9 Sales Metrics to Increase Your Sales Territory Success – Plan Like Alexander The Great

by Paul DiModica Alexander the Great was born sometime around 355 BC in the area of Macedonia near Greece. While still in his early teens, Alexander grew to become a fearless and aggressive strategy-based leader who sought to conquer the whole world. After wining the battle of Granicus (his first battle), his reputation spread quickly [...]

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Developing and Mapping Your Sales Process

by Paul DiModica Developing a sales process that is successful, replicable, and measurable is one key to growing your firm. Like six sigma models, the correct sales process is designed to minimize and eliminate business errors that reduce your sales operational deficiencies and increase corporate profitability. Having corporate revenue success is not always a proven [...]

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Lost Sales Analysis For Greater Sales Management Success

by Paul DiModica   One of the best sales tools available to CEO’s, VP’s of Sales and sales managers when evaluating salespeople and sales performance is the use of a lost sales analysis metrics program. The lost sales analysis is more effective than percent of quota attainment as a measurement tool, because it measures not [...]

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8 Ways Management Teams Lead Their Companies and How It Affects Their Sales Teams

by Paul DiModica  Working with ten of thousands of salespeople and hundreds of companies during the last eleven years, at Value Forward Group we have identified 8 common types of management styles. These management descriptions are not always reflective of the company size but more on how they manage their firm. Each of the 8 [...]

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Are You A Fireman Always Putting Out Fires?

by Paul DiModica  Salespeople love leads – inbound, tradeshows, networking. Leads, leads and more leads . . . that’s all we want. But the management of those leads and how they are handled is important to their sales success. When selling prospects, there are several options to managing the prospect as a lead opportunity. You [...]

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Increase Your Business Success By Building Your Business To Sell (Even if you are not going to sell)

Posted by Kevin McCann on May 31st, 2011
Exit strategy pinned on noticeboard

by Paul DiModica

Recently, USA Today ran an article about an increase in mergers and acquisitions.  Considering that information, I wanted to share some information about increasing your valuation even if you don’t plan to sell.

To grow your company’s top line revenue or to sell your business requires an active business model that uses a structured and premeditated approach.

No acquiring buyer wants an unorganized company run like a private kingdom or a business operating structure that is not predictable and replicable. The more your business infrastructure is designed to grow revenue, the higher the business valuation will be by a buyer. Buyers want assets that they can transfer and manage. Buyers want both intellectual and human capital to be documented and base their investment on the ability to identify, transfer and manage these assets after a sale.

To grow your business as a privately-owned firm, build it for sale – even if you are never going to sell!

It is not uncommon for companies seeking to grow or sell their business to decide to move their management style from an entrepreneurial management model to a professional management model.

Take the CEO Exit Strategy Evaluation to determine if your business is ready to sell or grow.

CEO Exit Strategy Evaluation

1. Are your financial statements filled with personal expenses?

___Yes ___No

2. Are your financial statements set up to show line item details of profit and loss by department before and after corporate general and administrative expenses?

___Yes ___No

3. Do you reinvest at least 5% of your company’s gross revenues each year into business asset improvement like new product and service development, employee training and physical assets betterment?

___Yes ___No

4. Do you have a written sales process listing step-by-step each sales action needed to sell a prospect?

___Yes ___No

5. Do you have a written job description and compensation plan for each employee?

___Yes ___No

6. Do you have a written prospect demographic profile of your most likely customer?

___Yes ___No

7. Do you have a management team that can operate your business successfully without you?

___Yes ___No

8. Is part of your management team’s compensation based on their departments’ profitability?

___Yes ___No

9. Is your firm profitable?

___Yes ___No

10. Can you manage your business decentralized and off premises by the weekly reports you receive?

___Yes ___No

11. Does one customer generate 10% or more of your total company revenue?

___Yes ___No

12. Does at least 50% of your total company revenue come from business with new customers?

___Yes ___No

13. Has your business revenue increased at least 20% annually year-over-year for the last three years?

___Yes ___No

14. Do you have a written succession plan if something happens to you?

___Yes ___No

15. Do you have a written strategic business plan that is updated yearly?

___Yes ___No

16. Is anyone in your firm related to you by marriage or by lineage?

___Yes ___No

17. Is your total employee turnover (through termination or by resignation) less than 20% per year?

___Yes ___No

18. Do you have key executive insurance for yourself?

___Yes ___No

19. Does your AR (accounts receivable) average less than 90 days?

___Yes ___No

20. Have you legally identified and secured the intellectual property and the credible assignment results of your company?

