually wise. But almost none are collectively Wise. This is because they are still mixing their 'discussion' voice with their 'decision' voice.

This perpetuates Group Think. The most verbose pushes everyone towards the initiative that they think is the best. Their enthusiasm puts pressure on everyone.

Rapid Upvoting, enables distinct separation of these two important voices.

Our Discussion voice is about openly discussing what we could do.

Our Decision voice, through anonymous interactive voting is about deciding what we should do.

A major advantage of this approach is that we can address those things that we can't speak about. The real risks, the actual weaknesses, the biggest dangers, what the biggest threats are. You name it. The smelly awful stuff that people worry are CLM's to bring up.

I call this Corporate Wisdom (versus corporate isolation) as it shifts us from Group Think into Group Sync. We understand and are trying to make each other successful facing uncertainty and ambiguity.

In this short article, inspired by Sheridan Broadbent (thanks Sheridan!) I break down 4 items that I think reveal what to do, in the pursuit of 'Good Revenue'.

Using Rapid Upvoting to Identify Key Actions, In Pursuit of Good Revenue

1. Revenue = The Customer's Problem

• Good revenue comes from solving significant, recurring problems for customers.
• The bigger and more urgent the problem, the more customers are willing to invest.
• Recurring revenue signals alignment with high-value, long-term customer needs.

Key Questions:

• Which are the most challenging problems our customers face? (list them, upvote the most ugly)
• Which does this opportunity best address for the customer? (list them, upvote the most important)

2. Profit = Intellectual Property (IP) & Delivery Efficiency

• High-margin revenue comes from solving problems smarter, not harder.
• Stronger IP, process automation, and best practices reduce cost-to-serve.
• Scalable solutions maximize value while keeping costs in check.

Key Questions:

• Which part of our IP is most helpful here? (list your IP, upvote the most impactful)
• Where do we need to invest to lift our game? (list items that impact delivery efficiency, identify poor performance through upvoting and act to improve)

3. Risk Management = Culture & Execution Discipline

• Culture ensures consistency, quality, and resilience in execution.
• Great teams anticipate and mitigate risks before they impact outcomes.
• Sustainable growth comes from protecting profitability while delivering value.

Key Questions:

• What are the top risks that will impede our success on this project? (Success = the customer buys from us again.) (list the classic risks, upvote the most dangerous for this opportunity)
• Which aspects of our culture do we need to work on the most over the next battle period? (list them, upvote where we need to invest)

4. Differentiation = Market Position & Brand Impact

• Customers choose us because we are distinct, not just available.
• Brand, marketing, and positioning define perceived value and willingness to pay.
• Clear differentiation strengthens long-term market leadership.

Key Questions:

• What are the important elements of this opportunity that we need to be different on? (list them, upvote where the differentiation is)
• Which elements will really propel our brand forward when we write our case study? (list them, upvote that sustainable brand promise).

Summary

Team, nothing is easy, Your competition won't roll over and let you just win. They will find a way to throw the maximum number of banana skins your way.

This list isn't designed to be exhaustive. But is an example of how you could take a number of customer pursuits and quickly prioritise where the Good Revenue is coming from and where it likely isn't.

If you walk away from an opportunity, or refuse the last discount request from the customer in order to preserve the above. By knowing that this process was used with integrity, you can all let go of what could have been and move on to the next opportunity.

Post the photo above, I would run a strategy session over multiple days. We brought 44 legitimately good initiatives into a short list of 10 that will have the highest impact on the business while leveraging the best of that company's time, talent and capital.

This process highly compressed the time, while dramatically driving up the quality of insight.

It was awesome!

Final comment (no really.. ! I know I said 'short article!)

Remember, there is something worse than losing.

Winning bad revenue is much worse than losing.

It creates drag on everything you want to do.

It sucks your resources, it destroys moral, it radiates a reputation of being on the back foot.

No-one should be sad when you win, apart from your competition.

If someone (other than your competition) is regretting that 'win', everyone loses.

Please reach out if you'd like to hear the thinking, behind the thinking..