What is holding back your company's growth?
Dmitri (Dmytro) Rodenko
Founder – SaaSFounders, IT Marketing Expert | Helping IT Founders to generate a consistent flow of sales opportunities
In today's world, CEOs are constantly juggling a multitude of responsibilities and tasks. Amidst the endless stream of urgent matters and “fires” that need attention, it's easy to lose sight of what drives the company's growth. As Dave Kellogg aptly noted, “The job of a CEO is to do the right thing that matters.” This simple thought helps us to understand what is important to successfully run a company.
The challenge of leadership in growth
Many CEOs, especially when their companies are growing more slowly than they would like, find themselves in a typical situation. When they see poor results and want to change things, they often don't know what to do. Instead of understanding the main problem, they try to fix everything at once. As a result, teams spend their energy on improving everything, but sales don't grow.
The solution is to simplify the approach. Successful leaders must find ways to grow, choose the most important one, and focus on it. While this sounds simple, many leaders struggle with finding the real problem, deciding where to start, and how to check for improvements.
Three main ways to grow
Create more opportunities
Creating new opportunities is the lifeblood of any growing business. If you don't have enough leads at the beginning of the quarter, or if the number of leads doesn't change from year to year, even though you're planning for growth, this is your main problem. Remember: you can't close a deal if you don't have a lead.
The best first step for companies that sell software to other companies is to build a better list of potential customers. You need to clearly understand your market, find possible customers, and turn those who “might buy someday” into those who “are thinking about buying now.” A good list of target customers shows whether you are really working with your market or just looking at it from the sidelines.
Turning opportunities into real sales
If the percentage of successful deals falls below ~30%, or you often fail to reach your sales goals at the end of the quarter, even though it seems like you have enough clients, your main problem is how you sell. As SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin says: “Listen to a few of your sales calls. What you hear will surprise you.” Look for where the problems arise and solve them through training and team support.
Check all possible deals, especially those that have been stuck and have not moved for a long time. Look at the state of sales 3-4 weeks before the end of the quarter and compare it with what happened at the end. Keep track of both the overall percentage of successful sales and how long they take. Analyze the results of each salesperson to find the best ones and help those who are lagging.
Client retention
The main signs of client retention problems are a drop in client satisfaction and fewer contract renewals than planned. You should be especially concerned when clients who were previously satisfied leave. Warning signs are also deteriorating client satisfaction scores (NPS) or declining client service quality scores (CSAT).
To work well with clients, you need to create a system for checking how satisfied they are. Particular attention should be paid to those who have been working with the company for less than 1-2 years because their experience best shows how your teams and processes are currently working. This will help you see service problems in time and fix them.
The importance of focusing on one area
The most difficult thing about this approach is not to find problems or ways to solve them, but to force yourself to work on only one thing. Many managers are reluctant to do this because they are afraid of missing other opportunities for improvement. But this feeling often shows that you are on the right track. It is better to do one thing completely than to do several things halfway.
Conclusion
Growing a company is not about being busy all the time, it's about having the courage to choose what matters most. The best leaders choose specific important tasks and direct the entire company to accomplish them. Although growth is difficult, a simple approach and focus on what matters most is the way to success. As a leader, your job is not to fix everything at once, but to find the most important things, dedicate yourself to them, and lead the company steadily toward the goal.
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