3 Essential Strategies for Increasing Revenue Growth

Revenue leaders in search of growth have too many options. The catch, however, is that most of these strategies don’t have lasting impacts. Many revenue leaders get trapped in a whiplash cycle of reorganizing, retraining, and grasping at straws for the latest change that will spur progress. But in truth, there are three simple strategies that, when implemented properly, can make a world of difference.

1. Customer-Focused GTM

Most companies have a documented sales process, roles, territories, and quotas, but often, founders skip a step in developing these key aspects of their businesses. These aspects will never be fully effective if they are not customized to your customers and prospects. Have you mapped out who your buyers are? Do you know how and where they want to buy? What specific challenges do they face, and how do you and your company solve them?

Creating data driven tools for your organization like Buyer Process Maps, Ideal Customer Profiles, and Value Proposition/Win Strategies will focus the entire organization (including your Sales, Marketing, and Product teams) on finding opportunities before investing and scaling customer acquisition spend.

Quick fixes to your sales team can feel like progress, but this fast success is fleeting. If you have a stable foundation, the sky is the limit on how high and fast your business can grow. Great teams with a customer-focused GTM, rooted in data and the latest best practices, see lasting growth.

2. Implementation Plans

It’s easy for teams to experience whiplash with frequent changes. A proper change management plan is needed to revolutionize your sales and marketing strategies. Even the best plans are worthless if no one can follow them.

To get started, map out the impact on the sales process and determine what can be automated. Take the time to integrate with your existing systems (CRM, data, etc.) to see where your efforts should be focused and what processes can be handled by software.

Then, once you’ve targeted your priorities, develop training and accountability plans for each department. These plans will keep everyone on the same page and ensure that your company is moving forward as a whole. The key, though, is this: Sell! These changes will help the team, but it’s normal for employees to be hesitant to change. Make sure they buy in by addressing their concerns and providing a forum for objections. It may also be helpful to recruit a first lieutenant. If you have a star player on the team, you can pre-plan with them to make sure they are vouching for the changes and squelching any negativity.

Additionally, be sensitive to seasonal cycles. There is no great time to change habits, but it will be one step back to take two steps forward. If your business is highly seasonal, wait until the off-season to implement big changes in your strategies.

3. Training for Success

No matter how seasoned, sales teams are in constant need of training on the relevant products, processes, market, and general selling skills. Unfortunately, a stunning 90% of training programs have no impact within 4 months after implementation. The two major causes of this fallout are lack of customization and lack of follow through.

Make sure that, whatever you are training, even basic selling skills, has case studies and role play specific to your business. Reenforce your specific strategies and processes through the training in as close to a real work setting as possible.

Too many sales leaders move onto the next thing after one training session. Hold yourself and the team accountable to utilizing the training, and make sure it is put into habit. The goal isn’t to rush through and complete all the training. Instead, the goal should be to make an impact on the business. Wherever possible, measure and spiff the positive examples of implementation.

Conclusion

Trying to increase revenue can be daunting at first, but don’t be overwhelmed. Every business has sales and marketing leaders for a reason. No one knows your business and customers better than you, and you have built a great team for growth. Sometimes, all it takes is a little fine tuning and customer focus to take the exact same team from stagnant to accelerated. Sales and marketing leaders need to dedicate time or bring in some external help to work on the business,  rather than getting wrapped up in the day-to-day, to have a more meaningful impact on the entire team.