Unless you’re one of the “chosen few” that breathe rarified, unicorn air, it is inevitable that you have or will experience the peaks and valleys of business growth. The highs are amazing and the lows… well, they suck! They leave you feeling frustrated and often confused as to why what worked before isn’t working now.
In the last 23 years of working for, with, and studying startup, growth stage, and turn around organizations, I have found these ups and downs to be as certain as death and taxes. Through this experience, I have also been blessed to see, learn, and implement what best in class companies do to cross these chasms and land on predictable, scalable revenue engines.
My dad always used to say, “brain surgery is not hard for brain surgeons”. I see this as much the same. When you know what best in class companies do to create and accelerate growth, you have a blueprint for your own success. I used that knowledge to create the Sales Optimization Framework. It is composed of the seven elements outlined below and starts with the associated questions.
1. Strategy: Do we have clear revenue goals and objectives, and are they effectively communicated and aligned throughout the organization?
2. Why You Win: Is there a compelling story and content that effectively differentiates us from the competition, and is that story consistently applied across all sales and marketing channels?
3. How You Win: Have we optimized our lead engagement and sales processes to effectively move leads through the sales funnel, and are these processes aligned with our overall strategy?
4. Predictable Model: Have we aligned our go-to-market strategy with our capabilities, market trends, and competitive landscape, and have we established clear metrics and processes for evaluating and optimizing performance?
5. Fill the Funnel: Do we have effective lead generation and conversion strategies, and are we effectively capturing and nurturing leads through the sales funnel?
6. Predictable Forecast: Do we have a clear understanding of our sales process and pipeline, and have we established effective metrics and reporting processes to monitor and optimize performance?
7. Acceleration: Are we effectively leveraging all the previous elements to invest in growth through a predictable model, and have we established a culture of continuous improvement and optimization to sustain our growth over time?
By asking these questions and assessing their answers, a company can identify areas of strength and weakness in its revenue operations and develop a roadmap for optimizing its growth strategy.
SHAMELESS PLUG – Most growth-driven companies know how and why they win but lack the time or resources to make it predictable. If that sounds like you, SOAR built a whole business around the Sales Optimization Framework. We build this engine in companies just like yours while they focus on what they do best. Learn more at www.soarprocess.com
Good luck and God Speed!
Eric Vaughn