Situation: The CEO of a service company is focused on growth, which is driven by new contracts. This, in turn is driven by new sales contacts per week. Sales staff are paid on commission. The CEO wants to assure that quarterly objectives are met to grow the company. How do you maintain focus on quarterly objectives?

Advice from the CEOs:

• Track and publish progress against weekly, monthly, quarterly metric objectives and key drivers.
  • Post charts around the office to maintain staff focus on objectives.
  • Put up whiteboards that show individual metrics as well as daily “top 3” focus items.
• Identify key market sectors where focus will pay off for the company.
  • It’s OK to take a generalist approach as the company develops a new market sector. This helps to learn the dynamics of that sector.
  • As sector market penetration grows, develop functional or sector specialties.
• Identify and focus on the gaps to company success.
  • Monitor and generate incentives to increase sales activity. The more fun that is involved in this, the faster the company will close the gaps.
  • Focus marketing on developing more prospects. Brainstorm creative marketing approaches that will generate prospects. Create a competition to develop the best new ideas with incentives or prizes to celebrate the most successful ideas.
  • If additional resources are required, currently beyond the company’s budget, investigate adding commission-driven contract resources with strong incentives for identifying new prospects and landing new clients.

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