Driving Business Growth

Larry Goddard
Strategy, Growth, Family Business & Turnaround Advisor & Executive Coach

Growth is undoubtedly one of the most important goals for most businesses. In turbulent economic times, like those caused by the Corona virus or import tariffs, it can become an even bigger priority.

Riding the wave

Businesses that operate in markets that are growing significantly can frequently experience growth simply because of expansion in market demand. For example, businesses that cater to aging baby boomers could experience significant growth in the next 10-20 years, due to the huge increase in people born between 1946 and 1965.

Most businesses who want to grow do not enjoy the "wind at their backs" that such external influences might offer. They are forced to be more deliberate and strategic to achieve growth. The following activities can greatly facilitate business growth.

Market intelligence

A greater understanding of the market is likely to steer a business to better growth opportunities. To do this effectively, businesses need to:

• Be deeply introspective about their strengths, weaknesses, culture and capabilities in relation to the markets in which they operate

• Have great insight into customer needs, tastes and wants

• Understand market dynamics and trends

• Be aware of competitor activities, focus, strengths, weaknesses, competitive advantages and direction

A realistic assessment of all of the above will help businesses build a customized growth plan that allows them to pursue growth avenues that offer the company higher probabilities of success.

Work smarter

Most of us were taught by our mothers that hard work is the key to success. While this is sound advice - and hard work usually does enhance success - if there is an opportunity to work smarter in the pursuit of growth, businesses are well-advised to explore those paths.

Pursuing easier routes to growth enhances the probability of success. There are more than 30 paths a business can choose to take to pursue growth. While none of these are easy, some are easier than others. Choosing easier options frequently results in faster, more economical and lower-cost growth.

One of the paths to growth that is on the easier side of difficulty scale is growing Wallet Share - securing a bigger share of existing customers' spending dollars. It is generally easier to sell more to existing customers (who hopefully know and trust the company) than it is to convince new customers to buy from you.

New product development, on the other hand, is usually on the higher end of the difficulty scale. A lot of time and effort usually needs to be expended to develop and promote new products, and a small percentage of new products developed are immediate or short-term successes.

Grease the skids

Sales is one of the most difficult jobs a person can pursue. Most of us hate rejection, but a successful salesperson must endure repeated rejection. Most prospects are not intentionally mean - they are generally skeptical and frequently overwhelmed by salespeople trying to convince them to buy from them. It is only natural for a salesperson to become intimidated and dejected.

Companies that recognize this understand how important it is to make things easier for salespeople - and there are many things they can do to make it easier.

• Brand development - investing time and money in enhancing the company's name and reputation can make it a lot easier for the salesperson. A prospect is significantly more likely to say "yes" to a salesperson representing a company the prospect has heard of - especially if the prospect has a favorable impression of the company. A positive brand image can help a salesperson "get her foot in the door".

• Value proposition - You have probably heard about the proverbial "elevator pitch". It seldom actually takes place in an elevator - and more likely takes place on the phone, in a lobby, at a restaurant or on the golf course - but it is true that salespeople frequently are placed in a situation where they have a few seconds or minutes to catch a prospect's attention - and provide intriguing information that causes the prospect to be enticed about a product or service. While brand development helps open a crack in the door, a compelling Value Proposition can swing the door open. Being able to demonstrate product features and qualities that are different from most competitors’ - and valued by the prospect - could even roll out the red carpet.

• Lead generation - for most non-retail businesses, a lead is necessary for a new-business sale to occur. Companies that generate a lot of new business understand that good salespeople should spend most of their time in front of qualified leads, not looking for them. Good salespeople are rare. Having them spend valuable time on lead generation is an unproductive use of their time. As a result, businesses should invest resources in generating and qualifying leads -  that can be assigned to salespeople for follow up.

• Ideal customers - good internal and external intelligence should help the business identify the characteristics of the prospects that warrant attention. Businesses will be more successful if they direct their sales efforts towards prospects and customers that are a good fit for the company's skills and value proposition - as well as those that offer attractive margins and growth potential. 

Sales Execution

While greasing the skids will significantly improve the performance of salespeople, sales success still heavily depends on effective sales execution.

 The key ingredients of effective sales execution are:

• Coverage - once a company has identified its ideal prospects and customers, it is essential that it has enough sales coverage to make appropriate contact (in person, via telephone and electronic communications) with them. Opportunities missed because of a lack of coverage is a significant waste of the resources that have been invested to grease the skids.

• Hunters and farmers - a small percentage of salespeople are natural "hunters" who are comfortable with, and good at, selling to prospective new customers. The majority of salespeople tend to be "farmers", who might be good at selling to existing customers, but do not have the personality traits needed for new business development. In order to grow, most businesses need to identify their hunters and let them spend the majority of their time on new business development.

• Training - the performance of salespeople can be significantly enhanced by training in the areas of product knowledge, presenting the value proposition and selling skills.

• Lead management - having a good system to track and manage sales activities, prospects, leads and order progress can have a major impact on sales effectiveness. A good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is essential to accomplish this in all, but very small, businesses.

While sales growth is never easy, businesses that master market intelligence, working smarter, greasing the skids and effective sales execution generally find the challenge of achieving sales growth significantly easier to achieve.

By Larry Goddard, CEO of The Parkland Group, Inc., and developer of the SOAR Growth Strategies™ process (www.SOARgrowth.com).

© Copyright, The Parkland Group, Inc., 2020, All rights reserved.

LinkedIn Article:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/driving-business-growth-larry-goddard/