Category Archives: Sales & Marketing

How Do You Refocus on Growth? Four Points of Emphasis

Situation: A CEO wants to refocus his company on growth following a difficult two years. Employee absences and stress due to the pandemic have had a significant effect on performance. The objective is to rally the team and excite them about future prospects. How do you refocus on growth?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Focus on the top goals for the company: revenue, customer satisfaction, product quality and delivery, and strategic positioning.
    • These have been company strengths in the past and will form the foundation for new growth and opportunities.
    • This is the time to be the head cheerleader. The company has a strong past and will be even stronger in the future.
  • Key points of communication to the company:
    • We have a strong Good News/Good News story – the company has survived the last two years, has an aggressive plan and a strong future, and will do even better as conditions return to normal.
    • The company is focused on an important and growing sector and is positioned for strong growth as customers refocus their companies.
    • Start this aspect of the communication this week – then keep on repeating it to reinforce optimism as the company repositions itself for new opportunities.
  • Communications to customers to support the strategy:
    • Tell clients that the company is healthy and well positioned to continue to meet their needs better than any other alternatives available to them.
  • Allow a few months for employees to regroup.
    • Staff will be exhausted, physically and emotionally, following the last two years – give them time to regroup and refocus.

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How Do You Develop an Employee to the Next Level? Four Points

Situation: A CEO has a key employee who wants a higher level of responsibility. Currently this employee is primarily focused on business development. He’s good at this but wants a higher level of experience. The CEO agrees. How do you develop an employee to the next level?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • If you ask this individual what needs to be done, what happens?
    • Revenue is number one. This is where he is focused, but he wants more than this from his role.
    • If this is also the CEO’s primary objective then the CEO needs to back off and direct him to split his time between closing high level opportunities and training his direct reports to be able to close lower-level opportunities on their own.
  • To the CEO – thinking about your own experience, how did you mature to a higher level when you had primary responsibility for business development?
    • Answer: I built and trained staff to do this and delegated these responsibilities to them.
    • Allow this individual and other key managers within the company to do the same thing, and coach them along the way.
    • Empower this individual to build his staff and enable them to take on more of the functions that he no longer wants to handle himself. Allow him to prioritize his time to focus on: hiring and training of his key staff and coaching and supervision as they grow into their new roles.
  • Consider this solution as a larger project manager role. Take a key product and empower this individual to design, build and manage the organization to deliver this product.
  • To frame this solution short-term, start with a 1-on-1. Ask about his vision – what he wants as his role and how he sees building this.
    • Follow by laying this out in terms of the company’s objectives – be specific as to what this looks like.
    • Look for a win / win reconciliation between the CEO’s and the employee’s visions that meet both of their objectives. Get on the same page with this individual, so that this fulfills both of your needs.

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What are the Options for Your Next Phase? Six Suggestions

Situation: It’s a new year, and a CEO is thinking through options for the coming year and beyond. She has decided to leave her company and establish a new role and career for herself. Immediate concerns are funding the transition and entry into a new career. What are the options for your next phase?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The area that can be built most quickly to provide income is a consulting practice based on the experience developed as a CEO and as a specialist leveraging past experience. Building a new practice is a big commitment. Make this the initial focus and get a few gigs to get the ball rolling. The company is an early option, as well as some of their key customers. These relationships are already in place.
  • On the academic side, investigate Executive Education programs in Business Schools. Here the clientele is different from normal undergraduate and postgraduate education – actively working managers and executives. For this audience the combination of experience as a CEO and academic credentials is advantageous. For this audience, a lack of credentialed teaching experience is largely counterbalanced by the weight of professional experience.
  • The Professor / Consultant track looks best if established as a 5-year plan.
  • While getting established in a new role there will be an initial challenge managing the time demands of teaching, research and developing a consulting practice. Think of this as managing the multiple functions of a company. It will be important to establish early priorities to accomplish the desired plan.
  • A professorship does not necessarily tie financially to current goals but can be an important strategic adjunct to consulting efforts. In a certain sense, teaching will have to be its own reward.
  • To the extent possible and depending upon how the board responds to the decision to leave the company negotiate the best possible severance package. This can tie into some of the suggestions, above.

