Scaling Beyond the Founder: Strategies for Overcoming the Sales Plateau and Sustaining Growth

The Founder's conundrum is the almost universal challenge faced by entrepreneurs of maintaining the same level of sales growth as a start-up scales and acquires more customers.

It's often the Founder or CEO who has been responsible for driving sales but as the company grows it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the same rate of growth that was achieved in the early stages.

One reason for this is that early sales are often made through the Founder's personal network and relationships. But as the company grows, that personal network can become exhausted, and the company must shift to more traditional sales and marketing methods to acquire new customers. This can be tough and requires investing in sales and marketing infrastructure, hiring salespeople, and developing marketing campaigns that can reach a larger audience.

Additionally, the sales process becomes more complex as the company expands. When a start-up is small, the founder can handle all aspects of the sales process, but as the company grows, different people become responsible for different parts of the process. This makes it more challenging to keep the sales process efficient and effective.

To overcome the Founder's conundrum, entrepreneurs need to focus on developing a sales strategy that is not only effective but scalable and sustainable over the long term. This may require investment in sales and marketing infrastructure, hiring salespeople, and developing marketing campaigns that can reach a larger audience. It should also involve creating processes and systems that help streamline the sales process, making it more efficient for the entire team.

Scaling your sales and commercial teams can be challenging, but there are several strategies that entrepreneurs can use to address the issue. Here are some solutions that I recommend:

1. Create a Sales Playbook: You need to identify the steps in your sales process, develop clear guidelines for each step, and create systems to ensure that each step is followed consistently. By doing this, you can ensure that your sales team is working efficiently and effectively, even as the volume of leads and prospects grows.
2. Hire well: Hiring experienced salespeople can be an effective way to scale your sales efforts as they have proven track record of success and can often bring valuable insights and expertise to your sales team. However you should spend time identifying the right persona and competencies for salespeople specific to your business and develop a hiring strategy that involves key stakeholders.
3. Invest in marketing: As your business grows, it becomes increasingly important to invest in marketing efforts that can help you reach a larger audience. This may involve developing a content marketing strategy, investing in paid advertising, or building relationships with influencers in your industry. Successful businesses need a strong pipeline of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to grow and keep your sales team focused on selling rather than lead generation.
4. Focus on customer retention: A 5% improvement in ARR and customer retention can have a game changing impact on your business value. Retaining your existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones and can be a key driver of long-term sales growth as they become a loyal customer base that will provide a stable source of revenue over time. You could develop a customer success program, hire growth account managers, offer incentives for repeat business or invest in customer support. Most importantly, be easy to do business with.
5. Put your CRM at the heart of your sale process: There are a wide range of sales tools and technologies available that can help you streamline your sales process and improve efficiency. Using a CRM system to manage your sales pipeline, using sales automation tools to automate repetitive tasks, or using data analytics to identify areas for focus and improvement is essential. However CRM is only as good as the information within so make sure it is properly integrated into your playbook and used as the single source of truth by your sales and finance teams.

In the absence of the ability to clone the Founder, these strategies will give you the strong foundation to build on what you've already achieved and drive your companies value.

So, don't be afraid of the Founder's conundrum – embrace it and use it as an opportunity to grow your business. With the right approach, you can build a sales organisation that is not only scalable and sustainable but also capable of driving long-term growth.

If you want to discuss any of the strategies in this blog then please reach us on LinkedIn or at www.aretesalesexcellence.com