___Yes ___No

21. If you create unique products or services, do you have detailed written guidelines, scope specifications or development designs for their creation?

___Yes ___No

22. Have you built scalable and replicable revenue capture programs for each product and service you sell?

___Yes ___No

23. Is at least 20% of your current annual revenue derived from recurring, contracted revenue streams (multi-year contracts, maintenance agreements, annual client assessments, etc.)?

___Yes ___No

24. Does at least 25% of your revenue come from inbound leads generated from prospects who seek you out based on your market brand and positional strength?

___Yes ___No

25. As CEO, are your responsible for 25% or more of your company’s sales (directly or indirectly through personal relationships)?

___Yes ___No

Correct Answers:
1. No
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. Yes
7. Yes
8. Yes
9. Yes
10. Yes
11. No
12. Yes
13. Yes
14. Yes
15. Yes
16. No
17. Yes
18. Yes
19. Yes
20. Yes
21. Yes
22. Yes
23. Yes
24. Yes
25. No

Each correct answer is worth 4%.

Scoring Above 80%
If you scored in this range, your business is structured for successful growth and potential acquisition. You have a professionally managed company that is attractive to employees and investors while simultaneously maximizing its potential for success and a high valuation.

Scoring 48% – 80%
Scoring in this range implies that you are moving from an entrepreneurial to a professional management model but are not quite there yet. Continued progress in your company transformation will increase your valuation and employee satisfaction.

Scoring Below 48%
If you scored in this range, more than likely you are managing your business using an entrepreneurial model and may even have the “king in the kingdom” syndrome. This happens when CEOs make decisions based on emotion or personal income maximization, do not track operational details, and think they know everything. This approach makes it hard for your business to grow or attract anyone to buy (or want to buy) your firm.

“Business growth is a premeditated process — not a haphazard guess!”
Paul DiModica

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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Increase Your Success Through a Better Sales Forecast

Posted by Kevin McCann on May 17th, 2011
accurateforecast

by Paul DiModica

6 Reasons Why Most Sales Forecasts
Are Inaccurate and Why They
Hamper Corporate Profitability

One success driver for companies to grow their top line revenue is the accurate management of their sales forecast. A sales forecast is a leading business driver that when used correctly, increases corporate cash flow, accelerates operational success, and allows companies to manage their business model by proactive metrics, not reactive emotion.

When incorrect sales forecast data is collected
or improperly managed . . . companies fail.

So why do many companies manage their business revenue forecast as if it was an after-thought?

Sales forecasts are incorrectly managed for multiple reasons, including lack of business understanding of their value contribution, lack of sales management controls and insufficient training and guidance for the sales team of why executive management needs accurate input.

When your sales forecast is wrong, all of your other departments are adversely affected.

6 Reasons Why Most Sales Forecasts
Are Inaccurate and Why They
Hamper Corporate Profitability

 

1. Management pulls unscrubbed sales forecasts directly from their customer management system (CRM) without their senior sales manager giving input.

Sales forecasts are unfiltered human data, that are supplied by optimistic business professionals, which need to be ‘massaged’ by the active sales manager who understands the personal nuances and selling capabilities of each sales team member.

2. Salespeople just guess.

Some salespeople just fill up the sales forecast with useless information to look busy. They don’t understand that sales is a premeditated process and their sales cycle must be managed.

3. Management has no metrics on determining what each sales step represents quantitatively, no written process of what a qualified sales step is, nor guidelines on what should be included in a forecast.

Often management does not understand the intricacies of setting up and managing sales forecasts. Their lack of leadership just confuses and at times alienates the sales team when forecasts are requested. It is easy to blame salespeople for inaccurate sales forecasts, but if management does not set down specific criteria for defining what a qualified lead is and is not, then inaccurate sales forecasts are not the fault of the sales team.

4. Salespeople insert data into their customer management system weekly instead of daily.

Sales forecasts are snapshots of time that change constantly. Prospects rapidly move from being qualified to not being qualified based on new management decisions as well as national economic changes. Due to this volatile nature of decision making by prospects, sales forecasts must be updated continuously.

5. Salespeople ‘premeditatedly’ exaggerate the sales forecasts opportunities to look busy.

Sales forecasts are visible reflections of sales team members’ activity. Some salespeople outright misrepresent their sales forecasts (or hide deals often called bluebirds) to management so they can maximize their commissions by bundling deals for higher commission payouts at the end of the year or end of the quarter.

6. Management does not link accurate forecasts to company objectives (i.e., bench utilization goals, marketing budgets, capital investments, etc.).