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How Do You Create Larger Deal Sizes? Six Options

Situation: A company has good deal flow, but the CEO finds that margins are significantly increased with larger deals. Larger deals reduce the overhead component, much of which is the same regardless of deal size. The company is dominant in their market and can provide multi-site and multinational services. How do you create larger deal sizes?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • One company with multiple consulting contracts has found that bidding for RFPs on larger projects has opened the door to larger contracts..
  • Another company has looked at cost of sales and its contribution to business wins. .
    • Under 6% was ineffective and over 12% did not generate significantly more business. Their target win ratio is 30%
    • Factors that positively influenced win ratios were positioning the company as the preferred bidder up-front, and avoiding sham RFPs which are already slotted in favor of a competitor that helped to spec the RFP:
  • When bidding on RFPs, if the company will not be the low bidder it is important to identify the critical non-price parameters where the company will offer a differential advantage.
    • Focus on large multi-site or international RFPs which are more likely to be larger dollar RFPs.
    • Look at supply chain management opportunities.
    • Offer to warrant results in exchange for a higher price.
    • Look at system-type opportunities where the company can offer a more comprehensive solution based on its depth and experience.
    • Look for situations where the company can develop an advantaged position.
  • What are the implications of these strategies?
    • It will require retraining the inside sales force to research and qualify RFPs.
    • It will shift the focus to project vs. outsourcing opportunities. The latter are more price and availability driven and don’t play to the company’s strengths.
  • Explore channel sales through the existing partner network.
    • Offer a referral fee to regionals for referring opportunities outside their scope. In return, hire them as subs on the project.
  • Take a look at the big engineering firms who work multinational contracts, and handle their mitigation matters with small teams.
    • Offer them a comprehensive approach that is less expensive, more consistent, and more visible than their current self-service approach.

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How Do You Take Advantage of a New Technology? Two Foci

Situation: A company has had early success with a promising new technology that compliments the company’s strategic direction. Their objective is to become one of the top suppliers and servicers of this technology in their service area. How do you take advantage of a new technology?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Leverage the company’s strengths to create an early advantage in this technology.
    • Create a low-cost delivery system to take advantage of opportunities available through this technology initially at a lower margin, then offer enhancements to build margin to company norms.
    • Investigate other markets and applications where this low-cost delivery system can generate you new opportunities.
  • It is early to assess whether the new technology will become dominant, or just the latest fad. It has been on the market for less than two years and is just taking off.
    • Take the next few months to dig into what is happening within vendors of the technology, and how they are perceived by their client companies.
    • Talk to CIOs about their perceptions of the technology based on the last few quarters of experience – quality of implementation, quality of service. Other providers add a layer to the cost – is the service worth the cost or do client companies save over time through overhead reduction?
    • Talk to other vendors from other market areas – learn from their experience selling and working with the technology.
    • How do the other vendors make money? Are costs to their corporate clients offset by savings implementing the technology? What margins are the others enjoying and does this come from the initial technology, from add-on services, or complimentary sales. What is the perception of the sustainability of this technology both within the providers and to the CIOs? What about the technology really irks corporate clients? Where is the soft underbelly of this technology? Research may assist in making future decisions on how to approach the technology and clients.

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How Do You Shift the Sales Mix? Five Suggestions

Situation: The CEO of a professional services company wants to shift the focus of the company from emphasis on service of existing customers to new customer development. Historically they have counted on repeat sales, but these have lagged. The CEO wants to develop new customers to build current and future revenue. This is a mentality shift. How do you shift the sales mix?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The objective is to move the current customer to new customer mix from 80/20 toward 40/60.
    • As an example, the CEO has shifted her focus day to day management to long-term planning and strategy over the last two years.
    • Now it’s time to motivate others to make a similar shift in customer development.
  • Make the shift to sales – to rain-maker – a requirement for Partner Track. Let those who want to pursue Partner Track know that this is a key part of their qualification for Partner.
  • Make cash flow analysis an integral part of new project proposals and current project tracking. Have project managers devise their project analyses to show return but review these to assure that their analyses are accurate. Require them to sell their analyses to the Partners. This will help them to see the value of correctly bidding new projects up-front.
  • Ask them – what do you want to be doing in 10 years? How will you be contributing to the goals of the firm? What are you doing to get there? Communicate the critical metrics that will be evaluated: sales, new account development, profitable bids and project cost control. Focus cost control on keeping options presented under control and minimizing rework.
  • Reserve Partner Track for those who can produce both sales and effective delivery of services. In employee reviews make this distinction clear.

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How Do You Build and Develop the Right Team? Four Points

Situation: A CEO has two issues. One concerns her COO about whom she is receiving complaints from staff as new processes are implemented, and the other is beefing up the sales team. On the latter issue she is concerned about both her ability to pay the high-level seller-doers that are needed to support growth and potential turnover. How do you build and develop the right team?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The COO has already put the right process in place. Coach this individual to lighten up and allow everyone to adapt to the new regime.
    • As new processes are implemented coach him not to implement them rigidly at first. Allow people time to get used to the new process. Allow some flexibility in implementation so that the new processes can be adapted to the individual styles of the key players.
    • Over time tighten expectations gradually until each process is fully in place and running smoothly.
  • Have the COO communicate to the company that it’s growing, the focus is now on hiring, and the task facing the company is revenue growth.
  • For new salespeople, the investment cycle can be 6 months to full function.
    • In the mix of salary and bonus, weigh the bonus side heavily – the side that won’t become payable until the new individual produces.
    • This becomes an incentive for new salespeople to get up to speed quickly. It also helps to weed out those whose talents aren’t as sharp as they represented in the hiring process.
  • The salespeople are the key marketers for this company as well as the rainmakers and producers. It may be necessary to commit to this investment to ensure future growth and adjust the company’s annual earnings forecasts accordingly.

