Low Revenue Performance???

Revenue performance is the end result of the complex actions and timing of a large number of moving parts. When the sum of those parts operates inefficiently, it's difficult at best to expect a positive result with any accuracy. The harder you work to improve one or more of these activities, the more out of sync everything else seems to get. Sound familiar?

It’s similar to a car engine. A tune-up is recommended at mileage intervals because the activity and timing of the moving parts start to fail over time, and eventually the engine spits and sputters. You can change old ignition wires, but dirty spark plugs and a clogged fuel filter remain, so the engine continues to struggle. As your company's revenue performance limps along, sales leadership may bring in outside sales trainers then push their already stretched resources even harder. Marketing may decide to launch an expensive campaign in an attempt to stop the decline. Products and solutions may even be altered to include new features and functions. At the end of the day, revenue still isn’t getting measurably better.

As you think about tweaking parts of your revenue workflow to boost performance, stepping back and assessing the entire workflow can save you a great deal of money and time. If you gain a crystal-clear picture of what isn’t working, all the decisions you make and actions you take will be well-timed, and their impact on the other moving parts will be better known and easily accounted for. Ask yourself...  

·        Do you truly know who your target market is and what drives them? Is your marketing content appropriately phased to advance the right number of potential buyers from targets, to prospects, to leads and then customers with optimal timing?

·        Does your product provide a relevant, valuable and unique selling proposition that makes you competitive? How is it perceived by the buyer?

·        Do you know everything about your competition, how they go to market, how they position against you, their strengths and weaknesses? Are you properly countering the competition in both marketing content and sales activities?      

·        Are you competitively priced? Do you establish provable value in the sales process? Are your resources adequately trained and equipped to negotiate the best price?

·        Are your sales resources “trained professionals” that are properly equipped with the tools and methods to win every time? Does the sales organization portray the appropriate level of consistency, accountability, and sense of urgency? Do you use an unbiased outside agent to continually analyze wins and losses to allow you to adjust and improve?

·        Do you have precisely the right budget, infrastructure and headcount in sales and marketing?

Each one of these questions should be viewed from the market's perspective, which can be tedious and time-consuming to try and do internally. Working with clients, Motum always performs a Revenue Performance Baseline? to assess the true state of all these areas and more from the outside looking in. It is quite normal to find significant gaps in each and every bullet-item above that can throw-off the entire revenue workflow. Take the time to evaluate every component in your company’s revenue engine. It can provide you with the knowledge and wisdom to make critical changes and prioritize improvement initiatives within the context of the whole picture resulting in a well-tuned revenue engine.Poor Revenue Performance?

Tim McCracken, Founder/Managing Partner, Motum LLC. www.motum-us.com