Sales forecasts are not secular data reviewed once a week in a sales meeting. They are a living, breathing business tool that must be managed proactively and linked to all other department actions, investments, team staffing and implementation goals.

To increase your revenue, manage your sales forecast like it’s the amount of cash you have in your checking account. Know exactly what is in your account and run your business by it.

“Business growth is a premeditated process — not a haphazard guess!” –Paul DiModica

 

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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How to Build Relationships Through Transactional Sales

Posted by Kevin McCann on May 3rd, 2011
relationship

by Paul DiModica

Here are four steps to build a prospect relationship:

Step 1: Meet with the prospect for the first time during the pre-sale cycle and communicate your business value.

Step 2: The prospect listens, believes your value, and buys the first time.

Step 3: In post-sale, the prospect reviews the value of what you sold them to determine if what they bought is what you promised in pre-sale.

Step 4: If the prospect decides they did receive what they were told they would get in pre-sale, then they buy a second time and this is when the relationship starts.

Hanging onto prospects because they make themselves available to you through email, visits to their office, phone conversations or just giving you verbal commitments is a waste of time.

Time management is the key to your selling success. Don’t spend time with professional lookers; instead, sell qualified buyers who prove they are qualified. Use transactional selling by forcing prospects to take action steps with you during the sales process to prove to you they are qualified. Don’t believe that prospects are going to buy just because they are accessible.

Always use transactional selling techniques, not relationship selling methods on your first sale. Your goal should be to turn your first sale (transactional) into a second sale (relationship).

Transactional Selling Flowchart

10 Transactional Sales Steps
To Grow Your Sales

  1. Ask the prospect to come to your office.
  2. Ask the prospect to introduce you to their boss.
  3. Ask the prospect if you can send your contract to their legal department for review.
  4. Ask the prospect to sign your non-disclosure document.
  5. Ask the prospect to sign a letter of intent (LOI).
  6. Ask the prospect to tell you their budget.
  7. Ask the prospect to accompany you to an existing customer site.
  8. Ask the prospect to call your references (and confirm that they do it).
  9. Ask the prospect to make a small purchase or trial investment to see if they will buy the main investment you are targeting and to prove that they can get a purchase order out of their company.
  10. Ask the prospect to see your competitor’s proposals — so you can “compare.”

“Business is a combination of war and sport.” –Andre Maurois

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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Pricing — Accurate Business Calculation . . . or Just a Guess?

Posted by Kevin McCann on March 1st, 2011
accurate-pricing

by Paul DiModica

How does your firm calculate its product or service price?

Often salespeople feel that pricing is a key impediment keeping them from hitting their quota.

This is a misnomer for many people who believe that lower pricing always means greater sales. In fact, this hypothesis is not supported by business studies.

Pricing, as a selection criteria, falls below technical competence, service and support, vendor’s understanding of a company’s need, and past experience with vendor based on research by Getronics, IDG Research, and CIO Magazine.

Let’s take a look at how some firms determine their pricing structure.

11 ways firms calculate their product or service pricing:

  1. Use a competitor’s price as a benchmark to set their price
  2. Use price points (drop the price) to increase market share penetration
  3. Use price as a marketing tool to break into a new account to a “create a relationship” that will generate additional revenue after the first sale
  4. Use cost of labor as a benchmark and then mark up gross margin based on some mathematical projected profit model that includes corporate G&A costs
  5. Write off all of the development or cost of labor costs, calculate all revenue as gross margin, and set price with no costs of goods
  6. Price the product on an inventory spin model to generate more gross revenue by “turning” your inventory faster (i.e., selling more product faster)
  7. Use a bundling model by tying multiple product options with service options to hide actual segmented pricing
  8. Create value pricing where price is based on the business value and how it affects the buyer’s ability to increase income or decrease expenses when the product or service is deployed
  9. Create price based on Return On Investment (ROI) calculation for the buyer
  10. Use a profit-driven price model where each deal is individually reviewed to determine its overall profitable contribution
  11. Last, but certainly not least . . . just guess (I don’t recommend this but it seems to be pretty popular.)

Let’s look at three of these methods:

  • Pricing based on competitor’s price benchmark;
  • Dropping price to get market share; and
  • Dropping price to “start” a relationship and generate more revenue on the back-end of the first sale with a prospect.

When we look at these three methods, we observe they are short-term action steps that never truly help a firm become more profitable.

Why?

Pricing based on your competitor’s sales price never works because it ignores your firm’s operational costs and assumes that your business costs are the same as your competitor’s costs.