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How Do You Focus on Doing Things Right? Seven Recommendations

Situation: A CEO is concerned that her company is not as efficient or effective as it could be. Of the key activities where the company is focused, few have any obvious connection to the customer or the customers’ needs. How do you focus on doing things right?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Create a set of cost graphs to parallel the company’s revenue graphs. If these are put side by side, does it indicate that the company is doing some things that add relatively low value and profit? What happens if resources are shifted away from less valuable activity?
  • Concentrate resources on doing one profitable thing well. Become best in class at this one thing. This may both increase the value of the firm and help to focus future development.
  • Bring in a senior level marketing research person or marketing manager with marketing research experience to determine what the customer wants, how should the company compete, and what current customers may be willing to pay for its software.
  • Strengthen the primary product – it represents 90% of sales. This is where the company has the best understanding of both its customers and the market. Look at what it takes to become enterprise wide with the company’s largest customers. Expand vertical capabilities and build $1 million accounts to $5 million a year.
  • The company already has a diverse group of clients, many of whom are huge.
    • How deep is the company in each of these clients? It may be easier and less expensive from a sales standpoint to go deeper into these clients than to bring on new clients.
    • Look for ways to make current $1 million clients $5 million clients by selling what the company currently sell to more of their divisions and locations.
    • The key to executing this strategy is to listen closely to what clients’ needs are and adjust or customize the offering to better meet their needs.
  • Focus on solutions and reduce the cost of solution implementation. Consider becoming more vertical in one key implementation and become the best at that.
  • Create a relevant framework for the company’s strategy. For what purpose is it necessary to do the right thing? If the purpose is to exit in 2 to 3 years, this yields a very different strategy than if the objective to dominate the company’s market in a 5 to10 year period.

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How Do you Evaluate a New Opportunity? Five Views

Situation: A CEO has been approached about new opportunity. The company has been through some hard times, and the opportunity offers access to quick cash which would remedy the company’s debt exposure. A downside is that the deal would erode the company’s brand exposure because it would operate under another brand. How do you evaluate a new opportunity?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Carefully evaluate how this opportunity will impact current operations.
    • What percent of time and effort will the opportunity require? Will it compromise the company’s current operations?
    • The appeal is access to quick cash. However, if the bottom line isn’t sufficient to meet the company’s needs, walk away.
    • Given that the project would be under another brand, why not spend the time and resources growing the company’s brand?
  • Is there anything that could make the opportunity more appealing?
    • See if the other company is open to offering a piece of the business after a period of commitment.
    • Management control. Assure that the company’s principals would have the autonomy to make it work.
    • The ability to keep the company’s name visible and prominently cited in all joint projects.
  • Look at this opportunity the same way that the company evaluates other opportunities.
    • Opportunity to build brand presence.
    • Assure that the proposed project meets the company’s current rates of return, or if not at least the current dollar return per project.
  • Is this a way to get into larger projects more quickly with reduced risk? If so, negotiate this into the deal.
  • Bottom line:
    • The company is emerging from hard times nicely.
    • The company is building a strong brand and reputation in its target geography.
    • Stay the course and trust in the company’s abilities.
    • Take on projects from this new opportunity only if they help build the company’s brand and reputation with less risk than is currently carried.
    • There is no reason to entertain this opportunity if it reduces the company’s brand equity and/or carries the same or more risk than the company’s current project mix.

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How Do You Improve Sales Skills? Four Points

Situation: A company is staffed by a team that is not made up of salespeople, per se, but individuals who have grown with the business and who understand the customer. The staff is divided into teams who serve the company’s customers but with differences in effectiveness. The CEO seeks advice as to how they can best increase their selling level. How do you improve sales skills?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Comparing the teams, what are the differences in effectiveness in sales?
    • The individual with the most classic “sales” personality struggles with sales.
    • An individual with an HR background who knows the customer well is more comfortable with sales and is the highest producer.
    • There are instances of hoarding of information which could improve sales, but this is more frequent within teams than between the teams.
  • Dale Carnegie Sales Courses are a wonderful resource that can improve the skills of individuals both with and without a formal background in sales.
  • Engage in customer research to understand and know the customer.
    • Ask the sales leads in each team head up this research.
    • Their task will be to share their observations about customers and develop new strategies for approaching and meeting the needs of different customers.
    • This sharing should be both within the teams and between the teams.
  • Consider a sales coach.
    • Ask colleagues and search the Internet for a local resource.
    • Look for a consultant who specializes in working with individuals to overcome sales blocks, as well as to develop individualized sales styles that are effective for each person.

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