Market share pricing only helps firms who already have a monopoly and restricts company profitability.

Discount pricing to launch a key account relationship is a common practice but recent studies conflict with this pricing approach. Of particular note with regard to this method, past studies by Walker Information show that 1 out of every 2 buyers do not plan to buy from the same vendor again and are unhappy with their business relationship.

So, all of the prospect negotiation techniques of cutting your price to start a relationship are just that . . . negotiation tactics.

What is the right pricing method for profitability?

For most firms, it is going to be a combination of the first 10 methods.

The key to the correct pricing model is focusing on how you bring value to your prospects’ purchase while balancing your firm’s cost of business. The incorrect pricing model is, of course, number 11.

“You win customers by quality rather than price.”
Jean Ridley

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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Understanding the Need for Multi-Dimensional Marketing

Posted by Kevin McCann on February 15th, 2011
multi-dimensional

by Paul DiModica

Buyers have become desensitized to corporate speak that sounds like everyone else’s. Because of the Internet, buyers are better educated, more selective in their acquisition choices, and have the greatest selection of purchase options than ever before.

Sure, your firm is dedicated to the finest customer service.
Yes, your management team is committed to superior customer satisfaction.

OK, I hear how your research team has spent a disproportionate share of its valuable funding on fine-tuning your offering’s features or benefits.

Big deal — I’m not impressed and neither are the prospects you are trying to market to. Any company that is growth directed is saying how great they are.

When was the last time a sales executive said:

  • “I wouldn’t buy from us because my senior management team is more concerned about our stock’s valuation.” or
  • “Our inbound customer service center is made up of cheap part-time labor from another country that doesn’t understand our language — so it’s a waste of time to call.” or
  • “Our offering is two years behind in its product development because management is too egocentric to believe that it needs to be updated.”

The fact is, most marketing is worthless because companies sound and act like their competitors and leave their value buried deep inside the position of non-belief.

Telling new prospects and existing customers how great you are or how unique your offering is, is just lazy marketing and wasted investment.

To turn business prospects into active buyers you must stop wasting budget dollars on beautiful, high-gloss, four-color brochures that no one reads; multimedia presentations that are visually attractive but do not say how your offering helps a business succeed; or press releases promulgating your next new strategic partnership that marked you as one of many versus one of one, etc. These marketing devices are one-dimensional communication devices that do not stimulate or enlighten a buyer’s brain.

One-dimensional sensory marketing puts prospects into sleep mode.

When your marketing is one-dimensional, it is too passive for the average prospect today and this creates lazy buyers.

Because consumers’ brains are overloaded, it is critical to adopt a marketing model that deploys multi-sensory value communication that uses several sensory bells and whistles to help stimulate action steps.

The correct way to create a multi-dimensional sensory value position with targeted buyers is to get them to become involved in the discovery of your value.

Value must be multi-sensory and multi-dimensional.
When prospects feel they are buying and not being sold, they buy faster and more often.

To sell more and to create inbound leads for your sales team, your marketing programs need to educate targeted buyers on how your product or service can help them.

To sell more, marketing must give deep educational content away to targeted prospects to turn them into customers.

The Value Forward Marketing 5% Rule

In Value Forward Marketing, you should give 5% away to get prospects to pay 95% at retail.

If you have an offering where demand is greater than supply, then your goal should be to turn prospects into buyers. Instead of communicating your value up front through repetitious communication of how great you are, give 5% of your value away to generate 95% more sales at a higher gross margin price.

Just like the cookie store that gives free samples, financial services companies, retail stores, software companies, manufacturing firms and nonprofit credit unions all have the opportunity to position their value up front.

This 5% rule can be free information on how to fix problems in your buyer’s business world, free consulting on a retirement plan, or low-cost software modules that you roll up into a larger sale later. This try-a-little-before-you-buy value presentation allows prospects to confirm for themselves that your value is what you say it is.  Now, earlier I recommended not giving a try-before-you-buy offer of your entire product or service offering.  The difference here is that I am recommending you offer a small portion of your expertise or your offering as the trial offer, not the whole enchilada.

Examples of the 5% value presentation include:

  • Credit union giving a free assessment report of your current financial strength and credit rating
  • Software company giving free monthly workshops on how buyers can improve their business profitability
  • Manufacturer sending a free content-driven monthly newsletter on how to manage business costs
  • Restaurant holding an open house for customers to taste test new desserts
  • Consulting company giving clients a free success assessment of their business

Because prospects are suspect of corporate marketing messages and branding platitudes, retention of your value is low; but by giving away some of the value for free, you allow prospects to sample your offering on their own terms and paint visual brochures in their minds as to why they should buy from you.

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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Strategy is important, but strategy with execution is better!

Posted by Kevin McCann on February 1st, 2011
strategy-execution

by Paul DiModica

The world is full of clairvoyants, savants, mind readers, business experts, and your drunken uncle who know everything there is to know about growing your business.

If I never read another company mission statement that says “our management team is committed to our customer’s and employee’s growth,” I will die a happy, Sicilian boy.

Of course you are committed to your customers and employees, otherwise you wouldn’t be in business long. Yet, I have sat in meetings with CEO’s who spent days theorizing on the right words to use to describe in their mission and vision statements while their customer support, business offerings and employees were unstable and not functioning well.

Businesses today need less talk . . . and more action.

In the real world:

Strategy is important, but strategy with execution is better!

When it comes to business growth recommendations, everyone has their opinion, but who should you believe?

Here are some examples of growth strategies that have been implemented:

  • Don Keough, former President and Chief Operating Officer of Coca-Cola, followed these strategies . . . for no business growth:
    1. Quit taking risks.
    2. Be content.
    3. Before you make a move , always ask yourself “What will the investors think?”
    4. Avoid change.
    5. Be totally inflexible — stay on your current course no matter what.
    6. Rely totally on research and experts to make decisions for you.
    7. Be more concerned about status and brand than service.
    8. Concentrate on your competitor instead of your customers.
    9. Put yourself first in everything you do, ahead of your customers and suppliers.
    10. Memorize the formula: “TGE — That’s Good Enough” to set a ceiling of quality.Then add a bonus rule:
    11. Find ways to rationalize why your business is growing so slowly.
  • Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, followed these rules for growth:
    1. Commit with passion to your business.
    2. Share profits with your employees.
    3. Motivate your partners. Money and ownership are not enough.  Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score.
    4. Communicate everything to your employees. The more they know, the more they will understand. Information is power and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets any risk of informing your competitors.
    5. Show appreciation for a job well done.
    6. Celebrate success and in those inevitable failures, find some humor. Don’t take it so seriously.
    7. Listen to everyone in your company, especially the ones who actually talk to customers. They really know what is going on out there.
    8. Exceed your customers’ expectations and they will always come back.
    9. Control your expenses better than your competition.
    10. Swim upstream. If everyone else is going one way, there is a good chance you can find your business niche by going the opposite way.
  • The Value Forward Group recommends these growth strategies:
    1. Dominate vertical industries to become horizontal.
    2. Sell based on your value, not your competition’s price.
    3. Manage your company by metrics and P&L’s — not by emotion and hope.
    4. Integrate sales, marketing and strategy into one revenue program.
    5. Put your business value in front of you by forcing  your customers to see you as a thought leader (or industry leader) so they take the initiative to buy, instead of you having to sell them.
    6. Give 5% of your value away for free — so your prospects buy 95% from you at retail (remember, you control what retail is).
    7. Calculate return on investment for every department and manage your business by it.
    8. Maximize your business profitability by increasing your inventory turns and maximizing your client’s lifetime value. If you sell services, your staff and you are the inventory and it must be turned (sold more).
    9. Listen to your customers, consultants, employees, competitors and your gut feelings when making management decisions . . . but don’t let your gut feeling be controlled by your ego.
    10. Remember strategy is important, but strategy with execution is better.
    11. Never be a generalist; generalists live in a commodity world.
    12. Your total corporate revenue should include at least 35% business from new prospects each year. When you are tied only to your existing customers for revenue growth, your success is tied to their ability to buy or not to buy.
    13. If you are a family-run business, remember your family may not be the best employees.
    14. The intellectual property or the most valuable assets of your business are not the products or services you sell – it is the strength of your sales and marketing distribution channel.
    15. Channel or reseller programs always fail if your direct sales and marketing programs are weak.
    16. Mission and vision statements are wasted thought if execution is not implemented.
    17. Organic growth is always cheaper than buying companies. Without organic growth processes in place, acquired investments usually fail.
    18. Marketing without lead generation is a wasted investment.
    19. Value first, brand second.
    20. It is not what you sell — it is what your customers buy.

Based on the 41 suggestions above (both positive and negative on techniques to grow your business), you need to draw conclusions based on those methodologies that fit your needs.

“The person who says it can’t be done, should not interrupt the person doing it.” Chinese  proverb

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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